Up before the sun this morning. (Yeah, I know, mark the calendar.) Had to wait and wait to see the rays coming over the hill.  Skeeters are still out in hoards this time of day and eating me alive. Yet another good reason to sleep through early mornings.

Oh well- adulting. 

Fall is coming quickly this year and I am betting it will be short lived. This past week I have been amazed at the rate at which the leaves have been dropping from the trees around my place. I'm seeing a lot of yellow and gold speckling the woods and roadsides everywhere. 

Winter will be here early and I suspect it will be a nasty one. The squirrels have been leaving empty nut shells and acorn tops on my deck for weeks. I'm planning on lots of frigid temps and piles of snow. That means I'm already inventorying sweaters and firewood and already know I don't have enough of either. 

I slept through the storms last night but by the looks of the kiddie pool I catch water in on the deck, it appears I have plenty to water with the next couple of days. My plants soaked up the obvious downpours like sponges after a week of nothing but blazing hot sun beating them to death on this open deck.

I am still kicking myself for cutting down that small tree that provided so much shade. If it hadn't warped my deck rails I'd have probably left it but it had bowed just about as much as it was going to give. I should have just cut a big ole notch in the tree and let it go. Note to self, "try that notching thing next time as it (the tree) is already growing back". 

I looked around the deck and realized that in just a few short weeks I may find myself in a mess. 

The way I figure I have about three weeks to get my houseplants off the deck and into the house. If I wasn't already overloaded on plants before my friend suddenly moved to Florida and left me all of hers, I am now.  I have been selectively passing some along to friends. No one needs five blooming spiders plants!

This rubber tree is going to be especially difficult. It stretches more than four foot wide. It needs pruned and re-potted before it goes indoors. Otherwise, I am just not sure where it will live for 6 months. Once I prune it I can pot those cuttings for new plants (like I need that) and the smaller, new leaves inside of that mess will bloom up and out like mad. 

I never thought I would see the morning glories this year but alas they finally went nuts a couple of weeks ago. I planted them in April so I guess that's about right but man, what a wait. I've had a cascade of blooms every day since they started. Thank goodness they don't come in the house because they have gone crazy creeping everywhere. 
 

They took right over my mama spider plant and climbed right into my overhang. 

They crept over to the far side of the deck and bloomed all down the outside of the rails. I just love them. The hummingbirds seem fond of them too. :-) I am throwing out a couple packs of seeds along one whole side of the deck early next spring and hope for the best. The birds and butterflies will be pretty happy about that, I'm sure.

So many leaves opened overnight. Rain is amazing stuff. Elixir from the heavens. This is one of my rubber tree starts from early this spring. The first one I have ever been able to get to take off and actually live. Not sure what I did that's any different that I have done in the past but whatever it was, it worked. 
 

Here's another start from a different variety. It's doing well also and the rain has opened the leaves so nicely. 
 

Sun bleached leaves of my ivy have all but disappeared and new leaves are greening up nicely. Loss of shade from the tree I took down nearly burned this beauty up. I still don't know what I was thinking. 

I have this whole bed in front of my deck to dig up and set up to grow veggies in next year. It's been a faithful herb bed for more than a decade but now it's time for a change. I miss having my own homegrown produce and will have to build soil to grow anything on this hill. Starting with a small 4x14 raised bed will be a good start I think.

I'll have to have dirt hauled in. Nothing grows in the base soil of my yard except for that crazy carpet grass and a little Sedum (Frog's Belly). It's all clay and rock and red as the hair on my head.  I gave the DNR a sample of my soil when I moved here and asked what I should add to my yard for better growing and the answer was dirt. No kidding. No dirt here on this hill. 

So during a discussion about this new bed with my pal, Lisa, she mentions that I have red bud trees. I was like, "Where?"

She says, "Right in front of you in that bed you are going to dig up and redo."

Okay! So apparently the following is a red bud tree. I can't believe how many of these I have cut down over the years not knowing what they were Ooops. If that isn't crazy enough she points out another red bud tree in the back of my driveway. It's about 16' tall. I have to say, the leaves look like one and there are pods on it but I swear I have never seen it bloom. 

Another shot of my Swedish Ivy. I started this last year from a plug. This spring I gave away more than a dozen 4"pots of it to friends and family. 

One of too many spider plants. Seriously, I think I think I have five of them and they all all root bound and all full of babies. 

I just started this Schefflera. I already had two larger ones and they needed to come down is size a bit. Both are in 5 gallon pots. One is 3' wide, at least. Pruning them encourages new growth and will make the mama plant bushier. When I put her out next spring, she'll go nuts and need pruning again sometime over the summer and probably again next fall. 

 

If I drag all these green lovelies in the house and have to care for them all winter there is going to be a really big plant sale at my house next spring.