Sunday update

Today began with an early morning (2 a.m.) thunderstorm that woke me out of a dead sleep.  I love thunderstorms, but Nora was not as pleased.  We were expecting rain all day today, so I spent 7-8 hours outside in the gardens yesterday, and hope to get back outside tomorrow.  Today will be a slower day.  I'm baking bread, and plan on roasting a chicken for dinner.  Hope to do a little reading (I'm on Book 5 of the Game of Thrones series); nothing too strenuous.

Yesterday I started doing some much needed clean-up in the flower beds.  The cosmos had all developed a fungus from the cool temps and rain, so I pulled all of those last week.  They usually act as great filler and add lots of color in the fall garden, so it was a bit disappointing.  Thankfully I had some zinnias that were doing quite well in the vegetable garden, so I relocated many of them to the circle garden.

Pink and "Peppermint Stripe" zinnia in foreground with coneflower in back.  The lupine have all gone to seed.  I let the pods dry out a bit and self-seed here, as well as use in other beds.

I also talked Nora into stopping by Willow Tree nursery in Potsdam yesterday morning, so I could grab some perennials on sale.  They were having a buy 2, get 1 free sale, so I scored!  I came home with meadow rue (Thalictrum), which I've been looking for locally for over a year, columbine (to fill in a gap in the shade garden), speedwell, echinacea (2 purple, 1 white), baptistia australis (false indigo), and bleeding heart.  Most of those filled in gaps in the circle garden and the new bed near the chicken area with the exception of the shade plants (Columbine and Bleeding Heart).  I also replaced some of the spent container plants with small zinnias from the vegetable garden to give a fresh splash of color.

I have lots more clean-up, dividing and relocating to do in the flower beds.  The berry beds all need weeding as well, and there is lots to be done in the vegetable garden.  The cool summer did a number on my tomato plants; between early blight and pests, I've given up on them.  They're tasty enough for the chickens and ducks, but not good enough for me to can.  I pulled up the two remaining cherry tomato plants yesterday and may do the same for the remaining Amish Paste plants tomorrow.  The fruit still on the vine is not ripening and many of them have been half-eaten by some unseen pest. The only tomatoes I've been able to salvage for our consumption (on delicious BLTs) were the early Glaciers and the beefsteak.  Sigh.  No tomatoes next year; I can't take the disappointment.  Otherwise, we have some edamame still in the ground, peppers, eggplant, pole beans, walla wallas (the storage onions and shallots have all been harvested and cured) and cucumbers.  The fall crops are looking healthy so far.  The pumpkins (I will have to take a photo later; pouring outside right now) are HUGE! There will be some seriously large Jack 'o Lanterns at the homestead this year.

Fall flowers: aster, cleome, sedum, black-eyed susan and sunflowers towering off in the distance in the vegetable garden.  You can see a hint of autumn in some of the trees as well.