Late Fall Foliage, Landscaping and Garden Update....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!

 

I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

 

Just a reminder, I will be posting on Wednesdays and Sundays every week so be sure to check back on those days to see a new post...... 

 

Today, since Halloween is over and our weather has gone from the warmest October here on record to colder than normal temps. with a chance of snow flurries with our first frost of the season predicted, I will be sharing my  last Garden Update for this year......

 

But first, a few Personal Notes...

 

Here I am sporting a cute Halloween mask that my son Joey's friend and co worker Erin made for me!!! 

 

I matched it to my Halloween socks!!!

Here is Joe sporting his Wilkes Barre Scranton Penguins Day of the Dead tee shirt that he wore to work on Saturday at the Toyoto Sportsplex, which is managed by the Wilkes Barre Scranton Penguins organization..........

Joe volunteered to work Friday evening, helping out with the Halloween parties for all the Skating Clubs so it was just me and Joey on Friday evening.....

Joey treats us every Friday so we chose Mission BBQ for last week.....

 

We got a vat of Mac N Cheese which is delicious......

 

 

 

 And Joey and I both got a Pulled Chicken Sandwich with fries.....

 

There was no way I could finish mine so Joey finished it for me!!

LOL!!

 

 

 We like to support a local church near us who runs Food Sales and they had another one on election Day!!

 

We got Porketta sandwiches for dinner the other evening..... 

 

Even though according to Italian tradition, you eat these cold.....

 

We like them heated up a bit and we used the BBQ sauces that we got from Mission BBQ on them!

 

They were delicious!!

Along with Mac N Cheese from Sam's Club!!

This Mac N Cheese is a new item in our Sam's Club and is well worth with the price as it usually costs under $4!!!

Of course, Picky Joe passed on the Mac N Cheese!

Sherry, over at My Journey Back, held a Tea Cup Party recently and also posted a few Guest Posts by several authors of Tea related Mystery books.....

 

 

 

There was also a Giveaway for 2 Free copy of Tea Time Magazines  offered by author Vicki Delaney!!

I won one of the magazines!!!!

I want to Thank both Sherry and Vicki Delaney, who is featured in the magazine in the article about Tea Mystery Writers, for hosting the Giveaway and I can not wait to read through my magazine!!

I will also be on the look out for Vicki's books....over 40+ that she wrote!!!!

 

In my last post, I shared my good friend Anne Marie's home decorated for Halloween!!!

Please click HERE if you missed seeing her fabulous antiques and vintage Halloween decorations which she changes up every year!!

 

You may remember that Joe and I were on quite a Landscaping spree of our neighbor hood last Summer......

 In September, Joe and I transformed our neighbor Khalid's rental property which is the townhouse between his and ours.....

This is the flower bed under the Living Room window before.....

 Khalid had trimmed the large yews and Joe removed the shrub that was growing into the railing for the steps......

 

 

 Joe removed most of the weeds.....

 

 I leveled and graded it and put down weed block fabric.....

 

 And then the mulch.....

 

  

 I made sure there was a good layer of mulch where the drains from my wall are....

 

 

 

 And I placed some left over border from my flower bed by the steps in case there is a water run off from heavy rain.....

 

So far, everything has stayed nicely in place!!

 

  

  

  

  

 It now matches the slope.....

 

 We were left with only one more area to do.....

 

 

 

The small flower bed between Khalid's home and his rental property.....

 

 

I cleaned out the weeds and put the weed block fabric down.....
 

 

 

 

And put down the mulch.....

 

 

 

What a difference a little mulch makes!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And with that, Barna Landscaping is retired for this year!!!!!

 

You remember the flower bed by our mail boxes that I enlarged and landscaped in the beginning of the Summer??????

Well, our HOA had received several complaints from residents that the arborvitae's that were planted many years ago at the entrances to the Courts had grown so large that they were now blocking the view of cars when one would try to pull out of the Courts.....

This was the case with the huge arbortivae in the flower bed by our mail boxes.....

You had to inch out of our Court slowly because you could not see if any cars were coming down the road from the row of townhouses behind ours.....

So the HOA contracted my neighbor who owns a Landscaping Business to cut down and remove the trees blocking the view of the road......

 

 Here they are cutting it down......

 

They put it in a chipper and mulched it when done.....

This is what it looks like with the stump still there.....

 

They had to call the Utilities since we have underground wiring in our development before they dug the stump out......

Looks like I already have a landscaping job for next year!!!

Today, I cut down the perennials, replaced the rock border and raked up the dirt and mulch......

 

Looks like I will be transplanting more perennials from my yard here in this flower bed next year....

 

You may ask why I did not sweep up the leaves by the curb???

Because they are falling off the trees faster than I would be able to sweep them up.....

Hopefully, once all the leaves are off the trees, the Street Sweeper will come and clean them up off the road....

While I was down there on the road, I took a few more pictures...

 

The tree in the yard across from us....

 

Looking down our road toward the Apartment complex where both my sons live....

 

I always say that I cam see Lowes roof from our front porch.....

 

Well there it is right roof the side of our road through the trees!!

 

A bit of Fall Foliage......

This is a tree in the woods on the side of us that I took pictures of from our back yard....

 

 

 And I swear that the Tree in the yard across from us that I just showed you from the road went from this.....

 

To almost all orange in about 2 days!!

 

 

The Trees are so late with turning colors this year.....

This is the view looking out my bedroom window at the woods on the side of us.....

Usually the leaves are already falling off the trees with most of them being bare but not this year....

I took these pictures from the side of our son Jim's townhouse in the apartment complex that we have to drive through to get to  our development and where both of our sons live....

Since Sun has been a rare commodity this Fall, I took these pictures even though it was cloudy and drizzling because I fear that the leaves will be falling off them very soon and there is no chance of Sun in sight.....

You can see the rock formations on the mountains behind us even though there was a bit of fog....

 

 

AS we drove down the road back home, to the side of our development....

And the woods by us looking up our parking lot.....

 

I wish the Sun would come out so I could have gotten better pictures but you can still see all the colors of the trees which makes Fall my favorite Season.....

 

 

You may remember that I was sharing this Tree in my neighbor's yard.....

 

 

It was always the first one to turn colors and it was fitting that this year, it looked it's best!!!

 

It was also the first to loose it's leaves.....

 

But you can see that it was planted on the slope, overhanging the parking lot, posing a safety hazard in high winds and thunderstorms......

 

It was deemed to be a safety hazard and it's branches were blocking the sunlight from the neighbor's front yard and house next to it so the owners decided to have it removed.....

 Now we can see straight up to the woods on the side of our row of townhouses.....

They also hated cleaning up all the leaves from the neighbor's yards.....

Now let's go out to our back yard......

This is what my deep purple asters looked like when they were in full bloom.....

About 2 weeks ago, I gave Joe permission to pull out the annuals and cut back some perennials.....

 

 

 

 If it was up to Joe, he would black top the back yard!!!

 

 

 We also cleaned up the patio a bit and got rid of the carpet which actually got moldy because of all the rain and humidity!!!

I will address the look of the concrete next year.....

Since then, we have packed up, cleaned up, piled up and covered up the back Patio furniture and pots against the back of the house for the Winter......

 

And removed all the remaining annuals and cut back most of the perennials.....

 

This is the latest on record that we have yet to get a killing frost......

 

That is predicted this week and then Joe will cut back more ground cover perennials....

 

I had had plans to re-do the brick walkway to the shed.....

 

 

 My neighbor Brandy and her Dad Joe gave us these pavers that they took out of their back yard and did not want......

 

I plan on taking out this part of the yard to straighten out the walkway......

 

So that it will be a bit straighter walkway to the shed and I will not be so afraid of tripping and falling..........

But because of the cold and rainy weather, I have tabled this project until next year......

 

 On Monday, November 1st, since it looked to be the warmest and driest day of the week, we worked out in the front yard.....

 

 Our first frost was predicted for this week so I let Joe pull out all remaining annuals  and cut back perennials like the hostas and lamb's ear.....

 

I cleaned up and packed away all the Fall/Halloween outside decor and Joe took it down to our Storage Shed that we rent as we store all Outside decorations and garden things down in that shed.....

It was a bit windy so it was chilly and I felt it was too early yet to decorate for Christmas but I hate bare pots!!

So I sent Joe to the side of our road fro some greenery for the pots...

Let's just say that he gave the trees on the side of our road a bit of a trimming!!

Last year, I had the 2 big black urns on each side of the porch in front of the pillars but since they bit the dust last year after all the snow and ice, I will continue to keep these 2 square pots in front of the pillars for the Winter.....

For now, I hung the Winter wreath that I normally have on the back door here on the front door so it will not be bare.....

I put greenery in the pot that I placed on top of the red milk can.....

I will be adding faux greenery with some red berries and birch logs to these pots in front of the porch.....

The furniture will remain here on the front porch until next week when temps. in the 60's are predicted so that is when I will decorate the front for Christmas, taking advantage of some warmer weather....

 

See the metal garden art in back of the table?????

 

My neighbor didn't want it and gave it to me.....

 

 

 

 

 

The Flower Bed under the window.........

 

I moved the 2 pots that I had in front of the porch railing into this flower bed as it makes it easier to shovel snow off the side walks........

 

These 2 pots will also have some faux greenery and birch branches added to them....

 

The 2 large urns that graced this small wall for about 7 years also bit the dust after last Winter....

 

So I will keep these flower boxes here and also filled them with greenery.....

When I cleaned the windows after we took the air conditioners out, I placed the suction cups on the outside of the windows so I could hang the wreaths on which stay up all Winter.....

 

They are now up on the 3 front windows....

More greenery in the vintage watering can....

 

For now, I left out the Fall mini flags and the pumpkins that we bought from the Amish Farmer....

I will be leaving out the white owl for the Winter.....

A fellow Blogger has given me the idea to paint the pumpkins white and create a "Snowman".....

Joe cut down the huge hostas that are on the slope in my next door neighbor's yard....

Now we could see that there was dirt showing from underneath the hostas so Joe threw a bag of mulch down to cover it up .....

And that about wraps up the Landscaping and Gardening Season of 2021 for us!!

I hope you enjoyed seeing all our projects and my flowers and garden this past Summer....

We sure did keep busy!!

I hope you come back on Sunday when I will finally be getting around to sharing Joe's Trip to Pittsburgh that he took in September to see a Pittsburgh Penguins game with our son , Joey....

That will be my last post on this Blog until the New Year as I will be switching over to my Christmas Blog starting with the post on Wednesday, November 10th.....

So I hope you will stop by to visit again soon!!

Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE  give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment.  If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......

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