This is strange for us as we usually have a hard frost by mid September. This year there was snow in August and a few light frosts.

Yes same here Caroline. Light frost enough to kill the tenders but everything else still ok. Sure wish we could count on it staying like this for awhile but I won't hold my breath! Unfortunately it gives you the false sense of having lots of time for clean up,etc. (At least it does for me, lol.)

That does it -- I'm moving to Canada!! (shoot, I'm practically there anyway...)

We had a hard freeze last Friday and Saturday -- but we picked the rest of the tomatoes and peppers and brought them in, and in a way I'm glad to be able to work on cleaning up the garden and getting it ready for winter.

We are holding in the mid to low 20's at night and maybe high 40's during the day. Ground is freezing deeper and deeper each day. Clear blue skies off set the cold though. As soon as the clouds come back I am sure it will snow. Moose are sleeping in the front yard after walking through my flower beds.

Mary, did you plant garlic this year?

I really am NOT looking forward to the ground being frozen and covered with snow... hope "they" are right about us having a warmer than usual winter! One year (2002?) we didn't have any significant snow until after New Year's -- hoping for a repeat of that (hey, I can dream, right??)

Yup. Planted garlic around the first of October. Hope I didn't goof as I planted them in my rubber look like whiskey barrels. Around the perimeter. Since they sit at the edge (on the ground) of the back deck which we keep shoveled off they will be nicely buried in snow all winter. I don't think that having little snow is such a good thing. Or perhaps it wasn't the lack of snow but the freeze thaw cycle that did in so many of my peonies and lilies. But again, had I had more snow they wouldn't have been affected. We are also expecting a mild winter like last year.

The weather has been great here, I can't believe that I still have a few blooms on my petunias and pansies that are in containers, and 3 'Poem Lilac' wallflowers that said to protect from frost, we have had lots frosts, enough to freeze the bird baths and they kept right on blooming, so a couple of weeks ago I took them out of the containers and planted them in a bed behind the house and they are still blooming.

They are beautiful. I will look up to see if they would live here.

It is worth a try, Mary, they are pretty and have a lovely scent, the bees and butterflies like them a lot.. It will be interesting to see if they make it through the winter here, last year I had 'Fragrant Sunshine' planted in the garden and it did not survive the winter.

Those are beautiful, Margaret!

Thanks Susie, it's nice seeing a few blooms this time of year in the garden. I had to water the beds today, we haven't had much rain for quite awhile.

Nope. They won't survive here. Too bad.

Mary, I just bought them as annuals for my containers and was surprised at their hardiness, they are still blooming.

About the only flowers with any blooms at all are the arabis and lamium. Mike at ABG just frowns and says they are unnatural. He is from Michigan, not sure what part. I mention seeing them in the garden just to give him a prod He is actually taking it quite well.

We did have a hard frost this week, but some things are still in flower.
Calendula, snapdragon and the Osteospermum.

I was thinking about WS seeds again this year. I can't say I have had much luck before. I have one of those rolling covered shelves like you can get at Lowe's with four shelves. I may assemble it and wire it to the side of the house on the back deck (the wind blows it over every year), Then plant my containers but leave the lids off. When there are lids I forget to keep them moist. I can easily get at them and spray them to keep them moist. Mostly I have poppy seeds, but this year I also gathered many other seeds from my garden like goat's beard, columbine, nasty's etc.

Woke up to a light covering of wet snow on the ground this morning... I was really hoping to get into November before that happened, but at least it's gone again now!

What kind of poppy are you sowing?
I have several kinds of poppy seeds, but am debating when to sow them.
One year I did Iceland poppies on top of snow and had a nice stand of them.
But if I sow too early,-- the critters and birds take the seeds.

How interesting. I have Icelandic that short of sow themselves. They get pretty lightly packed so every so often I just pull bunches. It is only a little patch. I have mostly breadseed poppies. Like Lauren's Grape. But I planted them at the same time as pink peony poppies then threw in some reds. Now I have all shades of lavender, with red down to almost a black, and some are red with fine black edging. And some are singles, then doubles, and I got a bunch of seeds from two plants that are lavender but look a lot like peonies in the blooms - flat but very very full of petals. If you would like any, let me know.

Thanks Mary, but I do not need seeds!
I do have Lauren's Grape too.
And most colours.
I have a mix from Salt Spring Seeds too.
I usually scatter a package of grocery store poppy seeds also.
They usually give the white and lavender shades.
This past season -I did not get the poppies scattered while it was still cool.
Then they did not grow that well.