As we enter Autumn, some of us are thrilled that we are winding down a busy summer season, planning to rip out our veggie gardens, and generally cleaning up during cooler weather (what a relief!), while others of us are planning our fall vegetable and perennial plantings and getting ready to welcome brassicas, lettuces, phlox, hydrangea, and carex galore.
My DH is the former type of gardener. He asks every couple of days, “Can I rip out the tomatoes? Have they finished fruiting? I want the raised beds to look clean and tidy for winter….” He’s already tied up the iris beds so they look like little miniature green hay stacks. I’m the latter type of gardener, searching for seeds I forgot to order earlier, and trying to figure out how much time is left for germination. If we can just get a few more days of warmth, I think.
Oh, to have different mindsets about the same thing. DH is a tidier (I’m not sure that is spelled right). He is perpetually cleaning up behind me. I love the doing, but not the cleaning afterwards. When I wear out in the afternoon, he looks at me and says “Just leave the rake (hoe, shovel, etc.) over there. I want to wash them off before we hang them up.” God bless him!
Me, on the other hand…I go bonkers when a box from a mail order grower arrives (not just in the Autumn — anytime): “Oh goody! Let’s cut it open and see what has arrived! I think I ordered a, b, c…” DH says something like “Have you thought where you’ll plant it? Do you have any idea how long it will take to move the plants where you want to put these?” (Probably not, I bought them because fall was coming, the end of the season sales were on, yadda, yadda….)
I now go to the catalog site on the net and see how high and wide these new beauties will grow, and then figure out where I want to put them. I generally buy in the blue, purple, magenta and white family of colors because DH favors them, but after that, size is a consideration only when they arrive in the post! Sometimes because of other events and appointments, the plants have to go into buckets, with added water, and crouch under our amur maple at the patio until the day of planting arrives. But opening those boxes is like opening presents at Christmas. I just can’t wait!
I’ve already planted about 40 little 4 inch pots from my favorite mail order grower, Santa Rosa Gardens in Florida this month and look forward to another dozen from them in October — plus another shipment from another grower in October. And we have our wedding anniversary to celebrate, and at least two long day trips and one overnighter planned for October, so mail order plants beware!
You might be sleeping out under the maple if you’re lucky. What worries me the most is the box(es?) arriving while we are on a day trip and roasting in the western sun at our garage, without my being able to rip them open like a kid under the Christmas tree and admire and water and wish I could clone myself with shovel in hand….
Mail order hosta planted last year!
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