It still seems like Summer

The weather is still lovely, and although it does cool off at night, the days have been in the upper 70s for the last week. Makes it difficult to contemplate fall chores like cutting things down, planting bulbs, etc. And many flowers are still pretty, like the lovely turtlehead Chelone obliqua at right. Not dramatic from any distance, but very nice close up. A prairie native, and very hearty and dependable.

We've gotten about 2/3 of the pile of wood chips dispensed around the yard, and built two new beds - one in front between the tricorn garden and the birch garden. The other between the first berm and the creek. Bill intends to plant a mass of tulips in one of them, probably the one in front.

Haven't been home much in the last two weeks to do anything ambitious. I did cut down the compass plant and alot of the purple coneflowers near the gazebo. And many of the spent daisies and monarda along the creek. We need to severely prune the lilac bush and I think we'll also cut back the viburnum at the corner of the deck all the way to the ground.

This may well be the last year that I allow many of the New England asters that have sprung up pretty much everywhere to stay. They are pretty from a distance for a week or two at this time of year, but even now they are scraggly close up. And there are way too many of them. Along with echinacea they just take over too much space. Also the lambs ears - Stachys, which will just spread forever if allowed. They are also popping up all over the place from seeds. RoundUp does a nice job on clumps of them, killing them off at the edges. I will be ruthless next year - though it is always easier said in the fall than done in the spring.

Plants on the deck that will be coming in for the winter got their third spraying of malathion today, after a, ,, busy day of shopping, Octoberfest, taking a book up to Dad in Green Bay and then finally being able to do a little work here by 3:30 or so. They are still going strong out there, but I worry about a snap frost. It is the time of year where that is a distinct possibility, and it gets dark so early that I often have very little daylight after work to get much done. I did get everything moved up to the deck, which is very crowded now. And transplanted some of the cacti and succulents that were overgrown in their community planters.