Hiatus or Hiati?

Whichever is the plural form of a blog free seasonal affective disorder. Last I knew it was November and I hurriedly did this...

to some canna lilies and elephant ears.

Then a little bit of this happened...



and a lot of this...



I've got a few seeds outside stratifying, and the rest will be tended to indoors in a few weeks if everything goes as planned. Part of the plan includes a few seeds from J.L. Hudson, Seedsman whose site, www.jlhudsonseeds.net/ really should be seen.
Manifestos aside, I'm looking forward to some prehistoric-like castor oil plant seeds. Even though I know they won't be, I'm expecting something very sci-fi or at least comically large.

field trip #2

As promised, another post! Wow, two in one weekend.
I seem to have saved up all these posts in my head and now it's time to give the imaginary blog a rest.
A few weeks ago I played hooky and visited the Chicago Cultural Center. There's a great installation of crocheted corals arranged to resemble a brilliantly colored reef. Apart from just looking really cool, this project was begun to raise the ol' awareness level of the sad state of our coral reefs as well as physically representing a non-Euclidean approach to geometry called 'the hyperbolic plane'.
This was all explained to me during a hands-on workshop where some lovely people helped me crochet my own piece of acrylic coral.
It was so well explained it actually made sense for a few minutes.
It no longer does.
But, if interested, this link will explain all...

www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/Events/coralreef2/

Hopefully, these pictures help as well

two months?

Yes, two months. Nothing like a blog to let you know the last time you wrote. Here is a brief list of the things I've done:

-went to a 25 year grade school reunion (?!)
-finally potted the few remaining cheap perennials I picked up at the big box
-checked on the wayward tomato plant growing in the alley next to our garage. It's a testament to the very warm fall we've had and it's still hanging in there with its little yellow blossoms. If I get tomatoes in December I'm voting for Al Gore.
-planned and planned and planned for next year...but didn't do a whole lot.

One thing I did do was visit Waters Elementary School back in October. It's your classic CPS neighborhood school with a decidedly green mission. They have many programs to introduce kids and the community to an environmentally aware lifestyle, but I found their huge organic garden on site so impressive.
Here, look:


See? And these don't really give you a good sense of the scale of this.
I have a few other field trips to report on, including the inspiring soil workshop I went to today, but that will have to wait. Just hopefully not two months.

a bit tired...

It's amazing how quickly the garden gets tired, or I get tired of the garden. Either way, I'm not interested in what's happening much now. My plans are for the future.
The Karl Foerster is nice, and the goldenrod just keeps going. I'm not enjoying them so much as plotting their future. The main plan is to get rid of most weedy participants. I love Joe Pye weed, but there are three large plots of them close to a fairly busy street and I'm not sure what is contributing to their legginess more, the exhaust or the exhaust. One needs to go.
I pulled out some asters and a few phlox last week and I'm still feeling guilty.
I must muster the courage for a big coneflower push, and drastically reduce their numbers. But when I see all those Golden Finches, (that never seem ready to be photographed when I am), visiting their blackened seedheads, my inner hippy rebels.
Decisions, decisions...
In the meantime, while delaying actual physical labor, a harbinger of fall...

some pig

some pig indeed, Charlotte. I wish I could come up with some kind of viable excuse as to why I haven't touched the garden in two weeks, like maybe because I'm frightened of all the killer spiders lurking in the dead zones, but I can't. Suffice to say I'm back at work and slowly accepting that summer is on its way out.
In case I was really resisting, there are funnel webs (like the one above), and orb webs nearly everywhere.
This funnel web (or grass) spider is in a prime location. He/She has taken up residence in a corner near the composter and mosquito epicenter. There is no lack of protein here.
I really don't want to disturb this compound, but those coneflowers aren't going to relocate themselves, and fall is their slated moving/decomposition date.
Fall has been slated for many a garden project, so many I am often overcome with a type of paralysis while pondering which to do first.
I will make a list. Not on post-its.
First, plant all these discounted perennials while trying to remember what the grand scheme was.
Note the Hakone 'Aureola'. $3 at the big box! The tall, purplish one is a variety of Joe Pye weed and may have white blooms. Hmmm...