THE "WOLF" IN THE GARDEN....

We had a humdinger December blizzard! 22" of the fluffy white stuff. Our neighbor's dog Spirit enjoyed romping through our back yard.
The snow didn't slow him down at all! He couldn't figure what all the fuss was about. With the weather forecast for Christmas we may
need to borrow Spirit and his "sister" Diamond to get to my sisters' house!! Needless to say our "outside cats" are VERY HAPPY to be
"inside cats"!!

SWISS CHARD IN THE SNOW!

We had our first snow on Saturday. My impatiens that have hung in there all this time turned to mush, but bless the blackeyed susans
they are still blooming!! The beautiful planting of swiss chard will be staying there until Spring. Bob saw one of the outside cats
"watering" one of the plants. Needless to say they will be added to the compost bin! Just before the "kitty kabanna" was about to cave
in with the heavy wet snow, we brought Boots and Blackie into there new home in our basement. I will be posting pics of that fun
process soon!

OUR HARDY STATE FLOWER!......

I can't believe that I still have blooming blackeyed susans in the gardens! Every clump has at least a couple flowers that grew up since I
cut back the clumps in each garden. Amazing for late November, but then it has been a crazy growing season anyway! We didn't dig up
the sweet 'taters for our Thanksgiving dinner since the ground was very saturated. Sounds like we may get our first snow next week.
I still get excited when the snowflakes start falling even thought it doesn't mean a possible day off from school anymore!

GARDEN IN NOVEMBER....

Work has kept me out of my gardens lately, but I took a day this week to start to put the garden beds "to bed" for the Winter. The
swiss chard is doing well. The sweet potatoes are ready to dig and we plan on having them for Thanksgiving. The morning glory and
coreopsis have turned dark brown and poor Festus looks like he has seen better days!

WE HAVE BECOME CRAZY CAT PEOPLE!!....

We have had our precious indoor cat Penny for about three years now. A few months ago we were "adopted" by two hobo cats who have appeared in the blog earlier, Boots & Blackie. Everyone who comes to our door gets a "free cat-scan". They each have their own deluxe
accommodations under the "big top" and we sit out with them a couple times a day and have turned them into fourlegged "laptops". I
now have the porch I've always wanted, sorta kinda. I can sit on the swing in the morning with my coffee and "the boys" and watch the
sun come up. We watched a beautiful moonrise the other night. We plan on sitting out there Halloween night and greet the trick or treaters. Hope the rain holds off for their sake!

PEPPERS & PUSSYCATS.....

I just thought there were a few peppers left in the garden.....WRONG! I am going to have to use the "Aunt Ruth" method of cutting them
up and freezing them. I've never had pepper plants produce so much! Boots and Blackie love to sit on the picnic table and tease Penny
who sits on her perch at the diningroom window. She doesn't like that we spend time outside with "the boys".

MANDEVILLA DOING FINE.....

It took a while for the mandevilla to take off, but it has grown nicely. I'll need to bring it in before frost. I have a grow light over the sink in the basement that should keep it happy until next Spring. Just when you think the gardens are "done for" you get a nice suprise.
My lonely geranium is blooming again and the dahlias are loaded with buds. The pepper plants are still producing red and green peppers, but I don't think the orange and yellow with have enough time to ripen to full color. We had tomatoes for lunch today but the
flavor wasn't what you get in August!

HAPPY FALL 'YALL!......

Happy first full day of Fall! I love this time of year. I was just out watering the gardens since it doesn't look like we are going to get the
rain that they called for (big surprise!). It feels more like summer today but I know the cold weather is coming and I try each day to
drink in the beauty and color of the gardens while they are still blooming. My sister Kathy and good neighbor Linda gave me a couple
more mums to add to my collection. I hope they will winter over as well as they did last year. "The word" so far is that we are in for
a colder winter so I will gather up the pots and put them in a sunny spot and mulch them with shredded leaves to protect them.

PEPPERS R US!.......

As you can see, Boots was impressed with my latest crop of peppers! The plants grew so big that nearly half of each plant
broke off from the weight of the peppers even though I had them in small tomato cages. Next year I will have to make some
larger and stronger cages for them. The tomatoes are winding down to a precious few getting ripe at once. THANK GOODNESS!
You go from when the heck are they going to get ripe?........ to what the heck am I going to do with all these 'maters?!

ELUSIVE GOLDFINCH!.....

I got these shots from my kitchen window. We have really enjoyed all the visits from the goldfinches. They really love the zinnias
and sunflowers. All summer I tried to snap their picture but they would take off before I could get close enough. I think they will be
heading south soon for the winter months. I will miss them playing "she loves me, she loves me not" with the petals of the zinnias!

PRAYING MANTIS ARE HERE!......

I have been looking for matured praying mantis. They seem to be late in arriving this year, and are already turning brown as you can see by this beautiful one I saw while watering the gardens this morning. The green one was on a mum plant and was not to happy that
I got him all wet! They are so animated and really fun to watch!

BLACK BEAUTY......

The hard work pays off with all the beautiful butterflies that stop by! I just took these pics around noon when I can hardly see what is in
the viewfinder of my camera. Can't believe I got a shot of this guy in "preparing for take off mode" in the center pic!

TWO BEE....OR NOT!

I have really been enjoying my sunflowers! I am so glad they had time to mature even thought I planted them so late in the season. As you can see the bees love them too!

MUMS THE WORD!.....

Here is a pic of two of the mums that survived the winter. This has NEVER happened for me before! Three more are in the pots they grew in last Fall and are just as full and ready to open. Two of the mums have been blooming since Spring! As you can see, the black
eyed susans are quickly fading, but can't complain. They were really spectacular this year! I guess it's like the guy on Ed Sullivan who
spun the plates on a stick. All the plates only look perfect for a brief moment! I will try to keep the plants looking "happy" for as long as
possible. I have a feeling we will have an early frost this year, but we will just have to wait and see.

COMPOST DOING GREAT!.....

Tried to get a shot of this butterfly taking off. You can see his wings beginning to flap, but each time he took off he was quickly out of the picture (or I just wasn't fast enough!). My compost is really breaking down quickly. As I said, I bought a pricey bio-excelorator and it is really doing its job! Of course the heat is helping too, but when I put in kitchen scraps, in a few days they are completely broken down.
It is loaded with big worms too! The goldfinches are taking apart the zinnias one petal at a time. Maybe that's how they get to the better
seeds. This poor zinnia was almost stripped, but that didn't stop the butterfly from enjoying his meal!

"DAD GARDEN" AT IT'S PEAK.....

It was 4 year yesterday that my Dad passed away. This garden is dedicated to him. He LOVED to sit outside and watch me work in the
gardens. Although he was born on the Grand Prarie in Nebraska, he had NO INTEREST in gardening! He remembered his Dad making
he and his brothers gather potato bugs and put them in a can of coal oil. Grandpa knew better than to NOT have the proof that they were doing their job! My Aunt Ruth, Dad's sister, has a wonderful garden in her backyard in Columbus, NE. I usually talk to her each
week and we swap stories about how our gardens are doing. She says there is a pumpkin vine that is taking over her garden!

BIRDBATH GARDEN....

It took 4 attempts at repair to get my "inground birdbath" to hold water. It is the only one that the birds seem to be using since the others are close to where "the boys", Boots & Blacky, hang out most of the time. The flowers are really at their peak now. I have been
watering every day unless we get a afternoon storm. The dogwood shrub in the "dog garden" is absolutely LOADED with berries!
At least the birds can get to them without worrying about the cats!

SUPERSONIC LIVES UP TO IT'S NAME!.....

This tomato plant has really thrived dispite our wacky weather. The fruits have been really flavorful and many have been very large.
I will be making some fresh salsa with the plumb tomatoes and peppers. Bob and I had a great BLT for lunch today with one of the
big supersonics. We needed extra napkins! The sprouted sweet potato I planted a couple weeks ago is really growing. If the heat
keeps up the vines should really start spreading through the garden.

OL-SUNFLOWERS!.......

I planted these in late June. So happy they have matured quickly! So far the squirrels haven't discovered them but something tells me
they will after the seeds ripen! In the meantime I just hope a storm doesn't damage them. I just love seeing them out my window!