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Home » Day in the life » October State of the Garden

October State of the Garden

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It is a beautiful autumn day. Sunshine, clear skies, and changing foliage, warm with gentle breezes. A beautiful day.

October, and Where Are All the Flower Bulbs?

I went to the stores (several) looking for crocus bulbs and bone meal. This is the height of the bulb planting season, right? All the fall planting areas are replaced with premature Christmas gunk. I am unhappy. Even the plant store… I paid full price for what they had left….while their sales people were busy stocking shelf upon shelf of Christmas gewgaws. I will try another store later, on my way to another errand, but isn’t it ridiculous to find no flower bulbs in the middle of fall?

Garden Chores Accomplished

On a brighter note, I finally planted the Iteas with the help of my husband. I still feel weak from being so sick, so he did my digging for me. :) Maybe he can apply for full time! I finally decided on placing them near the sweet gum trees, since they both have gorgeous fall color and need more acidic type of amendments ( like ironrite), etc.

State of the Garden Report

More good news is the combination of fall color in the fringetree/viburnum combo. Bright yellow and dusky red. Very nice.

The bad news in the garden is the condition of my Frasier firs. I hope they live, but they are yellowing and losing needles. Remind me not to curse the county engineer and his crony the ditch manager who cut deep into the tree rootline ( unnecessarily) and then refilled with worst possible slimy, clay, refuse dirt they could have found in three counties. Remind me…ok? …… After I talked to them and was promised the moon. And that’s not all of their nefariousness, but I don’t want to think about it right now.

autumn+ Day in the life Ilona Erwin

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Oh, hi there!

I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

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