Is This What Normal Feels Like?

As some of you may have noticed...it's fall outside.

Yet I am still running around and doing stuff, both in the garden and in the house. I have not yet succumbed to my annual Dying of the Light doldrums.

I'm amazed and thankful. I blame the Vitamin D I'm taking.

Holy moly! This stuff actually seems to work! I've been taking it since May 24th, so it isn't a fast fix, but it does seem to work. Getting my thyroid level adjusted probably helped, too.

Normally, I'm tired and grumpy and sad when the days get shorter. I haven't felt that way. In fact, I've enjoyed this fall. Having beautiful weather way into November is probably a big part of that, but I am grateful. So grateful! I watched the trees change color throughout the neighborhood without even a wisp of sadness. I was so busy rushing in the garden to get my work done before the first frost that I didn't have time to feel sad.

Since then, however, I still haven't slowed down. I'm turning out a frightful number of sugared confections in the kitchen, too. Marshmallows and caramels and cookies! Oh my! Mostly I'm recipe testing for Xmas presents, but even so!

Just yesterday I was mucking about in the yard and finally covered my raised beds in a 4"-6" layer of lightly chopped leaves. I whipped out the leaf blower and sucked up the enormous pile my lawn guy left for me. Then, when I ran out (Amazing, considering the size of the pile I was working with in the yard!), I blew the leaves in my back yard into nice, fluffy piles and then sucked them up, too. It took a few hours, but now my beds are covered (I'm certain the mice will be happy in the cozy beds.) and all I'm missing from my sheet composting experiment is a few bales of straw.

Just for grins, let's revisit my 2010 Garden Goals, shall we?

2010 Garden Chores List (Not necessarily in order)

1. Move big elderberry to corner. DONE
2. Dig up 6 agastache and relocate to front yard. DONE
3. Remove and relocate 2 Chinese grasses to front yard. DONE
4. Relocate caryopteris. DONE
5. Move "Dawn" viburnum down to the left ~3'. DONE
6. Fill with Russian sedum as ground cover. Covered with mulch instead.
7. Feed crab apple tree on monthly basis through summer. DONE
8. Order and spread mulch. DONE
9. Take cuttings of sempervivums for new pathway. DONE
10. Install 2 kinds of thyme (Woolly and variegated) in new pathway to help with roof runoff issues. DONE
11. Relocate butterfly bush to front yard. DONE
12. Move compact burning bush somewhere else. DONE
13. Relocate plants from future pathway to side gate somewhere else in the xeric yard. DONE
14. Clear out plants from around sprinkler heads. DONE
15. Fix broken sprinklers. Repeat ad nauseum during entire length of summer. DONE
16. Replace all old fashioned sprinklers. Only when they break.
17. Move asters from back to front yard. DONE
18. Weed sidewalk garden. DONE
19. Weed xeric garden. DONE
20. Relocate plants around xeric garden to fill empty spots. DONE
21. Ditch irises from the front yard. Yes, all of them. Offer them for free to neighbors and meet new people. Neighbors LOVE free plants! DONE
22. Move blue fescue to sidewalk (SW) garden. DONE
23. Plant 3 new grasses in SW garden. DONE
24. Order 6 shrubs and 3 grasses for part shade garden in back yard. DONE
25. Rip out and relocate 3 peonies, Autumn Joy sedum, Blue Hills sage, large catmint, and 2 kinds of garden phlox. DONE
26. Rip out Keys of Heaven, bindweed, bee balm, clematis tanguica, lamb's ear and other assorted weeds. DONE
27. Sift wheelbarrows full of compost. DONE
28. Install Java Red weigela, 3 Miscanthus 'Morninglight' in newly weeded sunny part of back yard. Maybe this will keep me weeding that section more frequently? DONE
29. Move bronze sedge from shady part to sunny part. DONE
30. Finally plant new scented penstemon purchased at DBG plant sale. DONE
31. Rip out weeds and morning glories volunteering all over raised beds. DONE
32. Plant cool weather seeds for "fall" veggies (e.g. spinach, peas, beans, zukes [45 and 50 day varieties, just to see if it's possible], lettuce, pak choi, cilantro, dill [very old seeds, will they work?], green onions, and carrots,) by Aug. 2nd. Realize that I probably should have started this in mid-July, but hope for the best. DONE
33. Install new sprinkler line down to cover sunny corner of yard and keep new plantings happy. DONE
34. Remove potting bench and its mess off deck. DONE
35. Sort out pots and stuff, send bad pots to McGuckin's for recycling (Check with your local garden center - they may take all of your old pots for recycling, too!). Sorted, but not accepted at gardening center. I missed the drop off date by two weeks! Argh! I'm going to hold onto the pots until next year. Maybe they'll offer the program again in the spring?
36. Clean deck and organize potted plants on deck. DONE
37. Begin making mental list of plants to live on deck next summer. DONE
38. Install bronze/purple ajuga as ground cover in part shade garden. DONE
39. Install 6 new shrubs (Pictured at bottom) and 3 new grasses. DONE
40. Learned a new mulching/sheet composting method I plan on trialing this winter. Must steal bags and bags of leaves and get a few bales of straw. DONE except for the straw.
41. Begin planning 2 more raised beds for raspberries and rhubarb. Wonder if I can sucker husband into making two more beds? He likes raspberries.... Vetoed by He Who Has To Do The Building
42. Determine that only crazy people garden like this. DONE
43. Lounge in hammock and drink lemonade. DONE
44. Wait three years for new garden to mature. Tic, tic, tic!
45. Begin making 2011 garden chore list. In progress!

Wow! Except for where I was thwarted by Himself and the gardening center, I nailed it this year! Woo!

I think I've turned over a new leaf. How's by you this fall?