Good morning, and I'm back. Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.
Denver started the downhill slide towards winter weather this week: on Wednesday we hit a high of 82° and an overnight low of 45°; yesterday the high in a drizzly Denver was 53°, the low this morning was in the 30s, and it's snowing in the mountains.
Meanwhile, I don't have a single bud on the passionflower (it usually starts budding in late August), the sweet autumn clematis has barely started blooming (at least 2 weeks late), and the chatter at the estate sale I went to yesterday morning was how the high country aspen — usually at their peak this time of year — are still largely green.
This whole gardening season has been so screwed up that I'm actually looking forward to just closing the door on it all.
Next year has got to be better.
I did get a little gardening in last weekend, since the internet was so well and thoroughly screwed up (one of those situations where the broadband provider and ISP blamed each other, when they both weren't blaming our router, which we replaced and which replacement, of course, didn't solve the problem).
I'm working at lining the outer edge of the front beds with dwarf bearded iris — they're short, they're tough, and they block weeds. I have several clumps that have been multiplying for several years, and it's time to divide the babies and spread them around. While I'm at it, I take the opportunity to plug a few hyacinth bulbs in the ground, too.
I also finished a major knitting project and, although my fingers are itching to pick up the needles and start another (I really want to do a nice lace snood for my mountains of hair), I am, instead, forcing myself to finish blocking and mounting a couple of lace pieces (like this section of the Herbert Niebling pattern Wiesenflor, which depicts violets), and getting up to speed on tying springs and other upholstery techniques.
That's what's happening here. What's going on in your gardens?