Wildflower meadow

I spent the weekend doing a final weeding of the prospective wildflower meadow. All the yard waste has composted down to a couple of inches and now that it's raked out it looks like brown velveteen. The seeds have either arrived or are on their way and in a few more weeks when it looks like the weather will stay cold I will sow the forbs and grasses.

Things I will plant next spring

• 3 more Sunshine Blue blueberries to replace the ones that got trampled.
• A couple more southern highbush blueberries to keep in reserve.
• Rosa alba maxima to be planted as a neighbor for Souvenir du Docteur Jamain
• Rose 'Safari', a tiny thing from Heirloom that is a gorgeous pinky, salmony color.
• A dozen Dodecatheon meadia, Shooting Star, ordered bare root from Prairie Moon, to be planted in front of the oakleaf hydrangeas with the Virginia bluebells.
• Magnolia virginiana ‘Moonglow’, a sweet bay magnolia. This will go in the front yard in the space that became plantable after my neighbor removed the dying maple tree.
• Aesculus pavia, red buckeye. This will go in Hagen's Woods to replace the redbud that quite mysteriously died.

Autumn projects

The weather finally cooled off, we had a couple of good, soaking rains that softened up the ground and I've finally made some progress on fall chores. The yard looks pretty respectable now.

• The bed along the fence is edged and weeded.
• The sprawling roses are now tethered to the fence.
• The daylilies and irises are planted.
• The pot ghetto under the apple tree has been cleaned up.
• The seedlings and rooted cuttings are outside where they will winter over.
• The 'meadow' is weeded and raked and ready to be sown with wild flowers and native grasses.
• The seedling wildflowers are planted in the 'meadow'.
• The asparagus has been cut back.
• I have started building this year's compost hump.
• The blueberries are weeded and ready to mulch.
• The fig is wrapped in row cover and mulched with a couple of bags of leaves I begged from a neighbor.
• Dug the red twig dogwoods out from under the big pine tree, planted 4 in the back hedge and gave the rest to my neighbor.

Still to do:

• Mulch the blueberries. I'm going to fill in around them so they become an
  extension of the mulched edge at the back of the lot.
• Shovel up last year's compost hump and see how it did under the burlap
  cover
• Weed and mulch the main rose bed.
• Once I'm sure the weather will stay cold I will sow the 'meadow'.
• Repair the garden shed roof. The poor shed needs to be replaced but this
  should get me through the winter.