Gardening limbo

I seem to be in garden limbo. Nothing is growing right now. Nothing really needs to be done. Autumn, true autumn has yet to visit me. What do I do?

The River Birch is still green

I just had 5 days off and it rained for 4.5 of it. The fifth day brought a brief respite from the soggy conditions. I awoke to beautiful clear bright blue skies and temps in the low 70s. I thought, Yes! I can get out there and cut the grass I was all ready to do that but my wife reminded me that the yard was still waterlogged and she was right, of course. The grass never really dried out so I was left to do some weeding. And then the clouds rolled in again and it even sprinkled in the evening. Sigh. What to do.

So I took off some wire from my bonsai, only to find that I had waited too long and it cut into the bark. This will heal, in time, but the scars might never fully grow out. The warmer, sunny weather brought out, to my dismay, the dreaded European Hornets again, seeing them in the top of one of my birch trees, I set out to set them straight. Their last ditch effort to get supplies for their nest is now their last. Until next summer, of course.

The crabapple is loaded this year

We have had a very dry September here. September rains are what usually determine how colorful a fall we will have. Here it is, the middle of October and the colors are muted and very few trees are showing signs that it even autumn. Those that are just showing some brown leaves, and not the color as I have seen in the last couple of years. We have not had a frost yet, and that might have something to do with it. The coolest it has been is the mid 40s for a couple of mornings, but that is about it.

Next on the list will be lowering the mower deck, mulching some leaves, cutting spent flower stalks and mulching the bulb beds extra thick this year. It is supposed to be a cold one.

The days are getting shorter and the shadows longer