Fall! Finally!

 No spring nor summer’s beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one Autumnal face....
~John Donne, "Elegy IX: The Autumnal"

Remember to click on picture for larger view

Finally, cooler weather.   It may be in the 80's but nights are cooler.  I have peeked out from the summer doldrums and can smile again at the garden ruins.
Actually, this transformation mood wise has been sneaking up on me for a week or more with cooler nights and even one chilly day.
I am not even to be done in by the ragweed.  That pest problem will end when it freezes. So, I am resigned to daytime, non drowsy antihistamines.

I have been searching for several days for the Horse apple, Osage Orange, Hedge  Apple, Bois d'arc, bodark....ironwood (whatever) and hubby remembered seeing "a few" on a back road.  After confusing directions, a bit of sniping back and forth, found em.  This morning, I gathered several laundry baskets full of the lovely lime green balls. I have gathered them for several falls now and nearly missed this year.

The plan is to  fill several containers for color spots in ravaged gardens.  I have had a bunch on the porch for several years and enjoy them very much. They only cost a bit of gas to fill containers and thus don't mind them going bad and discarding.  I hate like anything to buy plants for pots that mostly die at the sight of frost.

Here is a link to more information; https://www.dirtdoctor.com/garden/Horse-Apples-Bois-d-arc-fruit_vq537.htm


Another project in various stages of completion is the patches of garden I have cleared and am going to sow wildflower seeds and then hope nature won't mess up.  Here in north Texas (zone  8a) we can go from a week of temperatures in the mid to high 60's to a week of sunny 90's.

Rocks gathered from all over the yard and gardens area making a division between wild and path.

Nearly cleared. The space doesn't look so large from this angle.  It seemed huge when trying to clear weeds, grass and gravel.

This space used to be the high light of the gardens. This year, not so much. Finally ended up being the gathering place for stray pots, containers, tools and a determined watermelon and cantaloupe vine tangle that insists on creeping out of bordered area and reaching for the whole garden.  I was tempted to let them go and see just how far they would wander. I dumped rinds here for butterflies. They flock to the sweet meat.

Autumn repays the earth the leaves which summer lent it. ~Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799), translated by

Norman Alliston, 1908

 Another idea from my newest obsession, Pintrest.  The creative minds out there is staggering to think about. Makes me wish I was still in my energetic 40's.
We have pine trees that drop cones in fall and a pain to rake up before hubby mows over them, leaving mangled cones to step on unsuspectingly while wandering the yard in the early AM.

I put pine cones in planters and containers to winter over so pots don't look so empty... Thought that was pretty creative. Never got around to tucking an odd tree ornament in them or, better yet, the ubiquitous tiny white lights.

Now, I find creative painting of these things, from dipping in a can of enamel to spray paint to carefully painting with craft paint petal by petal.  Ideas are endless.

These are painted with left over spray paint.  Obviously, a little cleaning and brushing should be done first.
 The best place to get an idea of painting pine cones is to go to Google home page and next to the gmail in right hand corner. Click on image and then type in diy painted pine cones.

Orange paint for experiment in discouraging aphids. Failure

Pink paint used on garden hand tool handles

Notice the devices for elevating cones to have better access and cleaner fingers

This is only a sample of what can be done.  If you cut off tip back to an inch or 2 from base, perfect zinnia type flower.  Some folks just clip off the scales and leave the center stalk thingy.
If you are lucky, you might find cones that have spread their scales and can make a rose.

Hmmmmm, I wonder what painted horse apples would look like?

Horse Apple; Osage Orange

Don't forget to click on picture to see enlarged view

I love fall.  I repeat, I love fall! Every year, I walk down this particular road and watch for the Horse Apples.
I am including a web link so you can read the history of this tree and its fruit.  In reading the article, I didn't know this tree was in so many states.
http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1997/10-10-1997/hedgeapple.html

I remember as a new bride, hearing my mother-in-law talking about the Horse Apple and that it could repel cockroaches.

Coming from northern Minnesota, I was amazed that there was such a tree. I don't remember ever hearing of cockroaches living in Minnesota, country side .  Maybe it was in the city housing, but not where I grew up.

Now, I watch a particular tree that will one day have "mysteriously appear" the Horse Apple, Osage Orange.  This much I do know, the wood is very dense and hard to get to burn in the fireplace.
The "fruit" will one day just "be there". A lovely shade of sort of a light lime green.

This year, for some reason, I decided I would gather the fruit and put it in one of my pots.  I love the color!

I don't know how long they will stay just the "apple" before they begin to deteriorate, but I will enjoy them while I can.
This chair is in an area that will be full of bluebonnets in the spring.  Thus, I have to think of where to move it. 
I have benches of one sort or another scattered all around the garden area.  I sometimes really need to just sit and take a breather.  Better a bench or a chair than the ground.

The white bucket is holding a dilution of molasses.  I add a bit to each watering can full of rain water. Molasses helps with those mysterious little beasties that are good for the soil.
I am 99.9% organic and will encourage the "beasties" however I can.

Needless to say, I am not going to use the technical words for my gardening doings.  Just mentioning organic garden lets people know I don't like poisons of any stripe.

This has been one of those seldom perfect days.  Low 70's in the evening and 50's when I was sifting soil and potting up more California  Poppies.  They are so difficult to transplant.  If the sun comes out, I may lose all of them.  The matt of plants I had to pick from broke my heart in destroying some for the good of one (that may not make it).

I loaded the pots in my ever present green wagon to take to the court yard.  How did I ever get by without it?

Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh, how beautiful!' and sitting in the shade.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Complete Verse