The beginning of the end.... (Part I)

...of the growing season, that is.  Supposed to dip into mid-30s tonight with frost.  But if things can survive tonight, then there is warmer temps for the next week.  So I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the far flung flowers and covering up those close to the house (dahlias, mums).

As for those that have already succumbed from the heavy downpours this week (3" total) and high winds (steady 25 mph with gusts over 50), it's time to say so long.

My compost bins won't handle all this stuff, so I had to resort to something a little bigger than my hatchback to take the excess to the county compost site.

Ah, that's the ticket.

First thing in - that sorry roselle shrub.  Even in the garage, it didn't like the below 45F temps, so there was no way was it going to bloom.  The growing season here in NE Ohio just won't allow the plant to mature.  Darn.

The winds pretty much mowed down the 2 driveway zin beds, so they got cleaned up first.  The zins were yanked and then I came back and pulled up all the weeds and ground ivy.  (The weeds and ivy I'll use in my compost - I use the greens to cover my winter kitchen scraps.)  Both zin beds are ready for leaves.

I figured the veg bed would be another 1st day project.  I pulled all the pepper plants.

That leaves only 3 kinds of kale, the rhubarb, and several perennial flowers back there.  Obviously I'll have to do some weeding before I lay on the leaves.

After several hours, it was time to call it quits.  The roselle has lots of company now.

About the last thing I did was cut what little parsley there was in the 2 pots by the glider (flat leaf parsley doesn't do well in pots), and a generous bunch of rosemary.  The parsley would take a frost, even a freeze, but the rosemary is much too tender.  So I'll freeze the parsley and dry the rosemary.  I'll also sprout new plants for next year since rooting them in water worked so well last year.

And I want to leave you with this pic:

Here's the very last 2 blooms on the H.F.Young clematis.  This was the first planting project this year and what a terrific result, with almost non-stop flowers all season.  What a show!