Re: [gardeners] First frost!

George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Mon, 04 Nov 2002 07:06:32 -0600 

I love to read about the adventures of Penny and Jimmie, gives me hope
for my next decade. Of course Miz Anne won't put up with me running
around nude, says it offends the sensibilities of the dog, and her.
<VBG> 

It is cool, raining again, and dreary here in SW Louisiana. According to
the weather people we have had more than 70 inches of rain this year and
the month of October brought 21 inches itself, the rainiest October in
our history as we normally only get 4 or 5 inches in that month. It
started drizzling rain yesterday afternoon and it is still going on.

George

pennyx1@juno.com wrote:
> 
> Rosemary, here in lower New York State, we have not seen such cold for 10
> years!
> It's incredible to awaken to 30* temps -- and then not to have it warm up
> very
> much during the day.
> 
> Saturday and Sunday I had to spend in the garden, all bundled up. Turn
> off all
> the water connections, blow out the underground lines, bring in the rigid
> hoses,
> and all that sad stuff with encroaching winter. I ordered in 11 cu yds of
> shredded
> pine bark mulch, and had them dump it right in the driveway, next to the
> beds
> which had new plantings this summer...  Went to move the cars out of the
> garage
> at dawn, and found one with a dead battery (left a map light on...)..
> Jimmie came
> down to put the battery on a slow charge, and managed to knock over a
> crate of
> short soaker hose lengths -- one more obstacle to progress!
> 
> In between the hard work I managed to pot up a dozen fancy leaf geraniums
> I had
> dug up out of the yard. I am back in the nursery-nurturing business under
> lights,
> until the Christmas Master Gardener feast and festivity -- somehow, some
> of the
> very finest gardeners are also some of the very finest cooks! I will also
> bring in
> my collection of Hoya carnosa 'Shooting Star' -- everybody enjoys an
> unexpected
> present, yes?
> 
> As for insects going into hiding, I did see ONE ant on my shovel today,
> and I also
> found an unwelcome house guest which was about 1 inch long, black, and
> was
> undulating across my kitchen floor. Goodbye, old pal -- too bad I found
> you.
> 
> A father & son team moonlighting on a Sunday came over to help me spread
> all
> that mulch, thank heavens -- I'm not exactly in the marathon business
> anymore ...
> They had a wonderful system, and asked me for my snow shovels. Miraculous
> way to handle mulch!  It doesn't fall off of the shovel easily, and one
> can carry
> twice as much at a time! When they had to reach into the back of the
> shrubbery,
> they either filled my wheelbarrow or else they half-filled a 40 gallon
> garbage pail
> and carried it to the spot to dump. When we had finished and they had
> left by
> 3:00 o"clock, I came inside, sat down at the computer, and fell sound
> asleep for
> an hour, teetering in my chair.  What is it they say about the Golden
> years...?
> 
> Penny, NY
> 
> .
> 
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