Fall cleanup of sorts..

As many of you know, by some inscrutable quirk, my blog was chosen a couple of weeks ago to be the Blog of Note for Blogger; there's a new one each day, and I've looked at some interesting ones in the past by sampling the Blog of Note. Several people have said that Blogger hasn't paid a lot of attention to gardening blogs by times, and this got me wondering, because there are some really, REALLY terrific blogs out there, full of great information, photos, suggestions...and just plain fun.

AS many of us do, I'm a firm believer in blogging karma, and in posting links of interest, including great gardening blogs. I have a number of them listed here, and know of two other options for gardeners looking for interesting blogs about our passion for planting. One of them is The Garden Blog Directory developed and maintained by our good friend Stuart at Gardening Tips n Ideas, which helps gardeners to find a blog in their general locale, be it province or state, country, or continent.

And another one, which I just learned about today, is a neat widget designed by Amy of Playing in the Dirt. Pop over to her website, pick up the code, and send her a note to tell her you've got the code and want to be added to the blogroll.

Autumn is a time for cleanup indoors as well as out. You'd never know that by looking at our house, but I am tidying up my blog (and the rest of the computer while I'm at it!) In an effort to make bloomingwriter easier to load and navigate, I've made a few changes to layout, including simply posting the names of blogs or websites rather than long descriptions. If they're here, I like them and recommend them, as simple as that. Perhaps I'll get a chance to write more glowing accounts about them, and I do try to offer shout-outs when possible. But of course this blog is something I do in my spare time, and as a fulltime freelance writer, there isn't always a lot of free time. I like the participatory nature of blogging, but sometimes there isn't time to answer all the comments either. When that happens, please know that I read them all, and respond whenever possible.


The past couple weeks have been a whirlwind of work, weather and whimsy, and I've been as busy as that bee from earlier this summer. While I've said that the garden would get cleaned up "one bed at a time" and I'd be okay with that....there's still a lot to do and there are whispers of 'snow' in the forecast. But somehow, walking around the yard today with my noble assistant-cat Tigger, feeling the bite of a November wind, I could find no enthusiasm for digging in the frost-tipped soil. It was fun to see what was still flowering, and of course the question will be, "what will there be for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day in just a few short days?" Good question! I have an idea, but you'll have to wait until then to find out. Above is what the front looked like today--with yellow corydalis still putting up its delightful flowers...


But what a difference four months makes! This image was from 15 July; in some ways that seems like yesterday, in others, like so very long ago. I take a lot of photos in my quest to become better at it, and also to hold plenty of images for various articles and of course for here; this of course means I have to keep them all organized in some sort of fashion. For the time being I'm still using iPhoto for a few thousand of them, and they sort by 'rolls', or downloads; it's fun to go back through the months and see the progression of growth, bloom...and now, senescence and death for some, dormancy for others. And others keep blooming long after they are 'supposed' to have finished. The one annual osteospermum that is still in a container continues to flower: I did try to get bud, flowers, and spent bloom into one shot, but couldn't do it...and wouldn't stage it. What you see with our garden is what you get. T'ain't perfect, but it makes us happy.

WE'll get back to the discussion on gardening magazines and books vs websites in coming days, but in the meantime....how is YOUR garden cleanup coming along? And for those of you enjoying spring in the southern Hemisphere, how is spring coming along?