winters getting close

I need to get started digging my Jerusalem artichokes.  I want to try some new recipes with them this year.  I think even with the drought we should get a bumper crop.   They are so productive and you don’t have to plant them each year I don’t know why more people don’t grow them.  They are much better than Brussels sprouts.

 The 3 apples I saw on my tree disappeared, probably the squirrels got them.  The berries have been stripped from the autumn olive bushes and I think the robins have migrated because I am no longer hearing them.  Birds have still been few at the feeder.   I don’t know if there actually are fewer birds around or if the cats are keeping them way. 

I have been seeing lots of deer in the back of my property, big healthy looking ones.  I hope some hunters around here thin the herd.  They don’t do much damage to my plants up near the house so I tolerate them but I never, ever feed them.

 One small ox eye daisy is blooming outside my back door.  It looks kind of odd sticking out of the grass.  The salvia in the front is still blooming nicely as is a red petunia in a pot but the rest of the front bed has its usual ugly winter look.  Ferns and daylilies are fine in the spring and summer but it sure looks ugly when they die back in the fall.  Years ago I decided to plant some holly plants up near the foundation so there would be some winter greenery to hide the ugly parts.  Only one plant survived but it is doing pretty well and is about 3-1/2 feet high now.  I think I may try to plant some bigger holly plants there again. 

 The oak tree is losing it’s leaves and they are blowing into all the front flower beds, which is fine with me because they don’t matt and protect the plants over winter.  I don’t know why some people have the idea oak leaves are bad for the garden, they are probably better for mulching than other types of leaves.  They do not make the soil acidic as I have heard people say.  They do break down slower than other leaves, which can look a bit messy in spring but they do eventually break down into great humus.

 I don’t do much fall clean up in my garden, other than the veggie area.  I leave it for mild winter days and early spring when I want to be outside doing something.  Right now I am like a bear; I want to be inside eating and sleeping.