Sunday 21 October 2018

Is it Early?

I spent a couple of hours earlier today cutting back more perennials. I had a moment where I thought, "How many times have I cut back these peonies? " We've been at the house for nineteen years and the peonies were already here (many of them, I've divided and added as well) so I guess I've bent over those plants and cut them back nineteen times. It's such a ritual, cleaning up the flower beds. Sometimes I get it all done, sometimes I don't. I've only been out for two sessions so far this Fall, but today's weather makes me think this might be one of the years I don't get it all done.

I don't know about you, but I am shamefully bad at taking care of my gardening tools. Really, very bad in that I put shovels away with soil on them (sometimes they stay stuck in the ground in the vegetable garden!), I don't oil or sharpen things, I try to pry enormous rocks up using shovels that are too small and have snapped a couple of handles, I bend the tips of trowels, and I regularly blow the thumbs out of gardening gloves if they aren't leather. As I was cutting various plants back I was complaining in my head of how terrible my pruners were (I have two on the go and alternate between the one that I have to push open with my finger, or the one that is ridiculously dull) and when husband came out of the house saying he had to go into town, I asked him to check for a set of pruners that looked GOOD, regardless of cost. He came home with these. I don't know how much they were.


I had filled and dumped about six wheel barrow loads and my lower back was screaming at me, so I had come in to take a break and get a bite to eat. I was then all excited about going out to test drive the new model when I looked out the window.


Can you tell what I'm seeing? Yes, snow. No, it's not a blizzard, but I decided that sitting on the couch under a blanket and writing a post was a better choice.

We've already had snow, significant snow, this past week. It stayed for a day or so and required scraping and winter coats and the scrambling of making appointments to get snow tires put on rims and seeing when local garages could fit you in...

It feels early to me. I know we've had Hallowe'ens where it snowed but we've certainly had many more Hallowe'ens where there was no snow at all, the leaves were still swirling around, and it was even "mild" in an end of October sense. Sigh. I wonder what it is like to live in a climate that doesn't experience this same first wave of bracing oneself for the months to come. The nice thing is that the first snowfalls are still the ultimate excitement for young children as they stamp out little paths with their boots and try to make some sort of snowman regardless of whether it is packing snow or not. Maybe I need to build more snowmen.

35 comments:

  1. I still get excited when I see snow …
    The grandchildren love it to.

    Here in the UK we have enjoyed sunshine and blue skies the weather has been so lovely … plenty of time for cooler days though!

    All the best Jan

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  2. Oh dear. I think the first flake of snow should single an automatic end to all gardening.
    And my bad gardening habit is to lay a tool down as I turn to do something else, and then forget it's there. Can't begin to tell you how many pruners the people who bought our house will probably find!

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  3. Jenn, Can't tell you how many trowels I have bent the ends on. I do have a wonderful pair of pruners that I have had for years. I clean them and oil them. Oh snow, no I am not ready for any of that. But yesterday we had a bit of everything. I long for a normal fall season with 65 degree days. Blessings, stay under that warm blanket. xoxo, Susie

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  4. It seems like only a few months since the last snow - it is only a few months.

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    Replies
    1. We are due to get a bit of snow in the North at the end of the week I hear today.

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  5. Guilty as charged. Occasionally get left outside too. Ahhh well. I do my best.

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  6. Snow is forecast on the high ground where I live in North Yorkshire by the week end. Oh dear, is it going to be that kind of winter? I do hope not.

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  7. I could have sworn I saw a few flurries today. I'm sure that's what they were but I prefer to be in denial :) It just seems too early.

    I am just as bad with garden tools! My husband has to remind me every now and again to take better care of them. He is so good at it. Not only do I not treat them properly, I've also on occasion forgotten where I've placed them. One year I lost a pair of garden scissors in one of the flower beds. I probably buried them :)

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  8. We've had a terrible fall. (Feel sorry for me?) It's been cold and wet, wet, wet. Has made it hard to get out and accomplish those last of the summer chores. We woke one morning last week to snow on any bare ground and the graveled areas but none on the grass. It took better than 24 hours to melt. I'm so ready for winter to begin so I have good reason to declare all things gardening are over for the year! (And, yes, my gardening tools are dirty and my pruners haven't been oiled in ever so long. Guilt, guilt, guilt!)

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  9. Pruners and trowels tend to end up in the bins that go to the curb at my house. Not many berries on my Mountain Ash (Rowan) tree which is supposed to mean a mild winter. We shall see!

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  10. Well I wasn't expecting that photo! The only weather-bracing around these parts is where life can be made terrible by extreme heat that leads to drought and/or fire. Here in the city we're mostly insulated from that. When I had my garden I was not the poster child for pristine gardening accoutrements but I don't think I ever wilfully left a shovel in the ground!

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  11. It's WAY too ealy for snow and hey, we haven't even had any decent fall colour yet and the leaves are falling like crazy.

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  12. I have that exact type of pruner, its the gear type that 'rotate' in the hand. Took a bit of getting used to, but I can't use ordinary ones now, they are great :)

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    Replies
    1. Yes, that's the kind these are. I'm curious to see how well they work.

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  13. Time to do snow tires if you haven't already! Fiskars are good tools, I have a large pruner one.

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  14. I think I'll quote Jon Snow ... winter is coming ... far too early in my opinion. I try to look after my garden shears as they are SO expensive & I guard against Mr Man using because he'll put down & forget where they are. I must admit to planning or unplanning around weather, especially snow, snow tires or not I'm not comfortable with some of the other drivers out there ... yes winter is coming & I resolve to make better friends with it this year, so maybe making snowmen is the answer! ... Mary-Lou =^..^=

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    1. Why is it that drivers forget how to drive in the snow year after year? Stop braking so hard!!! Slow down! Leave some space between you and the person ahead of you, and for god's sake, clear your windshield off! There... got that out of my system.

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    2. Oh Jenn I hear your pain on those ones & as Canadians in southern Ontario, we drive more in winter than summer! I think that many drivers assume because they have snow tires they can just race about. The uncleared windshield is a particular annoyance to me

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  15. We seem to have inherited some peonies here. They are currently clumps of dead foliage but I'm very excited about what will happen in the spring.

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  16. At least it looks like a lite fall of snow. Hope you get to test drive your new tool very soon

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  17. Fiskars are a really good brand. I use their scissors for my fabric crafts.

    I love snow but I'm not quite ready for it just yet.
    Hugs-x-

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  18. I don't do a heck of a lot of garden tool cleanup either - things basically just go back in the shed, if they're lucky, lol.

    We finally have FALL here in New England after a very hot and humid and WET summer. - It feels so darn good.

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  19. I haven't quite finished my garden either. The shrubbery got clipped and moved where necessary. I gave a lot of them away in fact. Still have spring bulbs to get in and the last of the potatoes dug. Do you clip back Hosta? Seems to be inconsistent opinion on that. We have a car to tarp and a boat to put away and snow tires to put on. Fortunately M. has put our snows all on rims so he just has to flip them. With three cars here plus his auntie that is a day long job.

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    1. No, I don't bother with hostas. They don't have a stiff stem and tend to shrivel up on their own, so I just leave them alone. I don't have a ton of hostas. If I had whole beds full of them, it might be different. Snow tires are happening with our various vehicles this week.

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  20. You sound like you were watching me trying to garden with my filthy, squeeky, broken tools....that is after I find them sticking in the dirt where I left them! haha . When you are so tired that you can't move, it is torturous to go get and clean and oil the tools, is it not?

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  21. Here there are no serious seasons. Summer goes to a brief flirtation with autumn, and I mean brief. Then there is a stop gap of winter, with a nod to spring. And then we have a lengthy summer. Hot to hot.

    But I grew up in Illinois where we had it all. Mom called peonies "pineys". they bloomed just about Memorial Day. She loved her plants and had a magic touch. Patio Postcards had John Snow right. For Illinois.

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  22. One year I really took my time and sharpened and oiled all of my tools. It was amazing the difference it made. Still it only happened one year out of 24. Hope it warms up.

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    1. One in twenty-four. That sounds pretty close to my ratio!

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  23. Snowflakes are a good enough reason to stop outdoor chores, curl up and relax. No snow yet here in Nashua, NH, and as nuch as I like snow, still hope it holds off for a while longer. Fall is my favorite season and I hope to enjoy it longer. And, I was not very good at taking good care of my garden tools either. Thankfully we no longer need any living in an apt.

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  24. He did good. I don't think I have ever had anything that Fiskar made that wasn't well done.

    Snow nice would love a bit. But we are taking the long way around to get to winter this year. I would be delighted just to get enough rain to keep the dust down and help the native grasses come up enough to supplement my hay to feed the goat crew.

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  25. We had a dusting last week also! I'm the same as you - my tools get put away at the end of the season with dirt on them, my gloves are always falling apart, my flower pots get put away with dirt on/in them....I'm exhausted by the end of gardening season and more than ready to put the garden to bed! I don't know if I will get my garden cut back this year....sometimes I do, sometimes I don't....it is what it is.

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  26. Wow, snow! That's early, to me, in the upper NE. But to each area, its own seasons.

    We have now had freezes and flower pots finally quit blooming. But it's a nasty, rainy day, so no removal of them today. -sigh- Oh well, they will be there, when the sun comes out again.

    ✨✨✨✨✨✨

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  27. I'm shamefully bad at caring for garden tools too. Please don't say snow. I am SO not ready...

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  28. Yes it was too early!
    But we have ready to face it.

    Thanks for the post with pictures.
    Regards,
    End of lease House cleaning

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