Final Fall Planting
Saturday, November 3, 2012 at 5:00AM We recently removed what we fondly called the cancer tree, resulting in a large clearing. A void can't last long in my garden, so yesterday I planted the new space. Where there once was one massive plant, spreading into a foreboding thicket, there is now a Full Moon Japanese maple, a prostrate blue cedar, three coralberries, three deciduous hollies, and a mock orange. I will take photos and show the new area in a future post.
It was a lot of work, but I hardly broke a sweat, as I had both my husband and my oldest son helping me. I pointed, and they dug the holes. They transplanted shrubs from their previous locations to new ones. They carried new plants and lifted them from their pots and placed them in the holes. They shoveled dirt and hauled water. I rather liked my supervisory position, which I shared with Autumn the cat. 
The weather was warm and sunny, and it felt like a day in May, rather than November. Nights are chilly, though, and we have had a few days with a pre-winter feel to them. Walking through the garden I still see summer flowers, as well as fall foliage and other signs of the season.
Here are some of the flowers blooming this week:
Zinnias and other flowers are blooming in the wildflower garden, but here one also sees dried seed heads. The red leafed vine is Virginia Creeper, a native that is often mistaken for poison oak but is easily distinguished by its five leaves, rather than poison oak's three:
There may be flowers and butterflies still around, but the colors of fall definitely are dominant in the garden now. We have been raking a lot of leaves!
I think this was my final fall planting job. No more work for me till spring! Haha! Who will believe that joke? After all, I am sure Autumn and I will have some more supervising to do!
Reader Comments (17)
Autumn looks well content with her new home.
What a lovely way to be busy. Your autumn foliage is so beautiful, I especially like the images around the 'seat' including the 'beauty berries', such a fabulous colour. Christina
Beautiful. I love this time of year when both the summer blooms are still going, and the autumn colors are starting to show. Penelope is gorgeous! Supervisory work is rare - enjoy it! I thought only cats were allowed to do it!
Your new area will look great with the shrub additions, and having a work crew makes it all the more pleasant of a landscaping job. Do you have taps and hoses going out to all of your gardening areas, or are they left to fend for themselves?
The arbour over your bench is a nice woodsy structure, blending beautifully with the surrounding trees.
Hi Debs,
Lovely photos and I look forward to seeing photos of the new area later :)
Gorgeous cat too, and I'm very jealous of your late warm weather; no such luck here... Oh well.
Still need to get the last of the bulbs planted here, but it's too damp so I don't think it'll be done. I'm considering planting them in pots and then when spring arrives planting them 'in the green' in stead.
I can't believe how much you still have in bloom! I have to agree, having a digging crew handy while planting makes the job go much MUCH faster! I just stocked up on a host of native plants for fall planting, so I see a lot of hole-digging in my future too!
Gorgeous selection of photos as always Debs! And yay for new plantings! Looking forward to seeing how it looks like in the following months :)
all done here too....of all the flowers in the garden I love Autumn the best...those eyes are fabulous!
I swoon for your beautyberry. I have got to plant one of those in the garden here. How do you like your coralberry? I have the related snowberry and have mixed feelings about it.
So many beautiful blooms (and colorful foliage) in your garden! I can't believe you have so many Roses still blooming. It looks like Autumn is very much at home in her new surroundings. She sure is a pretty cat!
Beautiful garden and cat!
Debbie your cat is very pretty and I love the name you choose! The cancer tree looked very similar to a viburnum lucidum that I got rid of too on my previous garden for the same reasons as you. Apparently it left a huge gap or your guys were very good in fitting all those plants in there! Looking forward to see the results.
I love the picture composition you made with zinnias and allium seed pods and the Virginian vine.
hope you got a good rest after all that tiriing but very successful supervision. Photos to die for, especially the large one of the tree with golden leaves.
Autumn was smart to adopt you! Your garden looks beautiful! I love all the vibrant foliage. Have you thought of just mowing the leaves instead of raking them? It's much easier.
Hey, Deborah. Talk about the good life: late-blooming beauty, lots of help planting – and a cat doing what cats do best: supervising. You're done till spring? Yeah, right.
I love the rustic retreat in the woodland. Beautiful photos.
There is a gray cat here that wants to adopt us, but with two foundlings already, three is over the city limit. Love you fall color. Everything is soft, pretty and very inviting.