~ October Color ~

This year our fall season seemed to come and go as quick as this year's spring...in one week. 

Thankfully I was able to capture a few photos of the leaves on our small dirt road as they changed color one day,

and before they lay on the ground the next!

~ To the Mailbox ~

~ Fleeting Fall Color ~

~ Fall View on Turtle Hill ~

My husband named this Turtle Hill because every spring we find a Painted Turtle laying her eggs on the shoulder of the road between the birch tree on the left and the top of the hill. 

~~~~~

~ Wishing you a whimsically beautiful fall day! ~

:0)

November Gardening

Rose Fountain

November Jalapeno Peppers

What better way to start a wonderful day than to open a door to greet the warm sun, view the beauty of lush green plants, and inhale the blissful scents of a flowering rose. All this and more from the humble greenroom.

For us the greenroom is a wonderful thing. A Northern Minnesota growing season is very short, so planting too late in an outside garden may create beautiful plants right up to the first killing frost but nothing to harvest. Planting earlier is not often an option either as late frosts, very cold or frozen ground, and even possible snow prevent seeds from germinating and may kill or rot them before the ground warms well enough to promote growth. What the growing season will be is often a mystery (I'm sure our wild creatures could tell us).

Though it is best to grow most of the vegetables in outside gardens, planting a few of the less hardy, those that require more time to mature, and something we may enjoy fresh late in the season, in the greenroom is wonderful . This guarantees some harvest of fresh produce to pick and beautiful green plants to look at well into the cold winter months. Some of these are happily growing as permanent residents in the greenroom's warm earth floor, Moroccan Mint (for delicious teas), Egyptian Onions (a delicious little bulb), and a beautiful climbing Canadian series rose (for beauty, aroma, and wonderful rose petal water) are a few. Others are contentedly tucked into roomy growing pots, with Jalapeno Peppers, Cherry Tomatoes, Rosemary, Sage, and even Celery included.

How wonderful to have a little Secret Garden growing right in the heart of ice and snow.