Last summer we received a bat house as a gift.

The giver is a bat lover, and he had heard that we had a few bats that needed a new home.

Because our house is not a good place for them.

Because waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of a bat flying around your bedroom is not pleasant.

We were supposed to mount it about 15 feet high, away from trees, and facing the morning sun.

First the hole had to be deep enough.

My handy husband traded another chopped down tree trunk for this more suitable pole.

I was very helpful, as I took  plenty of pictures to capture all the action.

I did hold the pole up straight, so Doug could start shovelling in the soil. So I did do something.

And there it is. All ready for next spring, when the bats are supposed to find this lovely new home for themselves.

I’ll let you know if they move in.

Oh, the arrival of the new season’s seed catalogue!  Always some new seeds to try.

These are the ones I regularly use.

Veseys has seeds, but also sends out the bulb and plant catalogue.

I’ve ordered from Stokes for many years, always excellent products.

There are several more companies but everytime you order a few seeds from a different source, you pay shipping fees again.

So I try to make it a worthwhile order, and keep it to these three, or sometimes only two of them.

Anyway, it’s lovely to sit with the catalogues and a cup of coffee, with the snow swirling outside,

and dream of the summer garden, full of blooms and buds.

 

 

A few days ago it looked like this in the backyard.

But we have had three mild days.  Today has the highest temperatures.

Now it looks like this again.

So I had one last chance to finish up the winter preparations.

Skoot is a great product for protecting plants from rabbit damage.  I dilute it with 1:1 ratio with water, so it will spray well.  If it’s not runny enough it will clog, and spray drips, not a nice spray.

I treated all the exposed vines, the younger trees, the tree peonies, some smaller shrubs, and even some evergreens.

Then I remembered I still had some parsley and beets in the garden.

So I washed them up.  Chopped up the parsley for the freezer, and I’ll cook some beets later this week.

Now the yard is ready for winter.

Too bad I’m not.

 

As we end the gardening season, we have to prepare the yard for another season – winter.

The deck furniture is all stored away.  Except there’s no room for this table.

It will just be covered with a tarp during the winter.

The patio chairs are stored; the pots all emptied and put in the shed.

New covers for the rhododendrons.  The snow load and wind do a lot of damage to them.

The pond is covered, and the heater ready to be plugged in.

As long as there is an open spot in the water, the fish should survive the cold months.

I’ve put burlap on the shrubs that the rabbits seem to enjoy.

And covers on the younger trees.

I decided to protect the silver lace vine, the wisteria and the kiwi too.  It would be a shame if the rabbits chewed them off at the bottom.

The rain barrels are tucked underneath the deck.

We got this all done on a Tuesday.

By Friday it looked like this.

From this…

to this.

The yard was ready, but I wasn’t.

It is November 14th, and this is my new reality.

I wasn’t ready for so much, so fast.

But it’s here.

I have no further comments.

 

 

 

The colours of fall are already behind us.  Here are a few reminders of the autumn splendour in the garden.

The fading perennials too, can have one last blaze of glory before winter’s call.

 

Even seedpods can be beautiful.

These are from the baptisia or false indigo.

The clematis pods are almost exotic.

This is a magnolia seed pod.  I tried to deadhead all the finished blooms, but a few escaped me.  Inside the pods are these bright red seeds.

Castor Bean seeds are other-worldly.

These are from the ligularia.  Kind of sculptural in their own way.

Tiny little green knobs on the crocosmia.

Always something in God’s nature to delight and enjoy, if only we take notice.

 

This is a naked barberry bush.  Some creatures have completely stripped it.

I have seen this on another barberry, and some other shrubs as well.

I never see any bugs, but they are definitely leaving their mark.  Earwigs?  Grasshoppers?  Caterpillars?

The red berries certainly show up now, but I loved this bush for the purple leaves.  I really hope the leaves grow back next year.

And I’ll have to be on the lookout for the first signs of damage.

Years and years ago I planted some small cyclamen bulbs.  And this little patch has still survived.

You can see them here hiding under the hosta.  Every year again they surprise me when they suddenly appear.

They are pretty small and delicate.  This patch has not grown much over the years.

When I read up on them, they should be hardy to a zone 4 with good snow cover.  I’m in zone 5 here, and they do get lots of snow protection.

The leaves are evergreen, there all season long.  Cyclamen look lovely in a woodland setting, with hostas and ferns.

In between the rain and drizzle, we’ve had a few warm temperature days.

Not warm enough to dry anything out really.  Just good weather to get outside for a few more precious hours.

The garden is muddy and weedy; the sunflower seed heads are even molding.

I wanted to harvest the last vegetables, before it gets much colder.

A dishpan full of red and green peppers.

I’m surprised there were that many red ones, but it is October, so they’ve had long enough to turn.

Quite a nice batch of jalapeños.  I’ll just wash them and pop them whole into the freezer.

Some beets.  Sweet golden beets, and a fun striped variety.  Dark red ones I’ll get another  day.

And some green onions and raspberries!

The raspberry bush is still full of potential berries, so I pick a few every other day or so.

Overall, the vegetable garden did very poorly this year.  Some poor planting decisions I made, a lot of rain, not really enough heat.

But the critters didn’t do much damage,  I had lots of flowers,  and the gourds were a success.

And there’s always next year to try again!