If I want any hope of getting a good night's sleep, one not filled with waking to thoughts of what needs to be done and what isn't getting gone, then I simply have to bite the bullet. I cannot express how relieved and happy I was to have Tony dig up that one bed, small thought it was. It is bordered on the top with rock that is all a hodge podge with weeds growing in and under them. He totally cleaned them out. Far better than I could ever have done. I cannot spray them as they line the falls from the biowell to the pond and I would be so worried about it getting in the water and killing my fish.

I was really bummed when my 'supervisor' from the botanical garden came over to pick up a piece of carpet we had that he could use on his redecorating. I had pulled a bunch, pretty much all the flowering annuals so I could dig the soil and replant with perennials that I can mulch around. Most people at least make kind comments about how pretty it is. Usually pretty sincere. He never said a word other than it was obvious that I do 'one offs' a lot rather than swaths of one kind of plant. I don't have the room for that I I love to try different plants to see if they will thrive. So, yes, I have a bit of a hodge podge. I was surprised at how down I felt. I mean, he has a degree in horticulture, and while he would mention the botanical names of my myriad collection, there was no tone of approval. Guess I will never grow up. Still wanting approval from teachers/superiors (or perceived superiors). And my garden is so special to me and is so much ME. sign

Some people only see value in their own way of doing, and
simply can't think outside their own boxes.

I guess.

Mary -- I'm pretty sure I would have felt the same way; we need to keep repeating (as often as necessary, and if only in our own heads) that we are gardening to make ourselves happy!

Just found this thread. Two things...

Mary, you said something about not getting a good night's sleep, one not filled with waking to thoughts of what needs to be done. I never do any yard work in the Fall and I find there's never any problem with that. I am motivated in the Spring to do all the clean up, but never in the Fall. And since I started gardening (eight years ago) my yards are looking better and better each year, so I don't think they are suffering any from it. No worries!

About the comments regarding spraying... just a warning. I sprayed roundup on new raspberry shoots growing up around my lilac bush this spring. There was no wind and I was careful, but by lilac tree died as a result! The only thing I can think of is it probably rained the next day and maybe washed the poison into the soil and the lilac tree's roots picked it up. We've had a very wet year.

That's too bad Connie. Just the thing I would be afraid of. I won't risk my bushes and trees for any amount of weeds.

Leaving the cleanup for next spring is sort of problematic I think. I have a lot of checkweed and such and I would not want to give it and the root origin weeds a jump on me next spring. Plus I can tell the junk I need to dig out from my good plants now. I would be afraid of harming delicate new growth tromping around doing cleanup in the spring.

Sounds good and believe me I would prefer to just forget the entire mess but part of the clean up is to also rearrange the perennials where needed or wanted. Then they have the balance of this fall and next spring to build new roots.

Since you have lovelier and lovelier gardens each your you must be doing something right. Perhaps a different composition of plants and soil.?

I have to clean up this fall, I usually wait until spring, but because of my leg injury in June, I couldn't do much in the way of gardening all summer so everything is a bit wild out there, plants falling all over other plants because they didn't get staked and tied up, smothering the smaller plants, it's a real mess.

Know what you mean Margaret. I have grass patches and ground cover that has gone nuts. We finished enclosing the new joined beds today, finishing up just as the rain became more than a slight nuisance. I dug up an arc about 5' long and 12" wide where I had lilies planted. In front of them up to the rock border to keep out grass, the grass invaded anyway and mixed it up with my lamium ground cover. What a mess. I thought the grass had gone on through the lilies but it was stopped by the second round of edging I put in the bed, just was so long and draping it looked like it had grown on past. I think I will just dig up the whole mess and knock the dirt out and pitch grass roots and ground cover and all. Not worth the risk of reintroducing grass roots. I have plenty of sedum to plant there to replace the lamium. And the sedum is a little better behaved.

I am trying to plant bulbs so clean up is not getting done.
It was just 2 º C this morning, and I still need to collect geraniums and Lithodora plants.

Think the supervisor was pretty clueless.

Just wondering, how do you pronounce Calgary?

I went to college with Mel from Moose Jaw and he always said cal-gahr-ee, not cal-ga-ree.

I pronounced it with the emphasis on the first sylable. (where is auto correct when you need it)

Calgary... pronounced:. cal gar ree, with the emphasis on the first part, however, many of us say it almost more like: cal gree, skipping over the second A, when we're talking fast.

Yup. Us too. Sort of slur it together.

Snow in Calgary today!
Not ready for it and hope it goes quickly.
I still have bulbs to plant!

And I'm pretty sure we ALL know how to pronounce "snow" !

We're supposed to have a high of 55F and a low of 37F tomorrow... time to clean out my garden (and get the garlic planted)

Well it is forty degrees here right now and supposed to get down below freezing tonight and get all the way back up forty nine tomorrow.

Warms up this weekend and back to freezing again the middle of next week
.I think I will mow the lawn tomorrow.

On the bright side... that could be the last mowing, RpR ! (unless, like us, you mow to pick up the fallen leaves...)

Weedwhacker said:On the bright side... that could be the last mowing, RpR ! (unless, like us, you mow to pick up the fallen leaves...)

I rake them by hand and bag them so I can put them on the roses.
We have a Mulberry Tree and most years it actually drop near one hundred percent of is leave suddenly in one day and I mean drops, Those that fall on the pavers are a couple of inches deep some years.

Before the road work it was a fairly dead wind area but now that could be a different story. That could also make snow blowing miserable as part of the parking lot often has a strong North wind and I cannot blow two directions unless I want to eat a lot of snow.but then I often just point the spout straight up and send the snow over to the neighbors.

"I rake them by hand and bag them so I can put them on the roses."

Oh dear -- how primitive...

We mow and bag and put everything on the veggie garden.

Snow-blowing in the wind is not very fun.