The Vacation That Wasn't

This was supposed to be the week that I was off from work specifically to get all of the plants and bulbs I had ordered into the ground. I had big plans to enlarge beds, rearrange other beds and maybe even start a new bed. Fate seems to be conspiring against me. First there was the endless rain. Then I fell down the basement steps. Thank you everyone for all of your sympathy. I have to admit that gardening has kept me in pretty good shape because I didn't seem to have any secondary injuries or muscle sprains. I just limped a lot for a couple of days. There was no way that I could get much gardening done.

I did manage to get a good start on my ambitious program on Monday before I went to the endodontist. That's my new word. En-do-don-tist. As in root canal. It wasn't that bad. The worst part was the needle. Once I was numb I was fine. My tooth, however, wasn't. It was badly infected (did he HAVE to tell me pus was coming out of the tooth when he drilled???) and badly cracked. So badly that he didn't want to risk a second appointment and did the whole operation in one sitting. I was no good for anything the following day. I'm finally back on my feet today. And digging and planting like mad.

But I don't think I will finish everything I wanted to do. For one thing, bad things always happen in threes so I am waiting for the final catastrophe. And the other more important reason is a lack of leaves. The leaves really haven't started to fall in great numbers yet. I have hungry squirrels and now a rabbit who love to dig up and eat my bulbs after I plant them. I have learned to fool them by covering my newly planted bulbs with leaves. They mask the smell of the freshly dug earth which is what attracts squirrels and I presume the rabbit also. I had hoped that the high winds after the torrential rains would blow down lots of leaves. All I got was lots of sticks. So most of the plants are planted but the bulbs will have to wait.

While we are waiting, here are some final pictures of my gardens for this year:

The cosmos are still blooming like mad. These are the Picotee cosmos. Some of them are quite unusual:

Speaking of cosmos, remember the Bright Lights cosmos that got fertilized and grew so tall ? It's still going strong. Remember, it is only supposed to get 2' to 3' (61 cm to 91 cm) tall and the fence is 4' (122 cm) tall.

Unbelievably, they are now budded. Also in the unbelievable category are some asters that burst into bloom after all the rest had finished:

Finally, a hardy mum that is truly hardy. It comes back every year to brighten the front of my house with its cheery yellow flowers: