Winterizing, honeysuckle, window boxes & Baby Cat

This is our typical winterizing process...

  

...which became a top priority last weekend with the threat of Hurricane Sandy.

Each year the furniture, planters, garden statues, etc. get arranged like an interlocking puzzle in the center of the patio.

 

Everything is then covered with a heavy duty tarp and weighted down by rocks from around the perimeter of the patio. The tarp is also staked into the ground in the front.

 

Do you have any idea how much I wish this was still the view? Winters and I don't care too much for each other.

 

And it's going to be a looooooong time before the backyard looks like this again. This is the birdhouse that was taken down off its pole last weekend, the one you saw in my last post where Baby cat made herself at home inside of it.

 

I forgot to share these short little videos that I took that day....

 

... so here they are!

 

Did you see the honeysuckle vine in the first birdhouse photo above, growing on the obelisk right next to the swingset deck?

 

It is actually still budding and blooming in a few random spots! I've decided that next spring I'm going to plant one at each of the front legs of the swingset so it grows up and then across the monkey bars. I'm already envisioning sitting there on summer evenings watching the hummingbirds flock to it! Our hummers have been gone for over a month now. How I miss them...

 

The honeysuckle also has these little berries which must be what is attracting the birds lately. Another plus!

 

And speaking of the hummingbirds, the nasturtium that I grew from seed started to bloom profusely at the end of September (sadly, it was after the hummers had headed south). Amazingly, it's still blooming.

 

Next year I'm buying plants rather than starting them from seed. Our growing season just isn't long enough. I'd love for them to be in bloom while the hummers are still here to enjoy them.

 

Elsewhere in the yard there are leaves, leaves, and more leaves.

(Photo with watercolor filter)

 

Almost all of the leaves have fallen now...

(photo with dry brush filter)

 

I don't think this fall was quite as spectacular as some we've had in years past...

 

... perhaps in part because we lost so many of our foliage trees in last year's freak October snowstorm.

 

The Bacopa is still blooming in the shed's window boxes, albeit under a canopy of fallen oak leaves.

 

Most of the trees in our side yard are pin oaks. Their leaves go from green to brown, and many hang on the trees until spring, when new leaf growth then forces them to fall to the ground.

 

So there is always an abundance of raking to be done in the fall and the spring around our little yard.

Look at the size difference between our brown oak leaves and one of our yellow tulip tree leaves!

Yes, lots and lots of raking...

 

Don't forget to turn your clocks back this weekend!

 

This week I'm hooking up to Brenda's "Tweak It Tuesday" at Cozy Little House!

Stop by and share something you've been tweaking!

 

Donna

 

 

 

(click to play)