Before the Colors are Covered in Snow...

We had snow for a day this past week, followed by a quick melt. The inevitable blanket will be coming soon. We hauled away the outdoor pots of annuals and stored the pots indoors (the cold/moisture is hard on them in winter). There is no need to wrap any shrubs this year, as we did away with the only remaining globe cedar (great decision!). Everything else should hold its own without too much coddling, as it should be.

Resident-lawnmower-man used his leaf sucking power tool to collect the leaves in the yard and produced a nice heap of leaf mulch. I got him to spread the mulch on the areas of the raised beds where the new lily and tulip bulbs are planted. I think that's a reasonable amount of coddling (because I like my flower bulbs a lot). With the addition of some snow, I am hopeful about their survival this winter. I plan to have a great mass of annuals (poppies, cosmos, zinnias) grow in this open space currently planted with bulbs, so that the annuals disguise the dying foliage of the bulb flowers.

Otherwise in outdoor activity, I have been excited about photographing the northern lights. With the aid of this website: http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast, you can get a day or two of notice about great auroral activity for the northern hemisphere. Outside of the technical photographic elements, there is a challenge of finding a spot without any lights where you can run to safety in the case of wild animals, and staying warm while standing by your tripod. In the case of scary animals, I have made mental plans on how I might use my tripod as a weapon. It's always good to have a plan.
One of my September northern lights photographs, taken near La Ronge:

Someone actually called the police to investigate on the night we took this photo. Apparently showing up at a beach at midnight seems suspicious. The police didn't think a couple of people with tripods and cameras looked suspicious at all, however.

Birds: Dazed and Confused

Or perhaps, I could have titled this "Birds: Drunk and Disorderly." We had a hard frost about 10 days ago and the mountain ash tree's berries have increased their sugars, and are now fermenting. The birds gorge themselves on these tasty (to them, anyhow) berries and fall out of the tree. Several have also flown into our windows, with one fatality and several temporarily dazed individuals. I have asked RLM to get some decals for our large windows, but the larger problem of the week is that the birds are drunk! No drinking and flying, and the skies would be a safer place.

Fall Bulb Weekend!!

My fall order of bulbs/corms/roots arrived today in the mail from Botanus, a mail order company from British Columbia. The post office staff were nice enough to bring the heavy box around to the loading dock, seeing that I probably wouldn't be able to haul it off to my car. That's right, I purchased only a "few" bulbs (though I believe I was not setting any records this year).
One of my favourite perennials: Bergenia's fall colors are starting to show:

I purchased quite a few daffodils, though I've had little success with them since the spring of 2009. I'm hoping the sheer bulk of them will produce at least a few blooms nice months (doesn't that seem like forever?) from now. My order also included some garlic for the herb/vegetable plot, as I found it an excellent deterrent for aphids this year.
Aster dumosus "Alert", a fall-blooming aster:

I am pacing myself with the bulb planting, having planted the minor bulbs today, avoiding the inevitable blistering of the palms thus far. My dear garden friend offered me the use of her electric bulb auger, but I rather enjoyed expending a few calories only to enjoy my supper even more. I used the small handheld bulb planter today, and will probably use the long-handled foot-driven one over the weekend.
Crocuses, Narcissi, Puschkinia, Tulips, and Iris danfordiae go into the flowerbed adjacent the driveway:

A dwarf columbine is reblooming for fall:

I need to take some more cuttings of plants I want to save, and a few lucky others get to move right on into the house. The short-lived herbs (parsley, cilantro) aren't worth bringing in, but I have already got seedlings for new plants started indoors under lights.
The rosemary was brought in for the winter, as it is a long-lived woody herb:

Otherwise, the composting worms got hauled out in the sunlight as I dug the composted product out of the bottom of the plastic bin. The flowerbeds are going to love this. I didn't bother with sorting through the finished compost to save all the worms, since few worms live at the bottom anyhow. They were mostly near the top, where most of the food was located. I have two of these worm bins and they almost have the capacity to hold most of our kitchen's compostable waste over the winter. Excess waste goes to the big pile outside, but I don't use that pile for compost in the garden, as we also throw our weeds in there. I do however get the occasional tomato, pepper, or squash growing out of this worm-compost material.
Worm bin and black composted organic material for the flower beds:

The outer bin collects the compost tea that seeps out of the moist material inside. It's a great liquid fertilizer and I threw most of it around my big rose bush. I highly recommend worm-composting and freely give my worms away to any interested gardener (not that you have to be a gardener, but really, who else would raise a colony of worms in their house?).