Other 2026 Garden Endings

 There was a hard freeze at least once while I was in Kentucky. The gardening season is really over unless I manage to do a little weeding in the rock garden.

However, here are a few final bright spots. This is the 'Forbidden Fruit' hosta. I love how yellow it got.

I was really shocked to discover there is a 'Firefly' Heuchera still blooming!

And, not in any flower bed... one self-seeded marigold insisted on blooming. But in general, the marigolds just aren't working for me.

I'll close with a sort of report on the Moon Garden. I had hoped to bring in some of the annuals to propogate them. Well... the deer pulled the frosted Gazania right out of the ground and ate them. I put the new hosta and the dogwood in prison before I went hiking. They kicked off the fencing and chewed the dogwood, but I think it will be OK.

I didn't manage to get any of the white petunias in the house to root and propogate for next year. Not in the moon garden this year, but I was hopeful they might be next year.

However, the dusty miller were not dead. So I have split them, and we'll see how they do in the house over the winter.

Today was busy. I managed to edit a bit. Then I spent the afternoon doing errands, one of which was to choose a new Medicare plan. What a hassle! But I think I've done it. Then I had a Zoom meeting and a flurry of communication after that.

See It's All I've Got

Other Turtles from Kentucky

I've been working at getting the photos from the Sheltowee Trace Trail labeled. So many of them are just big rocks, that I need to do this soon before I forget why I took some of the pictures.

But I'm only up to day three so far, and I showed you one of the turtles that the city of Morehead, Kentucky, has adopted as the symbol of their city. But there were a lot of them. And I certainly didn't get pictures of them all. Here are the pictures I did take.

This one may be my favorite, although they all have very interesting decorating. This was in front of the library. I love the books painted on the shell, and the duck hitching a ride and reading is awesome.

I don't think there is a particular name for the painted animals that a city adopts. They are a kind of folk art or street art. Sometimes they are called public art trails. For example, Rochester NY has horses. I have pictures of painted moose from somewhere, but I don't recall where.

This one is more natural looking, but in nice colors.

I also really liked this one. It's not supposed to be a skeleton, just a black and white paint scheme.

Here's another very detailed one, with a garden scene on the shell.

Sometimes simple is very effective. Just red and pink.

The last one we saw was quite a ways out of town at the Cumberland Ranger Station.

I enjoyed seeing these a lot, but only put one in the blog post about the hiking day, so I decided to share them now.

I got my butt in gear and worked on several things today. Put away some more of the garden things.

See Sheltowee Day 3

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See True Blue Gumby II

Halloween Decor from the ADT

 You know I'm not a big fan of Halloween.

But there were a few fun things from the American Discovery Trail hike that I pictured and saved for today.

I like this the best. These are huge black Elephant Ears, probably in the Colocasia genus. I really liked how dark these are.

They were part of the outdoor displays at the Krohn Conservatory in Cincinnati. They were not open when I walked by (first thing in the morning), and I wasn't willing to drive downtown later to visit. But I can put it on my list of places I'd like to see another time.

To go with the black, they also had orange.

In this one the early-morning light added orange tones to the landscape. Even the traffic cone contributed.

On the second day of the ADT, this rat (I think... ears seem big for a mouse) was guarding a stone wall. I liked that it was sort of spooky but understated.

I didn't manage to do very much today. Sigh.

See Best I'm Gonna Do

Last Gasp? of the 2026 Rock Garden

 The rock garden is pretty weedy. It did not get weeded in September or October. And it's not looking good that I'll go through it yet this year. But there are a few final things to see.

This is just a color shot. The red in the middle is the Sedum Elecombeanum. It reliably looks great in all the seasons. Sembervivum 'Black' behind it, and just some moss phlox and a stray vine from the vinca in the front.

The Sedum 'Atlantis' continues to be one of my favorites. The larger patch still looks nice, and you can see the tiny red buds of next year's growth down near the ground.

Here's the old standby, Sedum 'Autumn Joy.' It still has a little color.

This one makes me really happy. I just hope it survives the winter. This is the variegated Sedum sieboldi that I got in August. Despite being new, it got one flower stalk. And the leaves seem to also turn red.

Finally, the Gaillardia 'Spintop Red' is still blooming! It will probably keep it up if I'd deadhead the old flowers. We've had a killing frost, but it's still hanging in there.

I'm working on putting garden things away. I'll keep the tools out for a while in case I do a little weeding.

And it might happen. I'm finally starting to have some extra energy, and not feeling so sore and unwilling to move much.

Spent most of the day working on things on the computer. And that casserole I made yesterday? Meh... it's OK, but definitely not worth the time and energy to make.

See Final Hurrah of the 2025 Rock Garden