"The bad times" : that's how my husband refers to the winter and when the leaves start to fall like crazy and there's frost on the car windows in the morning it's hard to stay in denial.
This past weekend, we mowed up the front leaves and dumped a lot in the leaf composter out the back. Last year we added a lot of coffee grounds from my husband's favourite coffee shop to the mix. I think we are improving our composting techniques around the leaves, but many are from two large Norway maples on the property and they take a long time to break down.
Last night, I think we had the strongest frost so far and the tropicals in my containers are looking really poor - I think it's time to pull them up and into the composters and get the containers ready for winter. I took cuttings from the tropicals several weeks ago, so I have about a dozen of each now growing in little pots inside. I will keep taking cuttings and re-rooting over the winter to have enough for the containers nex spring.
I grew something new this year in my containers: Euphorbia Diamond Frost. It's a tender annual, about 18 inches high, with many tiny white flowers - something the same effect as baby's breath, but much nicer. I admit I bought the first 3 because of the newsletter I get from Proven Winners. But I liked it so much I went back and found some more. And the internet says it's easy to root cuttings.
Now I just need to figure out how long I can leave my ivy geraniums going before I take them in. I cut them back, pot them up and keep them going until early spring, when I will take some cuttings from them. "Spring" - isn't that a nice word?
And before Christmas, I will start receiving the seed catalogues and I will be like a kid in a candy shop.
The bad times aren't so bad.
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