Wishing you a happy Thanksgiving full of love and joy...and maybe a bit of turkey.

Adrienne

Flowers, flowers, flowers ~

A couple of days ago with the help of Chris, who helps me in the garden, I brought the containers of my Christmas decorations up from the basement. They are now sitting on the back deck covered with plastic to protect them from the rain (yes, we had a rain storm - hooray, I can turn off the sprinklers for a while). Next week I will slowly start bringing Christmas into the house, right now I am mulling over what I want to do this year.

Meanwhile,

 I am still enjoying the autumnal decor. The arrangement of pumpkins in my entry hall below is one of my favorites.

But this post wasn't really going to be about holiday decorations but about flowers. First, flowers that because of their ordinariness are easy to disregard, in my garden Paperwhite narcissist fall into this category. In the past I have almost regarded them as weeds, pulling them out of the beds with abandon. This year I am looking at these dependable bulbs with new regard. With our change in climate many things I use to grow with ease have become difficult giving me a new appreciation for these bulbs that flourish without care, return with great vigor, look pretty, smell wonderful, flower at a time when there is not much else blooming and are good cut flowers - I mean really, what more could you ask for. 

They will still need to be divided on a regular basis as they tend to form large clumps, but my new plan is to plant the extra bulbs in the far back more casual reaches of the garden where they can adapt, do their thing...and await the results.

Now, wildflowers.

 I have a friend with a beautiful garden that has the most wonderful display of wildflowers every year. I have never done this but decided that it might be fun to try. I bought lots of packages of wildflower seeds, mixed them all together with some sand and have been sowing them in several areas. It will be interesting to see what happens; I have dreams of lots wildflowers this late winter and spring.

Finally...

 a flower arrangement adding color and life to the living room, the very, very last of the hydrangeas, mixed in with privet and smoke bush foliage. 

Thank you for visiting.

I hope all of your holiday preparations are going well.

Adrienne

Little backdoor herb garden ~

Last year instead of planting a large winter vegetable garden I just planted lettuces in pots near the kitchen. I called it my "little pathway garden". It worked out well - Instead of walking to the far, far back garden on cold and dark winter nights I was able to go down just a couple of steps and pick all the fresh lettuce I needed for salads and sandwiches.

This year I will be doing the same thing but I decided that it would be nice to add some winter herbs. Many herbs such as rosemary, thyme, lavender and oregano do well year around in our climate and grow in abundance in my garden, but parsley, chives and tarragon, and to a certain extent sage, languish in our hot months, so for me at least, it is better to treat them as winter annuals and enjoy them at their freshest then. So...

...all that was required was a trip to the garden center and then back home to get them potted up!

Voila!

I now have a little backdoor herb garden, planted with some of my favorite cooking herbs, lots of parsley, tarragon, sage, a small pot of mint, to add to teas, and plenty of chives for baked potatoes and omelets, all just outside my backdoor. Besides the convenience I rather like the way it looks.

Now I must get busy and finish planting bulbs, I should have gotten them all in by the end of October so I am running a bit late. By the end of the day they should all be safely tucked in.

Thank you for visiting. I hope you have a wonderful day.

Adrienne