Has your October Red chrysanthemum bloomed yet and are you happy with it? I have 3 varieties and would like to add a red. I saw it available online at Avant Gardens

no oct red, if i have it, has not bloomed. All the tags are gone but i hope to re-lable as they bloom.

very interesting,UBG.I hope i can get there some day.

i am going to start to reading books you folks

recommended. Majorie Fish is on reserve for me

This thtead is so lively and informative! Im bumping it up in case anyone wants to re read it, take notes or make another recommendation.

Ill branch out from books. Gardenrant and Magaret Roach’s blog snd NYT articles are very good .Snd they dont involve a commitment to a book!

Ive been reading about them for 5 years on our Extension Service’s newsletter, Mustard’s impractical on a larger than ”small plot” garden.

There’no ”cure”

.if you dont have them you might be able to fend them off for awhile by minutely checking every plant that comes into your hands, whether purchased, traded, or gifted.

They are often hitchhikers in nursery pots

I also encourage you to google your states “extension service” and subscribe to their newsletter or publication.

in MA the Extension Services serves home gardeners as well as professionals, covers ornamentals as well as farming

and forestry.

Thanks. Scary interesting. So maybe sfter a while, no more oaks, beech, birches and maples, but plastic cacti.

I have heard of the jumping worms but have never seen one. Thank goodness. But, it's probably only a matter of time...

I can so relate to these posts. yesterday my thoughts turned, once again, to losing more lawn and my increasing disinterest in perennials. I enjoy the scale, textures and permanence of trees and shrubs more and more. Ive always incorporated woodies into my garden but now i want them to be foreground, not background. yesterday i had a brainstorm to remove the 15 or so June hostas from under the fringe tree and replace with …..what? Something with fall color, rabbit, deer resistant, shade tolerant- low grow sumac? This will keep me up at night for weeks. Or just bedding impatients? The cost of a new tree could keep me in annuals for a decade.

It is good to ruminate about these things with gardening companions (of long standing)instead of reading prescriptive magazine articles. I too am in my 7th decade.

marie

It has poured and poured since yesterday evening. still pouring intermittently. We have a concert at 7 in Roanoke so should be much better by then according to radar.

Getting 2 days of 80’s again then more like Fall the rest of the week.

I got bags of a Miramichi lawn improver containing char . I am excited to try it. A permanent improvement to the soil . We are having aeration and fetilizer and seeding done this month and we will rake this into the aeration plugs holes. DH is going to be the primary since my broken R thumb will now inhibit my activities for the next few weeks. 👎 pics of the shrubs i purchased in C’ville .

Two Aronia Low Life

Little Devil Nine Bark

love the color!

Shasta Viburnum - color again so beautiful

Glad you decided to chime in StillTrailing!

It seems we're all in the same boat in one way or another. I suppose these sort of feelings and changing interests come with time and increasing limitations or declining capacity, whatever that may be. I still work full-time so in addition to physically slowing down to some degree, time is a limiting factor -- it always has been, but combine those two things with a lack of motivation and here I am in the current state. I think the lack of motivation is the hardest to overcome.

That said, I did buy some conifers over the course of the last week. Along with that came a re-arrangement and thinning of an area of one of the beds. Good time of the year to do the work and catch it all on sale -- conifers can be $$$. So at least I was motivated enough to get that done... I'll try to take some pics of my haul soon (it's been raining this morning)

We're in the process of re-locating our vegetable garden and switching everything over to raised beds. My current vegetable area is just much too large and time-consuming to keep up with. This was probably my worst year ever in this house in terms of harvest -- I just didn't give a cr*p this year and let it all turn into more of giant mess than it usually is.

But, we're coming along with the re-location. The area is a marked out in anticipation for the fence company to come in November, all the blueberries and grapes are moved and mulched, the raspberry fence is up waiting for those to be moved (the small fruits are in-ground plantings). DH will work on building the raised beds over the late fall and winter; we should be ready to go live come spring. Finally. I've only been talking about it for years LOL! I am looking forward to it, though -- it will make tending the vegetables so much easier, mostly because of the proximity to a water source and much smaller area to maintain.

Lookin good! A great surprise in an unexpected place.

Sherry

My heptacodium is blooming. i thought of her.

Yes. Fall is a great time to plant/transplant. Even up here in MI, it's still prime time. Sedum are super-tough plants, to boot. You shouldn't have any trouble.

It is very hard to kill them in any season.