Hard Freeze Hits Hard

It is amazing what Mother Nature can do in a day or two. These Elephant Ears in the back yard were standing proud and looking lush just a couple of days ago. Now after the night in the mid 20 degrees they are sad and droopy. The next step is to cut them back to ground level and hope the bulbs survive the winter and grow again next spring.
As you can see the Elephant Ears behind the small pond didn't fair any better - they are very sad looking plants.

Before the Freeze

One last look at the beautiful Elephant Ears in the back yard. The first is a bunch of them at the side of the small pond providing a nice separation of the pond from the back yard. The other is a round planting area in the middle of the back yard where we took out a peach tree several years ago. If the weatherman is correct, these great plants will be a sad site later this week. If he is wrong we get to enjoy them a while longer.

Black Magic Giant

I think this is the biggest Black Magic we have ever had. This guy stands almost 5 feet tall and 5 feet wide. This is one that we pulled out of the greenhouse in the spring and set in the large pond where it has grown ever since. Sadly the enjoyment is almost over for this year. Today is November 15th and the weather guy is predicting a hard freeze in a few days so this plant will look really sad. When that happens, I'll chop him back and store him in the greenhouse for the winter. Below is a picture of one of the beautiful leaves that is almost 20 inches long and 12 inches wide.

Raccoon Likes the Pond Area

The Raccoon seems to visit the pondscape frequently. Here he is again scrounging around on the deck for something but I haven't any idea what. I checked behind the plant shelves and didn't see anything too exciting. And then I got a picture of the Raccoon doing some late night fishing in the small pond. I can't tell if he caught anything and he obviously got too close to the camera for the picture. Until recently I didn't know the Raccoon was so close to the house.