And one final plant flowers- monk's hood

TPP has blogged about monk's hood before (a Friday fabulous flower).  Yesterday was officially the first day of flowering - October 20th, and that's 6 days earlier than in 2012!  These are a great plant for the patient if you have a nice quiet shady spot.  Another new happening this year; something ate one of our plants and usually nothing touches them because they are really toxic. But this year bun-buns ate a lot of things they never touched before none of which made us very happy.  Tonight may be our first frost, but probably not for our garden.  It has to frost hard before our little heat island gets frost.  Nonetheless yesterday was spent doing some garden cleanup and pickup. Except for tomatoes this year's kitchen garden was pretty good.  Still have some mesclun, lettuce, and bok choi, but it takes a pretty hard freeze to damage these.  Fall color remains reluctant, but cool nights just began a week ago; drought will really reduce the sugar maple display this year. 

Leave us alone; we be gardenin'

Spring garden cleanup is no small chore. The primary salvation is that lots of pretty narcissi are in bloom everywhere.  Now that the bun-buns have tulips to eat, the various shrubs can be released from their cages.  By now swelling buds pretty well reveal where and what requires pruning.  An ancient Nanking cherry died and had to be removed. It's lacy white flowering was always so attractive. It was massive and now an area about 20 x 25 feet is in need of a new plant(s) that can deal with the semi-shade and a large black walnut's chemical warfare.  Perhaps a new magnolia, or an Asian lilac, or a magnolia, or the new Exochorda racemosa (image courtesy of Nadiatalent, Creative Commons) already ordered, or a magnolia, or a Pterostyrax.  What do you think?

 The perennial beds, the herb garden, and wind-row fences accumulate an amazing volume of leaves; the Phactors probably remove more leaves from just these places than most people in the burbs remove from their whole yards.  And you have to know which perennials need to be uncovered, de-mulched first, e.g., fern-leafed peony, clematis (bush and vine), species tulips.  Once you get the leaf situation under control, the lily pond can be cleaned out.  The fish show up and indicate they are hungry; it has been 5 months since they were fed, so no big surprise.  Friday marked the end of a taxing season for Mrs. Phactor, and thankfully for those who share the same state with her, this coincides with the beginning of the serious gardening season, and garden activity not only provides exercise, but a positive therapy to recover from the tax season.  TPP trusts his were filed, properly; now to find some compensation for his tax preparer.  Maybe a magnoia?