I Don't Think That This Is What They Mean By Leaves Changing Color..But I Could Be Wrong

I have a love hate relationship with this time of year.

I love the leaves changing colors.

I hate that for right now down here all that means is that the leaves on the trees have changed color...to brown which means the trees are either in a stress mode ( best hope) or dead ( reality).

I love that the temperatures are cooler...in the 90's rather than the 109's

I hate the time change.

I came home tonight and did the garden patrol looking for please no one need to be watered.

If we make only one itty bitty stop on the way home it is still 7 pm before we hit the driveway. I usually have to wait a few so he can get a shower and this is the drill. I understand it..He works with machinery and need to take a run through the rain room ( shower). It's like after a haircut, you have to get all of the hair off your neck. This means that if I have to water , I have to wait a bit. Down here , it is almost full dark by 8 pm.

This throws me right now, it really does.

Where did all of the light go ?

I am used to spending at least an hour watering what I can to save what I can.

In the dark ?

Oh hell no.

I looked around and realized that I really need to get out there now that the pulled muscles over the ribs on my right are better , and get the dead plants out of their pots ..and yes , it's going to take forever so that I force myself to slow down and not tackle it all at once , which is my usual mode so that I don't either aggravate the muscles , or do more damage and actually really tear them..yeah..it was that bad.

I think I will simply remove the debris and stack the pots till spring.

Some things that have survived need to be re potted and I guess the smart thing to do is buy bigger pots as I can and again stack them so that when I can repot the materials are all there.

But then there is still:

Prune or not and if so how much on the climbing roses etc.

Fertilize or not..help or hindrance with the season and weather ?

We've never had a damn near year long drought this bad in the state .

You know it's bad when you pay more attention to the fire reports than anything else and get used to the smell of smoke that just burns the hell out of your eyes and sinuses.

I am so glad tomorrow is Friday y'all, I really am.

Ciao,

Aunty Pol