Curse-ed

So, I bought a new winter jacket last Friday. Today it is going up to seventy degrees. I actually am wearing a t-shirt and am still warm. And of course, it is supposed to change midday tomorrow back to cold and blustery. *sigh* People are going to catch colds due to this.

My bulbs still appear to be undisturbed and in the ground. Whew. It does seem that planting before a good soaking rain (that repeats itself every couple of days) is a good strategy to avoid the squirrels finding them right after you plant them.

On that note, I'm not really going to engage in an arms race with the squirrels forcing them to involve and become our intellectual equals. I don't try and keep them off the bird feeder. I mean really, it's a plate on the deck. And I don't try and keep them away from my bulbs. Tulips are a toss up anyway, since they do not naturalize here. And I know they don't eat daffodils. But I still prefer for what I plant to stay planted, instead of tucking it in five times because the squirrels needed to see what might be under the pansies. Meh.

It's just enough that they haven't disturbed the tulip bulbs yet.

Muddy Bulbs

Tuesday, while the weather was still warm and the ground was soaked, I planted all 65 of my daffodil bulbs and about 16 of my tulip bulbs. I left the rest of the tulips to serve as replacements, since they are tasty to squirrels.

The main problem is that I had to remain hunched over and squatting while digging all those holes. It was too wet and muddy to kneel. Not to mention planting in the back of the garden bed.

When I checked again last night, I didn't see any squirrel damage. Maybe planting between the rain drops helped. It certainly washed away that fresh dirt smell, and one muddy spot looked like the other.

It is still raining. Instead of wiping out the drought in Autumn, we seem to be doing it November. That would be good, except of course for the waterlogged ground.

Frosted Nyger

Well, even if I hadn't called first frost earlier, Thursday morning, Saturday morning and today definitely counted. I'm going to have to do a garden clean up later. This will have finished off the last of the summertime plants, so it's time for a proper clean up. I'll also have to take my yard vacuum, better known as my bagging mower, and pick up some leaves off of my front yard for mulching.

I also picked up 20 pounds of nyger seeds for the feeder. The supermarket sells tiny bags, so it's just easier to go to my local Wild Birds Unlimited store and pick up a big bag. The container I had to put it in was a little too small for the 20 pound bag. So, I ended up putting the extras into some gallon jugs I have around the house. Turns out to be a pretty convient way to pour the seed into the finch socks.

My little junco buddies have also shown up.

Anything But Mellow Yellow

A week or so ago, I had taken down the hummingbird feeder for the last cleaning of the year and replaced it with a goldfinch sock. The idea to apologize for not managing to grow sunflowers this year. I had known that something had found it, but given that I am not home much during the day, I had to wait till a day off to explore the identy of the feeders.

Today, I found that it was at least six goldfinches in winter plummage. There were at least four at any one time. And since the sock is two thirds emptied, there was a lot of jockeying for position where there was still seed. It was an adorable and amusing display of yellowed wings.

And now I'm left contemplating getting a second hanger so I can put up a second sock. Not that any goldfinch goes hungry, but they are just so adorable to watch.

In less adorable news, the light rain that is falling today has a chance to change over to snowflakes tonight. Not the type that would actually lay, but still. It is much, much too early for such a thing. Despite snowstorms of past years.

Edit: Make that at least a dozen goldfinches and at least two regular brown type finches that refuse to be bullied by the small yellow one. I'm definitely picking up another sock and ordering another pole.

Halloween Wrap Up

A day late, but so it goes. My treat this year was to get out early and enjoy planting peonies and petunias in 70 degree temperatures. Two peonies in their raised bed and 18 petunias, six in with the peonies. I also cut down the old peony leaves and some spent milkweed. No nibblers this year except for the milkweed beetles.

My trick was heading off my laughter yoga class at 7 pm, in the middle of the Trick or Treat time period. Normally, the kids would be tapering off at that point, but they started a lot later this year because of extended sunlight. The first kids were at 6 and they really didn't start coming until 6:30. Ah, well, I had bought less candy this year anyway.

Also, some research shows that I can plant my bulbs between now and Thanksgiving. Probably Veteren's day weekend if it is warm enough.