Garden Report: November 4
I had shooting pains in my hands on Friday, and decided to take a weekend off scrubbing the hallway to let them calm down. The timing worked out with Noel going to DC for some research, so the dogs and I pretty much lay in bed reading all weekend. A pretty nice break.
I hired new gardeners a couple weeks ago, and this week they were able to come and start work. They offered me the option of doing a couple big cleanup days or just tacking on extra hours and coming more frequently for a while, and I chose the latter, because my ability to cope with big cleanup days is pretty low right now.
With only a few hours to work, they whipped the front beds into shape. And I am happy to say that not only did the thyme in the thyme walk survive, but they uncovered a couple of small spreading plants that I'd given up on as dead. They must have come up again under the, uh, excessive growth going on in the beds nearby.
Anyway, quite happy. It's so dark these days when I leave in the morning and when I come back at night that I have hardly gotten to see the work, but my neighbors have already told me they liked it.
Also sometime in the last week, I guess the rain (we've had a few inches over the last couple weeks, including a big downpour on Halloween) plus warm weather made the garden think it might be a different season. There's quite a sheet there of little seedlings over the mulch in the upper part of the front yard.
They're all California poppies, which admittedly have gone completely feral in the garden and seem to know no season, but they usually don't bother with coming up in November.
But they're not alone. A bunch of bulbs from my recent plantings have decided it looks like spring to them. To be fair, it's usually not in the high 70s at this time of year. I hope this isn't too much of a disaster.
posted by ayse on 11/04/12