Fall cleaning

We had our first killing frost this week. It was very late in coming this year...we sometimes have had snow by now, so to still have the flowers blooming and the veg. garden still producing was a great thing. But I am ready to be done with the gardens for a little while.

Today I will clean out all of the old, dead geraniums that I planted this spring. They are all around the guest house in planters that my husband and boys built a few years back. The past two years I have planted bright red geraniums all around the house and they look so beautiful all year long...from a distance.

Geraniums are not the most beautiful flower close up. You can't put them in bouquets because they shatter and they don't have a very pretty scent. No one chooses a geranium nosegay to carry down the aisle at their wedding. They are just not that kind of flower. But plant them in a flower bed and give them a little room and lots of sunshine and water, and they will be one of the most rewarding flowers you will ever plant. They bloom ALL summer---and I do mean ALL. The colors get more brilliant as the weather gets cooler, and their green leaves are very smart looking next to their brightly colored blooms.

I will be sad to tear my geranium buddies out today, but I know their cousins will show up next spring ready to outdo their counterparts.

I will be placing about 200 daffodil and tulip bulbs in their place. Deep in the soil these little treasures will sleep, waiting for those first warm days of spring to awaken them. These flowers are such a miracle to me. If you have ever been to Colorado in the winter, you know how very cold it can get and just how very much snow we have...even in April and May. But right on cue, as if God whispers in their ears, those sweet little green shoots appear as the temperature rises and in a few days you will see the first flowers of the spring. Bright yellows and deep reds. I love them. Such a gift after a very long winter wait! 

I plant now in October for the promise I look forward to in May.