Autumn

 

Greetings! I thought I should post at least once more before the end of the gardening season, now that Autumn is upon us.

It's been a pretty nice autumn. Our first frost is usually around October 15th, and sure enough, this year's first frost happened the night of October 16th, and we've had a few more since then. But they've all been light frosts, so some flowers have persisted in continuing to bloom.

Like the nasturtium ("nasty urchins") in the above photo in my Paradise Garden. It's a variegated type, Burpee's 'Alaska Mix' I think. It took forever to grow and flower--I planted the seeds outside in the soil (to the right of the bench) in mid-May, and even by September they hadn't amounted to much. I was quite surprised to see how beautifully they had filled in and continued to flower when I took this photo in the first week of November. I think I will try to start them inside next year.

Here's some pictures from early September:

The Paradise Garden still looked great in early September, with self-seeded flowering tobacco and vining fragrant petunias, and red dahlias in full flower, together with some roses.

My favorite 'Jaipur' dahlias, which I divide and have more of every year because they look great and don't need to be staked.

A closeup of pale white/pinkish snapdragons (did you know some of the white ones are fragrant?), along with some truly fragrant tuberoses, which gave the entire garden a heady scent.

Sweet Autumn clematis, tobacco, and roses. All deliciously scented in the warm sunlight.

Here's the other side of the fence, with the Sweet Autumn clematis spilling over.

Going around the side of my house, the salvias I planted on the newly replanted west terrace among the tree and intersectional peonies I moved there last fall, were looking pretty orderly (compared to the disorder reigning here last year).

The Yellow Garden behind my house was looking pretty yellow with marigolds and goldenrod (please ignore the giant grass clump--I did hoick that out after I took this picture).

Anyway, September has been and gone, along with October, and I can't believe we're already in the second half of November! Where did the year go?

An Autumnal pumpkin-mum scene

All the dahlias and cannas were dug and brought inside for winter just this last weekend (with my husband's kind help).

In early September, I contracted an annoyingly painful frozen shoulder and my left arm is still pretty useless. So I wasn't able to finish moving some plants around and eliminating some of my less-successful borders I've been working on getting rid of. I'm glad I have the entire winter to recover: with any luck, I'll be back to normal by April.

Hope you've been enjoying a few last warm golden days in your own gardens as Autumn comes to an end this year. 'Till Spring, and thanks for reading!

-Beth