FALL FAILURES

This year has been the absolute worst gardening year we have ever had.  If we weren't fighting bugs we were fighting diseases.  Our flowers even suffered, especially roses.  If any make it through to next year I will be surprised.  I had too much to do to give them the attention they needed.

The picture is our beans .

They are one of the successes this year.  I will say I have never had a batch of fall beans be bad or go bad.  The problem with late beans is you may not get any because an early frost may bite down hard.  These beans have had 5 frost mornings.  We have been covering them when It looks like it may be close to that temp.  We found a really great cover for them; Canvas paint cloths.  They were heavy enough a wind did not dislodge them but they weren't too heavy in that they would mash the plants.  Burlap sacking worked well too, but the holes in it did not keep the heat in so there were places on some leaves that got freezer burn. 

We have had wonderful surprises.  Dahlia bulbs which we had been going to throw out because they were so small, we planted.  They were planted in pots and were stunted because I didn't find a place for them till August.  they took off when their feet hit the soil and are blooming their heads off. This picture was taken a month ago.



I wish I had a current pix.  They are blooming ferociously.  They were not covered during the frost and did not seem to suffer.  I thought for sure the plants would be melted by the frost.

So much has happened this year that I should have written about and didn't. 

We did have wonderful garden visitors:

This garden spider was just one of our great visitors.

Thank you for visiting.  Now that things are slowing down I will have time to post the goings on in the garden.  Right now we are cleaning all the debri out of the tomato beds. We still have peppers performing. Till the next revealing trip to our garden. 

May your autmn be as beautiful as it is in St. Louis.