I'm still alive, just not that active in the gardens. We've had a little bit of rain but not enough to really make a difference. We had some rain which I thought may have wet the soil on last Friday. I was helping a client move some plants in Portsmouth on Saturday and the soil an inch or two down was like powder. Not good.
The little rain we've gotten has brought weeds sprouting and Eric's grass is starting to come back. We did get a truck load of compost from the city two weekends ago. Eric said that there was hardly anything left at the DPW which actually shocked me. Thank goodness we got a lot of it...that will have to be a mental note for next year to not wait around. I was able to use the compost I had cooking over the summer but it didn't last long. I've lifted the shade gardens by the front door and divided some of the larger hostas and relocated some things to the back yard now that we are getting some more areas developed. I put out a soaker hose too in that area to help keep things wet as things get resestablished. It's still 80 degrees outside here so I'm waiting again to go back to lifting and dividing so things don't get shocky.
I've gotten some plants from The Farmer's Daughter: a very dwarf Japanese Holly (I have the label down in my office) and finally a Norway Spruce 'Little Gem' and some heathers for around the pond. I also picked up some small spring bulbs for the pond area: crocus, Iris reticulata, Snowdrops, and Mini Daffodils.
On the design front, I've started getting this year's RINLA Flower Show Exhibit in the works. The theme for the show this year is "Fairy Tales"...which kind of had us all scratching our heads. After a couple of brainstorming meetings we have a fun and function idea which could easily be taken from the show to a person's backyard.
This fall hasn't been too interesting gardening wise but Mother Nature continues to be uncooperative with us gardeners. The fall color in the backyard is starting to pick up and I'll be very curious to see how the colors are despite the drought.
That's one of the Sassafrass trees in the back behind Lake Larson. That photo doesn't do the tree's color justice.
