Kale and Mums

 Friday, November 21, 2025

The ornamental kale are the only plants I've left potted. I've read that they're biennials in more moderate climates but I don't live in one of those! I was thinking of bringing them inside for the winter and although they're not toxic for cats they can mess with their digestion. Also, any pesticides they've been treated with wouldn't be good for them either. I'll spare Sylvester any possible negative effects. 

All the mums I had are now planted in the ground in hopes they'll come up again next year. 

Garden mums are considered perennials but I'm not sure if I got the ones I bought this year in the garden in time. I guess we'll see in the spring.

The Back Yard Today

 Thursday, October 23, 2025

This is a photo of the tree across the alley from us taken this past Friday.

And here it is today. Can you believe it lost all of its leaves in just under a week? 

The temperature is supposed to hit freezing tonight. We'll see how the celosia does. 

The kale and the mums are a bit heartier so I'm sure they'll do better with the chill. 

Dale and I were commenting on how golden the October light looks especially in the afternoon. 

I've cut back most of the rhubarb except for this one plant. It was doing the best of the rest as it had the fewest dried out stalks. 

The backyard is covered in shade earlier and earlier because Andrea's house, which is on an incline from ours, is blocking the sun. This photo was taken at 4:18 p.m.

The farthest reaches of the yard still get some rays at this time of day. 

Our silver maple in the front can take its time dropping its leaves but it's making some slow yet steady progress. 

As October progresses the shadows keep getting longer.

Today was my first day back at school in 5 months. I was there for a few hours to help with the strike vote. I really enjoyed seeing former colleagues. I celebrated my triumphant return with a cigar after I got home. 

After my cigar Dale and I headed over to The Howe for dinner. Thursday is mac & cheese night. 

Cigar Time and Taking It All In

Saturday, October 11, 2025

Over the past week I've been working a bit more than usual in the yard. October has brought cooler but still very pleasant weather as compared to the heat we experienced in July - September. My recent yardwork has been halting the creep of ferns out into the yard. I've been digging up some of the bulbs and moving them back closer to the retaining wall which is where they're supposed to be. I've also been resetting the paving and garden stones that border the fern garden as they've really settled into the ground in recent years (see previous post). Today I weeded the narrow strip of ground between our's and Josh and Breanna's garage. I also removed a small tree from there that came up to my chest. 

Today was a day to just sit back with a cigar and enjoy the space. 

Found a Halloween playlist on Apple Music, which turned out to be quite fun, and then just relaxed and took in everything around me.  

I'm sure I've mentioned this already but I really have loved NOT working this fall.

Kale, Mums, Pumpkins, More!!

 Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Been working hard lately on cleaning up the gardens. This one has been cleared of all the dead fern leaves. I'm also cutting back the ground cover that's grown over the decorative border stones. 

The kale and mums are looking particularly good grouped together. 

    

Cleaned out this garden over by the garage. It was horribly overgrown and I wish I would have taken a before picture for the sake of comparison. Alas, I didn't think of it. 

Bought this pumpkin at Lund's today. They're selling them for $4.99 but you have to be a member otherwise they're $9.00 each. And you can only buy one per day. 

I bought one the other day so now I have two. 

Cigar in the yard this morning before I did my yard work. Leather jacket weather is back and it's glorious. 

Athena Nibbles Kale

Athena started nibbling the ornamental kale just seconds after I snapped this shot. I didn't allow it.

Plants for Fall

Stopped by Bachman's yesterday and picked up a mum and an ornamental pepper plant. Also picked up a couple more ornamental cabbages. They're planted and look great.

Ornamental Cabbage

Dad loved planting these in the fall. They're quite hardy.

Ornamental Cabbage