Sunflowers

The Teddy Bear sunflowers are going great guns inside the greenhouse, producing multiple blooms per plant, but for old times sake I planted one conventional sunflower in a grow bag behind our shed. It has one big flower, and is probably at its peak now. I stuck my phone inside the cage, because everything in our yard is caged against the deer, and got this snapshot. This morning I saw a couple of black-capped chickadees checking out the flower. I'm sure they will be back when the seeds are more developed.

Compare and contrast with a Teddy Bear from a few days ago.

Our average "First Frost Date" is usually given as around Sept. 12, so even though there are no freezing temperatures forecast in the next 10 days, I am getting ready for winter. The tender succulents are going from the greenhouse to the garage or my office window. The cold-hardy succulents such as the Sempervivums are going the opposite direction, from our back patio to the greenhouse. I have taken cuttings of Coleus and will start taking cuttings of petunias, and will try to propagate them in water. I have transported my geranium pot to the greenhouse. The Plectranthus 'Velveteen Aromatic'™ and peppermint that were outside the west wall of the greenhouse have been moved inside. I have moved two of the three grow light strips from the greenhouse to the garage, so now I have five grow light strips in the garage. One remains in the greenhouse and will move when I transport the 4-inch pots of petunia propagations and other stuff.

Next on the list is transporting the main stash of petunias, six baskets and three pots, from the house back to the greenhouse. We were supposed to have high winds today so I took down down the six baskets and stashed them in the shed, which doesn't have enough light for them, so I need to move them soon. At some point I will give the petunias a severe trim and try to pot them in 6-inch plastic pots for overwintering. I have four fairly large Coleus plants at the greenhouse, and only one of them ('Wicked Witch') is going to survive intact. As mentioned, I have already taken some cuttings and will do another round before they are allowed to succumb to the cold.

With two 4-shelf units in south-facing windows in the garage (with six grow lights), two east-facing windows in my office, and a couple of west-facing windows, I MIGHT have enough room to put everything. I'm going to try to preserve the closet in the garage for seed sprouting come spring. The priority is to make sure all of the succulents make it through the winter. The more petunias and Coleus that make it through the winter, the less I will have to spend next year, but ultimately those are the expendable, replaceable plants. And when I watch Corey on YouTube, he shows me an Under the Sea 'Barracuda' Coleus that makes me want to throw all of my plants away and just buy that.

The plants in the beds at the greenhouse have varying fates. I plan to heat the greenhouse to 50 degrees until mid-November, then dial it down to 10 until April. The strawberries in the east bed will overwinter, and I hope the four hanging baskets also will survive the winter. (I have decided the strawberries in the three grow bags will not.) In the southeast bed, the alyssum, sunflowers, Coleus and Bachelor's Buttons will be allowed to succumb to the cold. That bed will be planted with herbs next year, with hardy herbs such as oregano and thyme overwintering. In the southwest bed, I have cut all the blossoms off the big tomato plant so it will not set any more fruit, and have set a deadline of October 9 for the pepper plant and the remaining onions to finish up. I will remove half the soil, mix in pumice and coco coir, and overwinter Sempervivums in that bed. The west bed has the majority of the pepper and tomato plants as well as a patch of cilantro. I'll keep that going as long as possible, perhaps to mid-November. Next year I probably will not plant tomatoes and peppers inside the greenhouse. The west bed probably will get the sunflowers and other flowers next year. I plan on raising most of the same stuff next year, but a lot of it will end up in pots and grow bags instead of taking up valuable bed space.

It may be too early for an assessment of the year, but I feel like I overwatered a lot of things. I need to be more careful about that, particularly in the greenhouse beds. Even when the top of the soil looks dry, the moisture meter usually says the soil is moist a couple of inches down, and very moist when I stick the probe in all the way. Anything that is established does not need water every day, and in fact probably could thrive getting water only every three or four days. Especially now that it is getting cooler, I am trying to scale back. However, the hanging baskets and the outside pots/bags generally need all the water they can get. At most I can skip a day.