Hibernation of Garden Statues

As part of the garden clean-up to get ready for winter every year, all my garden statues need to get put away in the shed. My husband has this fun job, and he does it so carefully (thank you!). Then in the spring, he surprises me with this year’s placement. I never know where things will show up, kind of like my Columbine plants.

I did used to leave some of them out over the winter, but that led to a lot of damage. They will begin to crumble and I’ve lost a few. Best to put them away, or wrap up the larger items, to keep the water (therefore ice) from getting into the porous cement.

I got most of these a couple at a time, years ago, from a vendor at a local craft show. Then one year, they stopped coming. A few more were bought at a local garden shop, which unfortunately recently went out of business. All the more reason to be careful with them.

Here’s just some of what’s in my collection…

And this is their lovely winter home…

Ominous Weather

This is one of those days that you know the National Weather Service is all hands on deck. We were supposed to drive from Chicago to Terre Haute, IN today to watch my son and his teammates run in the Nike Cross National Midwest Regional Race. But, instead, I spent hours pouring over the all the NWS reports from Chicago, Central Illinois and Indianapolis last night and this morning, trying to make heads or tails out of what was headed our way. We decided it didn’t look like a good day make that long of a drive, so we stayed home and watched the race on-line. Turns out that was a great idea and seems like most people took the warnings seriously as well.

When I went out to “batten down the hatches” this morning, it was weirdly warm, humid and quiet. The birds, however, were going crazy. It’s like they knew something bad was coming. Not only was there a lot of activity, but birds were here I don’t normally see often. And all at the same time! In about 10 minutes among the starlings and house finches, there were robins, a pair of cardinals, chickadees, goldfinches, juncoes, and even a cedar waxwing.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a cedar waxwing, and certainly never in my yard. Maybe it’s all the yummy berries!

As the day progressed, we had over an inch of rain, (which means the rain boots had to come out again) as well as lightning and hours of winds of 25-30 mph with gusts up to 55 mph.

We thankfully didn’t have any tornadoes nearby, although many, as predicted, were scattered around central Illinois and Indiana. Prayers go out to those people who have been affected, it looks like a mess. I’ll be glad when the howling outside ends.

Here’s some of my favorite places to get good weather info at home and away:

National Weather Service and local offices for detailed reporting
WeatherBug for local reports from weather stations on many local schools (web, iOS and android apps)
Weather Underground for detailed local reports from trained weather spotters (web, iOS and android)
MyRadar app-the most accurate radar (iOS and android)
The Weather Channel for general weather (tv, computer, iOS and android )

You can also sign up for alerts from the NWS, TWC and Accuweather , or get a noaa weather radio app for you device. Do you have a favorite weather source?

Just a Dusting

We spent the weekend getting the garden prepared for winter. That is, when we weren’t cheering on the IL State Cross Country Champions (sorry this is really a huge event for the boys and school–first time ever in the team’s history). Later this week, I’ll write about the things we did, but overnight we had our first real, yet barely, measurable snowfall. Other parts of the area got more, but where I am, we rarely get lake effect snow so that usually keeps the amount of snowfall down.

Not quite as inviting as earlier this summer…

All summer I have been admiring this clematis that is right outside the side door. Now, even as the days grow shorter, the daytime temperatures keep dropping and we’ve even had a little snowfall, it just stubbornly, or defiantly, keeps putting out new blooms.

It’s a Great Day to be Red!

Today’s post is a tribute to my son’s high school cross country team who will be traveling to the IL state meet tomorrow with the goal of coming home #1! As everything around town has been turning from summer green to fall red, it brings to mind that this could very well be the year that it will be “RED” hoisting the championship trophy.
As a send-off to the boys, here are some of the beautiful red colors we’ve been seeing lately.

No matter what happens this weekend, just like this geranium still strongly blooming late into fall, these boys are tenacious and aren’t going away anytime soon. Good Luck!

Interesting “Event”

I was on my computer around 12:30 this afternoon when everything just kind of rolled and rattled for a few seconds. I have honestly never felt anything like that before. Neither did my dog, since she was also startled. I’m sure to people in earthquake regions this would have been a big yawner, but this is really unusual here in suburban Chicago. I was on the second floor of my house, so I really felt the sway, with lots of creaking and rattling to go with it. Was it a giant gust of wind? Not windy today. Something big nearby exploded? No boom, plus I was so puzzled I quickly went outside to check the neighborhood. Earthquake? Most likely based on what I felt and knew didn’t happen. But, never having felt one, I had no real idea.

I took to Facebook and twitter to see what everyone else had felt and people all over the western suburbs and downtown were reporting the same sensation. Shortly after, the USGS declared that an M3.7 earthquake centered nearby had occurred. With further analysis, that was shortly changed to be an M3.2 caused by blasting at a quarry just a few miles east of my house.

The quarry owners have reported that they were blasting today, but everything was within limits. There does seem to be some confusion over how many “events” there were, and whether this was a separate event. In any event, this is a highly unusual and I would hope they are seriously investigating. I’m not very far away, and it was quite an event here. I would imagine closer to the quarry, based on what I felt, there must have been damage.

It’s interesting that these quarries are so close to downtown Chicago, and basically right in the western suburbs. They’ve been working quarries for over 100 years, so neighborhoods have grown up around them. People in those neighborhoods have grown used to the normal blasts and shocks that occur several times a week. But, a few years ago, something similar happened resulting in an M2.7 tremor. This same quarry operator was responsible and the unusually high tremor was reportedly due to “unusual atmospheric conditions”. Again today, this was definitely something out of the ordinary. I hope we don’t have a pattern developing.

Here’s some maps showing how far away this was felt

My New Rain Boots

Ugh, water! Ever since NJ, where we moved into our first house in a new development and had an entire block’s worth of water come rushing across our backyard and down the side to the street, we seem to have been plagued by water running across the yard where it’s not supposed to be. Countless times there, and then here in this house, I have had to put on some ridiculous pair of the most waterproof boots I can find, usually the wrong size and maybe even designed for snow, grab a shovel and started redirecting water back to the swale to flow where it belongs. So last week, I finally bought myself a cute pair of Slogger rain boots. This way, at least if I am out there “slogging” around in the water, I can look good and be more comfortable.

Well, it happened again yesterday, so I’m glad I got the taller boots, instead of the equally cute garden shoes (which I might still order anyway because they are so cute and comfortable) .

This is what I woke up to after a night of rain…

Now, the water is supposed to flow to this corner, but it is supposed to then flow out and down the block between the properties to the storm sewer. But of course, something has gone wrong again.

You’ll have to excuse the mess behind the shed. This area is really part no man’s land, part utility easement. But, that’s where the flow was clogged and the water, instead of heading down the fence line and out, was coming back into the yard, trying to turn our shed into an ark. So, out come my new cute Slogger rain boots, my raincoat and the shovel, and off to work I go. There was all kinds of debris (leaves, sticks, mulch, and even those annoying plastic bags) clogging the flow, and once I got that cleared and redirected some of the water using those giant flagstones tossed back there for storage, we were good to go.

In this photo, I look like I am wading in a pretty river somewhere. But, instead, it means the water in my backyard is moving once again and I have solved the problem for now!

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is always a mixed bag weather-wise here. I’ve seen everything from 70’s and gorgeous, to 30’s with snow, and everything in between. This year looks like a rainy, yet rather warm day and not very windy. In the scheme of things, I guess not too bad. But then, my kids are past their trick-or-treating years (I think) so I don’t need to worry about how to get their costume over their winter coat, or trying to figure out how to trick-or-treat with an umbrella.

When the drizzle stopped for a little bit this morning, I went out to see how the colors were changing and the garden faring.

For some reason the dying hostas looked so interesting today…

My “schizophrenic” tree, as a fellow blogger so aptly named it, is continuing on it’s own odd path through the fall changes…

The maples, burning bushes and serviceberries are just glowing these days…

And this mess I’ll talk about tomorrow…

Trick or Treaters are arriving! So glad they weren’t scared off by the rain!

Moving Some Rocks

The last couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to get some spots in the garden in order before it got too cold. One is shown here:

It’s a spot that in theory should be a good way to have dealt with the slope of the garden as opposed to the level patio. The problem that developed was that the small foot or so of garden that aligns with the lower grill area, just has become a place for dirt, leaves and other random outdoor junk to collect and wash onto the patio. Plants haven’t seemed to want to grow very well there, so it just became an a dirty eyesore. We had originally planted purple tuurtleheads and bee balm in the area, then added some other plants as things died back.

So finally this year, I decided this area needed a change. I had the stones moved forward to the edge of the brick and some plastic added to keep the dirt from washing in. There’ll be a bit of a slope, but it can’t be worse than the ugliness of what I am dealing with now. Neither of those original plants did great in this locations, so what’s left of them I’m moving them to other spots.

Moving the plants–a clump of turtlehead roots

and some very scraggly bee balm that needs more sunlight.

The spurge that does do well here, I’ll split in the spring. It’s about 5 years old so probably ready to split. I’ve also been been finding such interesting Coral Bells (Heuchera) lately and they seem to like it here. I’ll try to add some more of them and some interesting hosts and astilbe to round it out. I’m hoping this impoves the look and keeps the patio a little cleaner.

Here’s what it looks like now, honestly not much better, but getting too cold to really do much. The rest of the plants to be added and moved will need to be done in the spring. At least I’m ready!

First Frost Warning is Coming Tonight!

I feel pretty lucky that we’ve squeaked out an extra week or so before the first hard frost has hit the Chicago area. NOAA has issued it’s first freeze watch for the area for tonight, almost a week my after the average date for my area. We might even get some flurries! Chicago is a little difficult to know what will really happen weather-wise at any one spot in the region, since Lake Michigan and other land features create a lot of micro-climates that skew local temperatures and precipitation. You can check out your first frost dates on Dave’s Garden.

Even so, I think tonight will be it for the plants. I went around yesterday and took some last pictures of the flowers and harvested the last of the vegetables in preparation. I’m always a little sad this time of year, when the garden still looks so inviting after having finally recovered from the harsh mid -summer conditions. Yet I know it is only a matter of time till it’s over. It’s like the plants want that last hurrah before going to sleep for the winter, or for the annuals, to go out in a blaze of glory.

Final Garden Harvest–having just been in Charleston, I am going to use those green tomatoes!

The garden is still in bloom

Some of the trees are showing their colors, but not very uniformly or brilliantly. Some are showing the stress of 2 harsh summers and disease, while others haven’t even begun to change.

It’ll be interesting to see what it al looks like tomorrow. I’m torn as to whether I should bring in that beautiful single rosebud to protect it, or see what happens if I leave it.

Visiting a Glass Pumpkin Patch

This week we visited the third annual Glass Pumpkin Patch at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL.

There are lots of artists, each with their own signature style. Shannon Jane Morgan, who we had the chance to speak with at the First Pumpkin Patch, comes all the way from California to headline the event and has mentored many of the artists who also display their creativity with glass. There are over 3000 pumpkins for sale, live glass-blowing demonstrations and workshops. Enjoy some of these beautiful works of art.