We finally had two nice days in a row this week which gave us a chance to finish cleaning the gardens for the season. The only thing we left alone was all the border Zinnias at the front of the house. They are still doing so well, and the bumble bees are still enjoying them.
One thing I love about these Zinnia's is that I never have to purchase mums for fall color. They really put on a grand show for autumn.
All the plants were trimmed and the annuals pulled out of the butterfly garden previously. All that was needed was to put down some buckets of manure then started trimming back the Limelight Hydrangea.
I gave it a very hard cut back as it was getting too tall for me to reach the top stems. I had to use a stepstool to reach a lot of them. I may not have as many flowers next year, but it certainly needed to be done.
The Hosta and ferns around the porch were cut back earlier in the week before the porch could be enclosed. Then the small tower garden with the Parsley got emptied and moved to the greenhouse.
The following day my husband and I got everything out to enclose the back porch with plastic for the winter months. We do this every year to prevent the snow from building up on the porch and it offers a windbreak from the strong North wind that comes off the Lake Ontario.
We started with the peak and then the west side of the porch and it was time for a break for lunch.
In the afternoon, the North and East sides were put on. It is sad to see the porch enclosed because you all know how much Mika and I love spending time together every day out there.
Well, at least we will have a few more days to enjoy before it gets too cold to sit out for long periods.
Mika taking a nap on the stool; after all it was a lot of hard work getting all the sides enclosed.
