September is almost through, and we are cleaning up around here. Really enjoying the fall day. I love mums that return each year. These are several years old…when they get like “sticks”,  we cut them back and toss some mulch over them for winter. Then we do it all again the next year!

My backyard had a hideous bush–can you believe this?  Mike kept saying he’d get around to it.    I knew if I started it, he’d finish it and this worked out well.  I just went out there and started whacking at the giant hydrangea.   It will NOT be back next year. It’s a hydrangea that outgrew it’s spot. Got too big for its britches so to speak. Can you believe I let this exist in my rear yard…all summer long? Ugh.

Here’s how this looks after Mike, Oth and I participated in its haircut.    Either later this year or very early next year, the root system of the hydrangea will be removed.    The rhododendron bushes that are left will get trimmed next year after they bloom — they are getting huge, too.     Everything grows like crazy in Southwest Virginia.

I like it when something “improves” and this was an improvement for sure. Here’s another picture–and in this one, you can see where our internet receiver is.   We  get internet from the Clinch Mountain Fire Tower.   We suffered through Hughes Net for way too long. And look…you’ll see the “knob” part of the mountain right there in the side of the picture.   The mountain comes down…there’s a valley and then there’s a rise which we call the knob.

And speaking of growing….do you remember the tomatoes I planted in Five Gallon Buckets? I blogged about that here. It was one of the most viewed pages on RiverCliff Cottage that month, and the post was a feature on Home Talk. .  The tomatoes did great, but today we dumped out the dirt and put the buckets away for next year. One thing I will do differently is add some perlite to the soil for water retention. The composted soil in the buckets drained so well that for the tomatoes to thrive, they needed to be watered twice per day.

It was very nice having the tomatoes close to the house for picking. As it turned out they were all cherry tomatoes but that’s okay.

I still have a few green peppers in the five-gallon buckets and I’m leaving them in the buckets through the winter–although I’m moving them inside before the first frost. I’ve read that if you overwinter the plant, you’ll have red peppers earlier. It’s a test.   That’s mint hanging over by the buckets.   It smells so good when I break it off and bring inside.

In the country, fall is so much more than just pretty colors.  It’s work…harvesting…and very rewarding.