Plant Your Bulbs

There are many shared photos of the monarch migration in Iowa. Their are a lot of them flying though. We are not in any of those paths but we have one or two at a time. I had this one monarch out in the zinnia patch all day. I guess it is building energy so it can keep on down south.
 

 My moss rose has been peaked and weak all season. I did move it out into the sun and it helped. I have a neighbor's planting that is doing sow well. I will plant it into the sun and the ground sometime this next week. 

 I was at Menards for framing wood and look what I found. I did get all of the daffodils planted with much difficulty. Our ground is so wet from too much rain that my bulb planting device gets all stuck full of mud and slows down my planting.

 I had 35 tulips to plant and did get the majority of them planted. I got discouraged and just quit as I was just not finding new places to plant. I have decided to gift eight bulbs to our friends and the ones in the photo will get planted when the ground dries. I do think that giving away plants is fun especially when I am too tired to do the planting a my place. 

 So the string of my red hummingbird feeder broke and the feed fell and broke on the deck. My wife quickly bought me a new one, secretly, and it is now up. The timing was wrong though as the hummingbirds have not migrated south. They are all gone and there is not a bird anywhere.  I did get a lot of photos of them this summer but not one at this new feeder.  I have it hanging on a wire this time and not with string, which was supplied with the other one that broke. It is so strange when the hummers go away. I saw that one person shared a photo on fb of a junco. I think that it seems early but I did see the photo of one in Iowa. We have pelicans flying south through the state near here. The photos of them are amazing and it would be great if we drive over to our lake and see if there are any visible. In the past I have shots of them flying overhead. 

We have had a wonderful day temperature wise and the sun was out all day. I mowed both front yard and backyard today. I had to mulch up all the leaves under the maple and the mower did a great job on them. I have doctor appointment on Monday so I thought I would get the mowing done before that. I am stiff and sore tonight but I like getting the jobs done..

Thanks for checking in today. 

 

Fall Leaves

 My garden angel sits among the hosta and watches the leaves of the maple tree fall quickly in front of him. The crimson red maple drops its leaves in bulk in a short period of time.

 

Evidence of this dropping of leaves shows my job that I will have to do tomorrow. It should mulch up well as the winds are drying things out quickly. The dust will be a bother but I am g lad tht I don't have to bag it up.

Thlel other tree in my backyard that has changed color and is dropping leaves is this redbud tree. They are not falling quickly so I will have to mulk weekly to get them all done before winter. 

Guppies like to be placed in outside tubs. The multiply quickly and the young ones are large in size in no time. I just drag the net through the water of one of the tanks and and this is what I got this morning. I took them inside to be put in my cleaned out fish tank. The natural setting makes them grow rapidly as if in the wild in South America and other tropical countries. One hard freeze would bring them death as they won't survive in cold water.

The rowing in the wild is this morning glory, planted by the birds I would belive. I didn't plant them over in the hosta patch but they are doing well there right now. We had another rain storm last night with some hail. The rains keep some of the flowers well watered.

I planted 12 new daffodils this morning and have planted some new tulips. I didn't get done planting the tulips but will work on it again tomorrow.  The package of tulips had 35 bulbs in it. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Thursday''s Things

 We are still pretty green. Our grass is slowing down a little but it does seem to keep us at it at least needing to be mowed once a week. 

 A lot of the zinnias are now fading. When I bring in cut flowers they don't last long inside anymore. I have started to trim back some of them. I like to do a little at a time which makes it easier. It is time to start looking for seeds for next year. I do wait for them to die out before I collect seeds. 

 

 This aquarium was up to having some house cleaning. I am now bringing in some of my guppies that are in outside tubs. I have more live plants to put back into this one. It is nice to get them cleaned even thought it is easier to just ignore them until fish start to die. 

 

I had a dentist appointment this morning. I got a call to move it up two hours sooner and that did work for me. It was nice to get it done. The word nice and dentists visits really don't belong in the same sentence but I did fare well.  Thanks for stopping by today. 

Middle of the Week

 There are only a few blooms on the hardy geraniums. The flowers are striking with greaat clear color, 

 

 The morning glories are also fading now but I do have seed pods ready for planting next spring. 

 The roses are also struggling and we really haven't that cold of weather. The shorter days of daylight has to  be a part of it.

 

 The day was beautiful and we warmed up by the middle of the day. Our leaves are just now starting to turn. We have dried up enough that the farmers can get back into the fields as they are late in harvesting. It is sad to see things shutting down but it is this way every time this time of the year. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Sunset

 Sunny all day bringing us up to some high temps. The heat and air thermostat keep being in conflict. I cool the house at night and turn on the heat in the morning to catch us up to a good temp.  Busy day today and thanks for stopping by today.

Sunshine Day

 The rosebush is fading already but a few blooms are still showing. It is fall and the leaves are falling off of the canes.

 The cannas are not blooming anymore but the foliage looks great. Some people in town show their cannas growing almost five feet tall. The rains were generous to the plants. 

 I moved a lot of mums and they are blooming well even though they were moved late in the season, I had them in places that I didn't want them to be. The former owner had put them in all sorts of place do like this color and the sun highlights them here in the photo. 

Some of the sedum is laying on the ground but the ones in the front yard are looking great. I mowed this morning both front and back. It had to be mulched as there are leaves falling in the backyard from the one maple tree. Everyone was out mowing some timed during the day as it was warm and the sun continues to shine.  Our weather has become decent again and it looks like we will have a lot of great days ahead. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 
 

Repairmen Day

 We have sunshine. It is so appreciated after 18 days of clouds and rain. I never turn down the chance of getting sunlight through the back of anything. This is a smaller bloom so I have zoomed in on it to get all of those great colors. 

 I picked all of the white blooms earlier, three actually, so when this new one shows up I can't not take a shot of it. I remember buying a packet of white zinnias one year and the next year's seed did not hold the genetics of a white flower. 

 My multi-headed sunflowers are not holding up very well with all of our rain Where there is suppose to be seed there are spongy wet black pads. Usually I get birds on them but they are spoiled. 

 My Japanese maple tree has really done well this summer.. I kept it watered for a long time but I have stopped as we just kept getting rain. The trunks of the tree turned green and new leaves are everywhere  at the top.

 I was mourning the loss of this iris as it had all rotted out. I think it was actually iris grubs as the  rhizomes were all hollow. To my surprise this one rhizome just shot up two sprouts from the ends of it.  I have now moved it to a better location where it will have good drainage and more light. I hope I have saved it,

 Time is all I needed to finally see my transplanted iris growing. It has been cool and wet but they did root down anyway. There were larger rhizomes. These were some small bits that I just didn't want to throw away. We are gong to have five or six good days, no rain, and lots of sunshine to help things get rooted in for spring.

 I backed out the car this morning and hand washed it. It had dirt on it from a rain two weeks ago.. I did do it myself and it felt good to see how the surface of the car is doing. I have dings form other parked cars and other things that need to be toughed up from parking curbs. If I could get some touch up white I could take care of some of that.

We are having a new garbage disposal installed today. It is happening right now so I can get some blogging done. I think the disposal is the original one when the house was built back in 2003. Rather than paying a repair bill we are just going to get a new one. I have installed three different ones in my lifetime but today I have a guy doing it without my help.  Things in the house are slowing having to be replaced because of the age of the place. The furnace and water heater were replaced a year ago. 

It is nice to look out and see sunshine.  Our grass is getting shaggy again but I am not going to worry about it until Monday.  I have to do a dentist thing on Thursday.  I have three other appointments this month. scattered through the end of the month.  I will be glad to get them all done.

Thanks for stopping by today.