November Garden

After being Beat Up By Two Storms

A little over a week after Hurricane Sandy rolled over our area, a Nor’easter rolled right in and brought us 6″ of snow over night. After the storm cleared, the temperature slowly creeped up to mid 60° F, and then the rain hit today. Not much left of the garden, really. Some leaves are still holding on to the branches, refusing to give up. Our honey bees seemed to enjoy the 60 degree day. They came out en mass, from what I’ve learned, to clean themselves. Some of them even came back to the hive with pollen. I have no idea where they got the pollen from. Our half-spent ‘Heritage’ rose is the only thing blooming in the garden at this time, and the bees fought over it.

I moved my fuzzy pet, a Giant Leopard Moth caterpillar, outside so he can hybernate properly. Lesson learned from last year when the Black Swallowtail emerged on our office desk in early winter with nothing much to eat. This time I’m letting the weather direct the metamorphoses process by leaving the caterpillar outside, but I check on him once in a while.

Nothing much to do now aside from feeding the birds, taking care of the tropical plants in the basement, leafing through plant catalogs and planning for the next season.

Bee-flower — Three bees fighting over what’s left of this half-spent rose ‘Heritage’

Honey bee — The honey bees came out to clean themselves when the temperature rose above 60 degrees last Sunday. I’ve stapled chicken-wire over the entrance as a mouse guard.

Japanese maple — Some Japanese Maple leaves still hang on tightly to the branch. When I see something like this, I wish for snow or frost. The leaves would look great with it.

Echinacea-seed bud — The birds, especially the American Goldfinch, did a pretty good job in cleaning up the seeds from the Echinacea.

Rain — Took this photo when the rain paused for a few minutes today. Droplets on young Iris leaves.

2 thoughts on “November Garden”

That Japanese Maple leaf color is spectacular. Glad you’re safe after those storms.

P&B says:

November 15, 2012 at 9:53 pm

Thank you. A lot of people still have no power and no homes to go back to. I’ve never underestimated mother nature’s ability to create and destroy.

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