Saturday, October 22, 2011

A rainy day on Vancouver Island...sigh...but autumn is deeply beautiful

It is ten degrees and raining in Sidney today. I have a full five gallon pail of coffee grounds to spread. I think rain or not, I will be spreading it under the blueberries today.

I get very conflicted at this time of year. I really miss the gardening and the time I spend outside in the summer (which is substantial)...yet on the other hand, I love fall. Every thing smells so rich and damp and everything is so bright and beautiful. The winter plants such as my holly trees, the evergreen trees with their pinecones, the roses, pansies, snowberries and the winter vegetables look very lovely and have a warm cozy feel to them. Even if it's from the house.

Enjoy the quiet beauty that is autumn. It is special, even though all of us, the gardeners, lament the passing of summer.

4 comments:

Mark Willis said...

In the Fall / Winter I expect you get more of those coffee-grounds than in the Summer! One of life's little pleasures is sitting with a nice cup of coffee, browsing through next year's seed catalogues.

NHGarden said...

Hmmm...coffee grounds around the blueberries...perhaps I should try this.

Gardeningbren said...

Coffee grounds around blueberries...this is new to me and so appreciated Erin. Thank you. I only have a few bushes as blueberry is a huge crop locally in Nova Scotia. Still, good to have a few bushes in the garden for morning raiding ..on cereal or with pancakes.

Outside here today..smelled like spring. Have an iris ready to bloom and was told locally Magnolia's are having a third bloom. What a year..so unusual.

Must be the bit o' Brit in me...always about the weather... ;-))))

Erin said...

Hi Mark, NH and Brenda. I have been getting huge amounts of coffee grounds from a local coffee shop. They have given me eight or so five gallon pails so far. How lucky am I. I put a whole pail between blueberry one and BB two today. I smoothed it out a bit. I am thinking it'll keep the weeds and lawn at bay and will provide the Blueberries with the acid they like so much. Once my coffee shop supply stops, I'll do exactly as Mark suggests and keep my own winter coffee grounds for the yard, all the while pouring over seed catalogues.

Brenda. For the past three winters my rhododendrons have bloomed in Novemeber. In the 32 year I've lived in this house, that never happened before. I've also noticed that we have robins and hummingbirds all winter now. Something has definitely changed with the weather.