Fall Cleanup

Today I went out to the deck, armed with a big, black plastic yard bag, ready to start cleaning out my many flower pots.

Frosty morning--10-5-12. After a few days like this, I was sure everything was dead.

The recent days of sub-freezing nights, with some snow, had done damage to my potted plants, but, amazingly, not all had been killed. The tomato, geraniums and marigolds were dead. But petunias are more hardy. They were nipped here and there, but most stilled lived, as did the fluffy, white, draping plant I've forgotten the name of.

10-11-12

The flowers that remain are rather scraggly, the deck is messy with falling leaves and debris from the flowers, but it pleases me to see this bit of color still living outside my windows.

Wishing to keep some of summer's green for as long as possible, I cleaned out the dead and heavily damaged pots. I pruned back the living pots to remove scraggly stuff and frost-bitten parts. I completely filled the big trash bag. But I saved enough that I don't have to look out at winter-barren pots just yet.

There will be more fall cleanup to come, but I am happy with today's project.