Glorious October Days!

It's been a major week in the garden, 5 entire person days, 3 for me and 2 for Dave, spent digging, weeding and moving plants. The weather was absolutely perfect, cool and sunny, just right for digging holes and moving plants around.

I cleaned up more in the veggie garden, pulled out the tomato trellis and the eggplants and sowed a cover crop of clover and rye on the empty beds. Threat of frost -that did not come -had me pick all the basil and make 6 cups of pesto for the freezer, the first I had made to store, so we'll be glad for that rich taste of summer some cold winter night. We also dug the sweet potatoes, some were huge, others small, but they were well worth having stuck in the ground and I will definitely plant some next year. These came from only 6 or 7 plants.

We had the first wood fire in the stove as well, with several nights in the 30's it was time.

I've been planting some of the many shrubs I've collected with my plant credits earned at Camellia Forest over the summer. Camellias, azaleas, and other evergreens are getting tucked in and around the place.

We plan ahead when going to the nursery. "Want a tree for that spot, a camellia for there" then we get to the nursery and still choose things on impulse, get back home and things we thought were right for one spot are not, lots of mind changing and decision making goes on, as much time is spent in consultation as in actual planting!

Poor D spent hours removing a campanula from one of the perennial beds. It's a beautiful flower that we've encouraged for several years, only to discover it's becoming invasive and taking over and crowding out other plants. Typical problem with a good perennial. So he was digging and teasing the tuberous roots of the campanula out from the roots of columbines, foxgloves, geraniums and other things we still want to have around. His plan is to put some edging in between the remaining campanula and everything else to hopefully contain it as I love the tall stalks of purple-blue bells that are a perfect companion to the pale yellow, small flowered foxglove that we grow.

Today its rainy, so I'm taking a much needed break from the outdoor work to try and find the surface of my desk and put down a few words, I'm supposed to be writing, but can't bare to stay inside when the days are as spectacular as they have been this past week. Maybe in November I'll settle down and get some real writing done?