Chilly rainy Sunday.

The rest of the collected leaves were added to thinning mulch around blueberries and a few other areas. If I had time, I would collect & chop more and spread them on the vegetable bed, but the key problem is at the start of this sentence.

The Shlumbergera (must be a Thanksgiving cactus since it's blooming now) provided some cheer.

Tomorrow I'll take the day off from the bike commute. It will geve me a chance to stock the fridge with the week's lunches, and stock my desk with some clean clothes.

More therapy. The last tomatoes. Crazy leaf guy (me). Last ginkgo leaf.

That crazy leaf guy (me). While walking Charlie & Baigo, I passed a lady packaging up her leaves. I asked if I could have them. Here they are. I spent a couple of hours spreading them on the driveway, running over them with the lawn mower, then spreading the chopped leaves on the borders. The mower works better than the chipper shredder, but either way it's hard work.

A few tomatoes still ripening in the window. Ning made a stir fry using green tomatoes. Good.


One final leaf on the ginkgo tree. Ning doesnt know it yet but I collected a quart container full of ginkgo fruits (from a tree in an East Mill Plain park) to clean for seeds. I dont know if I'll plant them or eat them.

Bathroom

I would take a long soak in the tub except for one small problem....

About 1/2 of the wall is down to studs. The floor layers are all off except the last layer of particle board.

Most of the framing is gone from the dividing wall. Once the remaining drywall is off, and the particle board is off the floor, I can start framing.

"my other car is a bike" bumper sticker

from this site.

Overwintering geraniums & cuttings. More cacti. Anigozanthos.

The geraniums in the garage look rather sad. Of course, dormancy isn't supposed to be pretty. Here's a topic for discussion: should I call them pelargoniums, like the 'real' gardeners do, or geraniums, like everyone else? For that matter, is the plural pelargonia / gerania?

The epiphyllum is back inside, just in time. It's in the same spot as last year.

Also visible, the Anigozanthos flavidus (Kangaroo paw hybrid). I did some web research on culture for these plants. Apparently not very well known in this climate, especially overwintering.


For future reference:
-Googling on images, this plant is apparently an A. flavidus hybrid. It might be "Bush Gold" although I generally avoid most things named 'Bush'. Here's another description of Bush Gold.
-They prefer bright light.
-They need excellent drainage.
-They dont like excess phosphorus.
-It seems that they can be overwintered indoors.
-They store water in their rhizomes, so can go without water for extended periods.

So, I'll try to resist watering it unless it's very dry, and if it survives Winter, I'll try to keep it in bright light, use a well drained potting soil when it comes time to repot, and resist using any high-phosphate plant foods (although growing organically, most supplements that I use don't have excess phosphate).


The geranium cuttings have rooted now. They have roots coming out of the holes in the containers. The non-scented varieties are doing better than the scented-leaf ones (in the garage and the window sill) but all they need to do is survive, for a head start next year.

Biked 3 days this week. New bumper sticker states "My other car is a bike".