November Surprise

I took a walk outside into our back yard this morning to fix the garden.  A lot of our super drought tolerant plants were more than happy to be divided for a new home. The first perennial divisions from our yard went to our Pastor's yard.

I double checked that the freshly divided plants from early October had enough soil over their roots and tucked the plants tight with a layer of mulch.  (I spared you the photos because it's not that interesting).  I did find some neat little surprises as I worked:

Walking onions planted less than 3 weeks ago!

It's a surprise, but not really.  Onions love the cold and these onions have been known to sprout advantageously from atop the onion flower-head.  I will be writing more about ornamental onions later on. At any rate this how small of a thing I planted a little bit ago was:

Onion bulb sprouting

They actually sprout like this through the summer atop of those huge stalks next to my fingers.  Some actually look like they are weirdly growing a smaller version of themselves on their heads!  They are extremely odd plants (just as odd as I am).  I think that's why we like them: the are the weird ducks.

Moving onto another part of the garden:

Living dead plant!

It's the Globe thistle that WE thought I killed by planting it irresponsibly!  It LIVES!  You can see the long twig laying on the ground that was knocked over by hail at one point this past spring.  So, just because it wanted to live, here, take this little plant:

Happy Face.

Next door to living dead plant is a seedling nursery started in the heat of August.  "Drag-n-drop" is a term for a method that I made up in which I find most logical and simple for reseeding perennials.  I figure if the mother plant is dropping seed, you should take those stalks off and drag it to another place, drop it on the soil (stalk and all), water it, and leave it there.  Just remember to water it from time to time.  My "Drag-n-drop" 2012:

The "straw" is actually the flower seed stalk that I dropped, it makes a nice shelter

One day they are going to grow up to be my favorite most hardy and versatile Colorado wildflower:

Blue Flax (light blue, center plant)

One last thing:

Old dried out grass clippings makes great insulation for seeding in whiskey barrels

So there you have my one last surprise before winter from my garden.  Happy Fall back!