Hilda the Gardener came by this afternoon and cleaned up the garden… there were still flowers blooming, so I was happy that she was dumping them and I didn’t have to, lol…
she emptied all of the planters and transplanted the two butterfly bushes… the plan is to try and overwinter them in the basement… we will see if they make it…
the only plants left are the dahlias which I will remove when they die back…
it looks rather naked in the garden… and the pots in the front yard are empty now… will have to decide what to put in the one on the steps for the winter…
the mandevilla and hibiscus are still on the deck but they will likely come in tomorrow…
I’m going to cover each of them with a garbage bag and leave them for a few days… hope that deals with any bugs, lol…
for the last week or so I’ve been wondering why the hibiscus is getting all these yellow leaves… I’d been watering it and had even given it some banana peel water…
this afternoon, between rainfalls, I put a chair up alongside it as the wind is supposed to get crazy tomorrow and I didn’t want it to blow over again…
and spotted this…
this is very sad… I hope I will be able to remove the broken portion and that the other two stems will remain healthy…
it may have been damaged during the big storm last week… the tree had blown over and I didn’t check the stem when I put it back up… too bad, maybe it could have been repaired…
my hibiscus only bloomed one time over the winter… usually it blooms at least twice…
I have had this one for at least three years and usually it loses its leaves when it comes into the house in the fall, and when it comes back into the garden in the spring…
this year I hardened it off and then put an umbrella over it so it wouldn’t get a sunburn…
it didn’t lose many leaves, but it also didn’t look like it was getting any buds…
a week or so ago, I spotted a few just starting…
yesterday, I spotted something red when I looked outside and there they were… the first two flowers…
I have been spending as much time as possible in the garden during these lovely days, enjoying every moment…
today, I put an umbrella on the hibiscus, which is getting a sunburn, even though I hardened it off… I came across the umbrella yesterday in the shed and it worked perfectly…
I switched two planters on the deck so that I can see the morning glories more easily… one of the chairs has been in front of them, so it hasn’t been as easy to see them… this will be much better…
finally I cleaned the pump again… I am getting good at it, lol… it makes a huge difference to the water flow…
I also followed the shade around the space as it was very hot in the sun…
I am so blessed to have the time and space to be able to enjoy the garden each and every day…
as I was walking around the living and dining rooms today I had a good look at the hibiscus..
it has filled out with leaves and looks great…
it wasn’t that long ago that it was nearly just twigs;-)…
I dug through my photos and found this one from the end of September, after I brought it into the house… the leaves were starting to turn yellow and fall off… apparently I didn’t take any when it was bare, lol…
it did bloom for quite a while even as the leaves fell off…
in preparation for the colder weather I’ve now brought in the three plants that live in the house…
last week the Japanese maple came in and settled back in beside the living room window… the leaf colours had already started to change…
a few days back, the mandevilla came in… I added fresh earth and sprayed it with insecticide to remove any creepy crawlers that might have wanted to take a trip…
it had been hanging outside and really wanted to lean forward… eventually three elastics helped make it stand up straight… hope it doesn’t decide to fall over in the dining room…
yesterday I brought the hibiscusinside…. excited to see it has buds on it;-)…
might also bring in a couple of others to see if they can survive the winter in the house…
and tonight I’ve covered the dahlias… the temperature is likely going to -4 Celsius… four of them have buds and I’m hoping they get to open… for two of them, it will be the first time they bloom and I am interested to see how they look…
the weather has taken quite a turn… for the last few days it has been mainly sunny but rather chilly…
so, I’ve barely been out to the garden, or the world… I’ve even done most of my walking on the treadmill…
a bit of a preview to what the next six or seven months are likely going to be…
and I’m not sure I’m liking it…
today I did go out and spray the hibiscus with a soapy solution which should remove any little bugs… I decided to only test the solution on one plant… just in case, lol…
will see how it looks tomorrow before I spray the rest;-)…
yesterday the hibiscus finally bloomed for the first time in many months…
it lives in the house over the winter and hadn’t flowered since Christmas…
it was really unhappy when I moved it outside for the summer… the first few days after the move were very hot and it got sunburned… since then many of the leaves have turned yellow and fallen off…
last week I spotted the beginning of the first buds… and a few days ago the first one started to open…
yesterday it was fully open and even after the rain it looked gorgeous…