Thurs. Sept. 29, 2022: The Season Starts The Turn

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Thursday, September 29, 2022

First Quarter Moon Waxing in Scorpio

Pluto, Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter, Uranus, Mercury Retrograde

Mostly sunny and cool

Celtic Tree Month of Vine

It’s like someone flipped a switch, and we’re into autumn temperatures, but not autumn colors. It’s still lovely and pleasant during the days (when it’s not raining), but going down into the 40s and even the 30s (F) at night.

Which meant moving the plants inside, from the back balcony. The large peace lily is in my office. The night blooming jasmine came in from the front porch to sit next to it. The peace lily was a drama queen for the first few days, but has settled down. The maiden hair fern went up on top of the bookcase in my office, where the cats can’t get at it. The slip of Mother’s tongue that fell off the big plant, and the lemon tree are both still in my office.

The jade plant and the Christmas cacti went into my mother’s room. The aloe plant came into the kitchen. The large Mother’s tongue is in the living room. The geraniums all went out onto the front porch.

That leaves the black-eyed Susan vine (still blooming), the morning glory (still blooming), the moonflower (never bloomed), the marigold, the lilac, the chrysanthemum, the mugwort, and the mullein out on the back balcony. The lettuce is finished.

I have to cut the peppermint and the lemon balm and let it dry.

We have to close off the front porch in the evening, and open it in the late morning, but during the day, when it’s sunny, it’s like a greenhouse there.

You know what that means?

The tomato plants we grew from seed, which did nothing all summer, are suddenly growing. Does this mean we’ll have tomatoes for Christmas?

This coming weekend is the big turnover to the spider web curtains, the Halloween fabric, and the Halloween decorations. One of the fun things about living here is that people start decorating for Halloween in September, and keep layering it on until November.

How’s your garden doing?

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Thurs. Sept. 22, 2022: Equinox Rains

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Thursday, September 22, 2022

4^th Quarter Moon Waning in Leo

Pluto, Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter, Uranus, Mercury Retrograde

Celtic Tree Month of Vine

Autumn Equinox

Rainy and mild

Plants are waning, although the morning glories are blooming nicely. Of course, Spiro Squirrel eats all the blossoms he can reach, that little troublemaker.

The black-eyed Susans and black-eyed Susan vine are still blooming well, too. I think I will plant more black-eyed Susan vine next spring, maybe in different colors.

I think we’ll have to take the Thanksgiving/Christmas cacti in soon; the nights are getting cooler. Pretty soon, we’ll have to figure out where to put the plants that need to be inside all winter, and which plants can stay on the front porch when we close it off for the winter.

I wonder when the tulip bulbs will arrive.

It’s been gray and rainy for days now, but I guess that’s better than snow!

Today is the Autumn Equinox. It only gets darker from here.

How are you winding things up in the garden?

Thurs. Sept. 15, 2022: Harvests and Marigolds

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Thursday, September 15, 2022

Third Quarter Waning Moon in Taurus

Pluto, Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter, Uranus, Mercury Retrograde

Celtic Tree Month of Vine

Sunny and cooler

The morning glories finally bloomed, just before my friends arrived for their visit. Finally! Really pretty, too.

The marigolds are blooming – well, the ones where the squirrels didn’t eat the blooms.

The night blooming jasmine is starting to bloom, too!

We’ve used the last of the lettuce. That did well.

I’m giving up on the tomatoes and yanking them out. The plants never grew beyond shoots. It’s time to harvest the rest of the basil and make pesto. The chives are just about done. The rosemary gave up (I’m so tired of it acting like an annual). The parsley still has some life in it, thank goodness.

Slowly, we are putting plants to bed, and we’ll start bringing in some of the ones that need more warmth as things cool down.

While this season was disappointing, I learned a lot, and hopefully, I can apply it well next year.

I want the hummingbirds to be happy next year, so I’m going to grow flowers out on the back balcony that they’ll like. I’m even thinking about growing some Angel’s Trumpet (datura). Since the balcony is up on the second level, random people won’t mess with it to get poisoned, and the flowers are so pretty. We’ll see.

I need to update this season’s garden journal and then do an assessment. That way, I can plan for next year. I need to get a bigger binder. The plan is to keep that season’s notes in the smaller binder, and put the previous season’s notes in the big binder, with yearly dividers, so I can go back and see what worked and what didn’t.

Now that we have to factor climate change into every evaluation, too, that will also make a difference.

How’s your harvest coming?

Thurs. Sept. 8, 2022: Finally Rain and Too Much Rain

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Thursday, September 8, 2022

2^nd Quarter Waxing Moon in Libra

Pluto, Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter, Uranus Retrograde

Mercury turns Retrograde TOMORROW

Celtic Tree Month of Vine

Cloudy and cooler

I’ve mentioned this before, and I’ll say it again: it feels like we’re in a seasonal limbo. The calendar says September, but it doesn’t feel or smell like it. Although it’s a little cooler, thank goodness, it still doesn’t have that crispness, nor are the leaves turning colors yet. Some of them are turning brown and giving up, but there’s not that wave of color change.

We finally got rain, and then it rained steadily for more than a day. While we needed it, it was a little too much too quickly, and many of the plants and shrubs outside got battered.

Mercury goes retrograde tomorrow, to pile on to all the other retrogrades, so September will be a challenging month on multiple levels.

We’re in the Celtic Tree Month of Vine right now. It’s about harvest and passionate emotions (both good and bad). Pile that on top of the retrogrades and yeah, challenges.

On the garden front, the marigolds out back are starting to bloom and are lovely. The black-eyed Susans and four o’clocks are doing well. The rosemary has had it. I don’t understand why, here in MA, rosemary behaves like an annual. The dahlias, which had died back and regrown, are dying back again. I have friends coming to visit this weekend with lovely gardens, and I am digging up those damn dahlias and giving them away. In spite of all the coddling they got, they were spiteful and didn’t bloom. Outta here!

The annuals are starting to fade, so I will cut them back and pull them out as needed. The lettuce is done and has bolted; some of the basil is bolting, and the rest I’ll turn into pesto in the coming week or so.

We’re in the process of emptying/scrubbing pots and storing them for the winter. Pretty soon, we’ll have to bring the plants inside to overwinter – and decide where to put them! That will be a challenge, at times. But we’ll figure it out.

How’s your garden doing?

Thurs. Sept. 1, 2022: Flamingo Sentinels

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Thursday, September 1, 2022

First Quarter Moon Waxing in Scorpio

Pluto, Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter, Uranus Retrograde

Celtic Tree Month of Hazel

Sunny and cooler

September 1, and finally, some of this humidity has broken! The plants will be relieved. The front porch gets a little bit like a hothouse conservatory during the day. Which isn’t a bad thing, but I have to adjust which plants do well there.

The rosemary does not, so next year’s rosemary will have to go out back. I had some mugwort in the front (and in the back), but the mugwort in the front wasn’t happy, so I moved it.

The marigolds in the back are getting ready to bloom, which is exciting.

The four o’clocks are lovely in the front, the way they open and close. The night blooming jasmine is enormous, but hasn’t yet bloomed. The mountain heliotrope has lovely, periwinkle-colored blossoms. The dahlia restarted. I have no idea what’s going on there.

The black-eyed Susan plant is doing well in the back. I love how cheerful they are.

The pink flamingos are doing their job in the back, and keeping away the squirrels. So next year, I think I will buy some whirligigs, too, for the back. Put something in every pot, and maybe then the squirrels won’t destroy it all.

The black-eyed Susan vine is blooming like crazy out back, and it looks like the morning glories might start. Still nothing from the moonflowers, although the vines have grown nicely, and, between the three kinds of plants, it’s created a lovely natural curtain along the railings of the back balcony.

Apples come into season soon, and I can’t wait. I love apples, and I  miss eating an apple every day. I already had the first apple cider donuts that showed up in the store!

I can’t wait for some genuine, autumn weather!

How are things in your neck of the woods?