a new compost bin

Today I built a second compost bin out of scrap wood I had pulled up when repairing my deck.  The wood isn't in the best shape, but I'm assuming it'll decompose, and then I'll find more scrap in a few years.

chives anyone?

Clearing the leaves from my yard, I noticed I had some chives blooming! Also reblooming are a number of yarrow, May Night  sage, coreopsis and gaillardia.   Among the annuals, I still have petunias, nicotiana, verbena, and callibrachoa (spell?) still blooming.  Bizarre.

I mulched up a lot of my oak leaves and spread them around my butterfly bushes.  I'll probably do the same for some of my other shrubs and perennials, but I have to read up on which ones need protection.

Frost, finally

Is this the latest frost date on record?  Last night the cold finally killed off my cosmos.

Still no frost; garden clean-up

Still no hard frost here, which is bizarre.  Last night was the first close call, but my cosmos, snapdragons and nicotiana are still producing buds.  I now have a 7-foot cosmos blooming in the middle of my peach tree, which makes it look like the peach tree is blooming.  My mums are doing great, and I still have some Russian sage and black-eyed susans in bloom.  

Today was a clean-up day:  I sucked up two bags of leaves (mostly oak) in my electric leaf blower and composted them, one straight into the bin, the other I turned over into my raised bed to let it break down over time.  I also pulled all the leaves of my irises and day-lilies, and cut down my asters and (dis-)obedient plants, which I should have done sooner since they've gone to seed.