Digging It

With this lovely late September weather, we have been busy in the garden again. Really I should qualify that to say Tom has been busy in the garden, and I have helped a little.

In our front yard we had some old rhododendrons that were not contributing anything. 

 We also had these Japanese cedar balls, one of which had just up and died.

 So I got out the lopping shears  and my secateurs and chopped them down and cut them up and stuffed them into the yard waste bins.

 Meanwhile Tom was out in the back yard, building new trellises for the new raspberry and blackberry patch. Then he got all the whip like canes tied up. 

Since I cannot dig out root balls anymore, Tom then came to my rescue with his big iron pike and pried out the roots. 

 Charlie checked in and sat with me on the front steps to watch Tom work. We were keeping him company. 

 This was all done over a period of two days. Then on Thursday we went plant shopping. At Home Depot we found Skimmia bushes for a very reasonable price to replace the Japanese cedars. We found one hydrangea we were looking for at Vasseys Nursery, 30% off, and then we scored at Watson's, where we found all of the hydrangeas we were looking for, at 30% off.  These are the four varieties of Hydrangea arborescens we bought to go with the one Annabelle that was already in that location. We needed hydrangeas that do OK in the shade, and these will. 

Today Tom hauled a load of compost from our bins and then got everything planted.

 He got distracted by his lovely bed of autumn blooming hardy cyclamen. 

  The view from the front door. 

I did do some digging. I dug out a big clump of epimedium that had planted itself and was spreading. I added a heuchera we picked up cheap at Home Depot and a couple more that we had in our "nursery" that were from our yard that we had chopped off and re-rooted. 

Out in the greenhouse Tom has been tending his geranium cuttings.

And the tender plants have begun their migration from the patio to the greenhouse for the winter. 

I think that will be the last flourish for this month. October will find us busy both here and in the Whidbey garden.