colder today

Once again I did a little work outside, even as it was starting to drizzle. Walked up the slope on one side of the house to cut back mess of old salvia stems under a shrub, and deadhead last years' autumn joy sedums. New growth is thick around their base. Also trimmed the small rue plant in that bed. On the other side of the yard I pulled off all the flopped over leaves of gladiolas, and cut out diseased/dead leaves and stems on the lamb's ears. It was messy. Most of that went into a bag to put on the curb- my compost heap bin is overflowing and hasn't been turned/emptied yet. I raked up a small part of the first sideyard (leaves scattered from my mulch out onto the lawn) and put the litter back over the blue hosta spot where wind had swept it bare. And that's all I could do. Out of breath and tired. 

 Here's another picture from the year before: rue seedlings! The few cuttings I had taken and put in pots all died, likewise some I had just stuck in the ground by the milkweeds. I think I'll just have to let seedlings that come up on their own, grow a year before I move them.

That seems to be working better with the hellebores. Once before I had transplanted two-year-old seedlings- and a single one survived. It's blooming now, and looks so nice I tried again. Year before last I had cleared clumps of seedlings out of the bed in the backyard, leaving just a dozen of the larger ones to grow up. Just last week dug a few of those (crowded with more tiny new seedlings again) and moved them to the front bed in that same row under the boxwood. They're twice the size of my first attempt, and have had a week of cooler weather and rain now to settle in.

Here's some others that are- three years old now I think? and have not yet bloomed for me. Ones I got from another gardener, planted in a different area of the yard where the ferns and hostas get eaten by the deer. I'm not sure why they're still smaller. Too much shade? or maybe I didn't feed them enough compost to boost growth.