I've been Outside, under the sunny skies and the warmth of 60F plus. I just couldn't bear to be inside reading or writing anything, so I've been very derelict in responding to comments and in reading other blogs and/or leaving comments. Like these bees on the Smooth Aster (Symphyotrichum laeve 'Bluebird'), I've been making the most of the best days of autumn.
With minimal help from the kids (alright, the girl helped some, but the boy found his Hot Wheels in the basement while hunting for the Halloween decorations and decided to do that instead), we attempted a graveyard.
The dead Cosmos and Dahlia add just the right touch. So don't be too hasty in putting those frost killed annuals into the compost. They work a treat in Halloween vignettes.
I was all set to start planting bulbs. I even had the Daffodils laid out when I discovered that the soil was cold, wet and sticky.
I need to find someone to plant them for me. The conspicuous absence of large drifts of spring bulbs is owing to my disinclination to plant the things. I could probably do large drifts of the small bulbs, such as Crocuses and Scilla, because they need a hole that's only a couple of inches deep, but with Daffodils, we're talking 6 or 7 inches down. That's a lot of digging in the cold, cold ground when you have to dig each hole individually. I can't just dig a trench, because I stuff them in between existing plants. Must hide hideous aging foliage somehow. Or maybe I should trash the idea of planting Daffodils in the ground and just stuff them in large containers that stay outside. (An idea inspired by Elizabeth (The Bulb Queen) of Gardening While Intoxicated and Garden Rant and by Mary Ann of Idaho Gardener.) These bulbs are hardy; they could probably manage a Zone 5 El Nino winter.
There aren't many glorious days like this left, so when you get one, Carpe diem, baby!