Most dreaded fall chore?

I love dahlias... But this time of year i start wondering HOW much i love them. LOL

Hard freeze predicted for Tuesday, so i'll be digging them anytime now.

That's the same for me tombaak. I've really been wondering if I'm going to grow as many next year.

This message was edited May 28, 2010 5:53 PM

It is supposed to be back up in the 80s this week. We had a nice short period of highs in the 60s and 70s and lows in the 40s and 50s, btu back tonormal in a couple of days. Probably won't get 'cold' here till December or january. Neener, neener, neener! I've got gingers and dahlias blooming as we speak!

Oh yes.....dahlias! Big, beautiful, dinner plate dahlias.....and gladiolus that complement them just perfectly. Every time I find myself with this fall chore I swear I'm going to give them all away and never plant them again. But of course each spring I still have them :-) They're so bold and cheerful - who can resist?

I'll go along with lifting the dahlias, the only part of growing them that I consider work.

I have a balcony garden, so my most dreaded chore is cleaning up all the pots that had annuals in them and getting them ready for bulbs. The perennials are easy to clean up. A close second, though I voted for cleaning up the beds, is having to watch my beautiful morning glories and coleus look awful after the first freeze. They die in stages. I finally got fed up with looking af half dead coleus the other day and dug them all up. DH asked where my beautiful plant went. LOL

Since it's my first fall after beginning gardening this year, trying to figure out what I need to to when and to what plants is keeping me busier than I expected!

The most dreaded fall chore..... would be readying the pond for winter.. brrrrrrrrr

Cleaning the garden beds, ugh. I'm still only halfway done. :(

I love all of those tasks. But so far haven't been able to do any of it except for bring in the outdoor plants. Either I am working or it's too windy to rake or it's raining (like today on my only day off this week). So maybe I just think I love all those tasks because I haven't done them yet and have forgotten what a chore it all is.

I don't do any cleaning of the beds till late winter, early spring. I don't rake leaves, I leave them where they fall. I have mostly native/indigenous plants, so nothing tender to dig up. I always put my tools away when I'm done with them. I don't take indoor plants out, don't want the pesticide use that usually accompanies that. Winterizing the equipment only means running the lawn mower out of gas. Next year, the plan is to kill off any turf grass and sow grasses indigenous to me. I LOVE fall! Fall is for carving pumpkins, decorating with broom corn and Indian corn. Taking walks and taking rides to look at the beauty nature gives me.

I put other because The biggest chore for me in fall is accepting fall to begin with. I'd have summer year round in my world.

Okay, I voted for digging up the tender stuff, but since I dislike it so much I just don't have anything that needs to be dug!

I voted for bringing in the house plants; my eyes are always larger than my growing space!
(The windows are so BARE when they go outside...Oh, look, space for some more plants!)

OMG, DH nearly dropped the phone Saturday when I brought in my blooming pregnant onion off the front porch (frost warnings two nights in a row that did not materialize). I thought it would be easier to bring it through the house to the back covered porch than to walk around through the gate. The flower stalk on that baby is over 3' long! Looked pretty funny I'm sure, as the pot it's in is hefty and I was struggling in the wind to close the door behind me and balance the pot with that silly stalk sticking out in front so far. I brought everything either inside or on the back deck this weekend, now watch, it's gonna get hot again I just know it.

The only truly tenders I have in my zone 8 garden is caladiums, and I'm wondering if I should bother or just replace them. I really don't have any suitable place to store them.

"if it grows it grows; if it dies it dies" is this lazy gardener's point of view. I voted other. If I'm tired of seeing it or it gets too big or it's not growing the way I thought it would, I cut it back or pull it up. Life is too short to agonize over every little thing and I try to pick my battles so I don't get hung up on something I can't do too much about. I have a brug that I would like to see bloom before I die but that's not even in the top 10 of my list of things to see or do. I like to buy the seeds and plants or get the seeds/plants/cuttings when I have a chance but I guess I am fickle when it comes to chores that in the long run aren't going to make a hill of difference.

Ann

Ugh, cleaning the beds from the leaves without losing all the mulch. Must be a better way to put the garden beds away for winter.

I tried Dahlias this year for the first time, over my DH's objections, and I was sure I would fall in love. Well, I didn't take good enough care of them to fall in love BUT guess who thinks they were a smashing success? You got it, my DH! So I guess we WILL be digging them up after all.

xxx, Carrie

Southeast, Texas, Zone 8b, Lower South
Lake Sam Rayburn

I grieve to know my potted plants will be deprived of God's nourishing sun, fresh air, and rain when brought inside house and greenhouse for January/February. They will go into shock for decreased humidity, indoor polution, and too much darkness.

I already feel "SAD" overtaking me. LOL

I have to go with Mz Weazelle. I didn't want to have to lift any tender perennials, so up until now I haven't grown any. But I can't stand it any more. My mother was a lover of dahlias and I have gotten hooked from the pics of all the beauties that have been posted here on DG. So, next year...dahlias!

I put 'other' because what I dread most is getting out of bed when the bed is warm and toasty and the house is c-c-c-cold. Household cleanup is also dreaded, but it must be done preceeding taking the houseplants in. I didn't choose 'bringing in houseplants', because even though I've got a heck of a lot of houseplants, bringing them in is kind of a communion after a long, sunny vacation. I love to see how they've grown and I especially love how they brighten up the indoors.

Edited to say: Oh yeah... I forgot about the Dahlias... oh dread. I still have to dig them up, LOL

sofie

This message was edited Oct 16, 2006 4:04 PM

I voted for "Bringing in all the indoor plants from the outdoors" because I literally have to bring them indoors to our living environment. The apartment starts to look like a greenhouse and the humidity jumps to about 65% all winter long. Granted it's a neat look inside, but it can make it feel kinda cramped with green house guests that stick around way way past Christmas time.

Phooey...around here I can rake 24/7/365. Leaves from last fall are now getting covered with leaves from this fall.

Having a tiny balcony garden, all tasks are welcome! ;-)

I don't care what time of year it is. All of the "chores" don't seem like chores. As long as I'm outside I'm happy! :-D

What's to dread, I love all these tasks. I like picking things up and putting them away. I don't like winter that much, but I like to prepare for it.

(I do hate picking up walnuts from 5 trees. Only 2 have nuts good enough to save, but then again, those are my stretching exercises.)

Putting away my hand tools. That means no more outdoor gardening for a season. :(

Forcing time! :)

My most dreaded chore is digging up, cleaning and storing the WAY too many EE's, and cannas I plant every year.

Keeping all the Pine needles and pine cones raked up is a close second! Ha.

Cleaning up the garden and all the perennial beds seems like a snap, to me, in comparison.

Finding a place indoors for my tropicals , however, is probably the most frustrating, and disheartening, as I have to cut many of them back by a third, or more, just so they'll fit!

Deanna

Terri is right, I voted other I have a birdbath / pond and I hate having to shut it down and winterize. It’s already looking bare as I’ve started removing plants.

Well, it is fall here, but for me that just means it is cool enough to get out in the garden and play. Springtime here is almost overwhelming; the flowers just explode with color and then it is difficult ot get much done before it gets too hot. Summer is impossible from the heat and then there is this beautiful fall weather. It is still very warm but not too bad for intense gardening. This is the time of year when you can work outside all day and never even notice the hours go by. The gingers are in full bloom and the scent is intoxicating. What a blessing this time of year is.

My second vote for most hated chore is bringing in the houseplants. Trying to find places to put them all and having to shove them into a corner in the living room and hiding them in the unused bedrooms.

Gram - you just want something to complain about now don't you.

I love it all it keeps me from just sitting around all day.
I don't know what i would do if i didn't have a ton of things to keep me busy.

I voted bringing in the plants. In the past, my motto was live, die, whatever. I tried to plant things that would survive and even if it did survive, once we get a warm sunshine day, well, if my plants didn't perk up then they were outta there. This year, I've gotten hooked on tropicals. Oh my, it is going to be a test if I can keep them happy and growing. Wish me luck. I've turned our storage room into my winter hot house, installed 4 lamps, ordered 2 heat mats, I'm ready!

Whatever I manage to get done before snow falls!!! Garden chores are never actually "finished"!! How do you know when you're done? I buy and plant spring bulbs into December, as long as I can break through the frost on top of the soil. Last year, I must have planted more than 500 bulbs from Oct.-Dec. I've been seen pulling up Glads in an early blizzard!

As for "bringing in garden equipment"- I have decided that the paths in my garden are the best place to keep tools, since I usually forget to bring them in! Yep, they're rusty, but they sure are handy! And I once ran the lawnmower over a steel trowel. The trowel lost.

Bringing in the plants is always job #1, but I don't mind. I bring them in gradually, and I work from favorite on down. That way, If I haven't finished hauling in 100+ plants, the ones that might get "nipped" are my least favorite. This year's Loser: A potted bulb of Amorphallus, because the bleepin' thing won't grow!

I don't mind a thing.

Living in Scottsdale has it's advantages. The weather is so nice that every morning I'm out checking garden. And, even if no plants need tending to, even raking up the leaves of roses or shrubs gives me the satisfaction I need to know my garden is healthy and looks good.

I don't mind a thing - okay, maybe one thing. Having to extend my irrigation hurts my fingers and breaks my nails sometimes working with the tubing. In summer I just set the tubing out there for a few minutes to get it soft. But when it begins to chill a bit I actually chew on the new parts I need to add to get it soft enough. Call me nutz, but it works.

:-)

Digging & storing Glad bulbs is a major job here. We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 12,000. Last year I had people take pails of them home & bring them back clean. Sounds like a plan again this year. Also have a bunch of Dahlias to dig, but they are easy.
Also have a couple miles of plastic mulch to pick up in the veggie garden. It's a nice dirty job! Helpers welcome.
Bernie

Wow! I've never seen so many glads at once!