Worried About Weird

October – the month of strange and spooky sights culminating in the grand finale that is Halloween. But this year, the weather has decided to go all in and turned positively weird. And I’m a bit rattled. The month began typically enough with temperatures dipping as the days got distinctly shorter. That signaled to me to get cracking with the Fall chores in the garden. Having been away a while, I was behind in tasks like getting the greenhouse cleaned and its winter residents prepared for the move in. So I hustled. A few plants were already showing some stress from having been kept outdoors a tad too long. Finally, this past weekend the whole project got done. Whew!

However, by aforementioned weekend, the temperature had climbed to suggest we were back to summer. Sunny and warm felt great personally but not for this time of October in the garden. Positively unsettling. While most plants are retiring for the season and many have gone to seed, some, emboldened by the weather, have begun reblooming completely out of turn. It’s a confused state of affairs alright.

Meanwhile, weirdly, there was no sign of the shipment of bulbs that usually arrives by early October and I was getting a wee bit concerned. What a relief when it was finally delivered late Saturday evening. But now, we were looking ahead at a whole week of daytime temperatures in the 70s going down to late 50s at night. Way too warm! For bulb planting, the soil temperature needs to be below 55 degrees. I’m hoping to plant over the first weekend in November. All my under-gardeners (okay family) have been told to be ready. I hate to consider postponing the great planting marathon. It’s a quandary that might be a foretelling of future gardening practices as the climate changes.

Until a few years ago, I planted bulbs in early October. That has been slowly delayed into November. To think of doing the job closer to Thanksgiving and beyond is weird. And there is also concern about the winter itself. Many bulbs require weeks of solid cold to bloom in Spring. Will we have that? And for how long? Worrisome for sure.

Other Fall chores like emptying, cleaning and putting away pots, winter-pruning hedges and shrubs, cutting back certain plants, draining and shutting off outdoor taps were also accomplished. Felt mighty odd to be doing the work in summer like weather. It’s been very dry here so the lack of rain is an additional bummer. What on earth is going on?!

But one thing I’m certain of – we gardeners are resilient and will figure out how to pivot and learn what needs to be changed, adjusted and adapted. Till then, we shall commiserate, complain and carry on gardening.

Scenes from the garden today – senescence, renaissance in the nonce!