This may not seem as remarkable to those of you currently outside of the South Coast of our Canadian shores, but I managed to get in a good three hours of garden clean up this weekend and not get soaking wet. This my friends, almost defies the laws of physics. You see, the weather reports here since Thursday have not just been for rain they’ve go so far as to be “rain warnings.” In a city very used to the wet stuff, this seemingly constant downpour is getting to be a bit much. And still, I managed to compost the remaining veggie plants that didn’t make it through the sudden dip to freezing night time temperatures, cut down and haul in the remains of things like my abundant cosmos that up until last Sunday I had been regularly picking and bring inside, and finish digging up my dahlias to store for the winter. I also helped along some poppies by taking seed heads I have drying and spreading them around in one bed that has become over grown with poppies so I figure I’ll go with that and just added in some varieties from elsewhere in the garden to liven up the mix. That along with some general pruning, weeding and cleaning was a good morning’s work and every time I changed tasks out there I thought: well surely it’s coming any minute now. The rain will return. And then, just as I decided to pack it in early afternoon, the first drop came down and it’s been a solid shower for nearly 24 hours now with no end in sight.

The one thing I’ve noticed in doing my fall cleanup this year is how much more there is to do now that well there’s more out there. Looking back at all there is to take care of — prune, mulch, dig up, etc — I found myself almost more pleased with all that I’ve accomplished in my garden than I was in the height of summer. In summer I only saw the bare spots that still needed work, or failed experiments, but last year my garden clean up could be done in an evening and this year it has taken several efforts and really there’s still little bits more to be done. So, I must be doing something right I figure. Hopefully all this work will just continue to build, though I have to say the more I garden the more I become a fan of adjectives like native, perennial and self-sowing.