How Doth the Fall Garden Fare? Right Fairly!
But not, alas, for too much longer. We're experiencing ground frosts now, waking up of a morning to see surrounding roofs white with frost. That generally presages a sunny day, with the now-wan sun warming things up sufficiently to fairly moderate temperatures. Those days which are overcast and rainy don't give way to frosty night-time temperatures. We no longer hear the night-time skies alive with bird-twitter migration to southern climes.
And because these days seem to alternate, with a series of rainy days, then a plunge in the overnight temperature, the annuals are, for the time being, innoculated against succumbing to the frost. As a result, we haven't yet lost anything prematurely. I say prematurely because, ever the garden optimist, I hope to hold onto the texture and colour for as long as possible - say mid-October...? We're getting up there.
Our single beefstake tomato vine has slowed down. Where, during the later hot summer months I could scarcely keep up with its bounty, even for we two salad-hungry people, the promising orbs on the vine are not ripening as readily in these cooler temperatures. The other tomato vines, those which had spontaneously erupted because of the compost we spread over the gardens, all turned out to be cherry tomatoes.
And while we've been able to enjoy some of those too in our salads, they've slowed down with the advent of early fall, as well. A good hard frost isn't far off, however, and it will obviously become necessary to strip the tomato vines and take the green fruits into the house to eventually ripen. It's a yearly ritual, and a sad one.
Even the herbs have taken on a second life, and have continued growing, albeit not nearly as enthusiastically as during the hot summer months. They're flowering now, as well, as I haven't seen the utility of cutting back the flowers at this late season. There are still plenty of herbs on offer: sweet basil, oregano, parsley, thyme and lavender although the chives are just about disappeared; the very first to appear in the spring.
Our sunset maples are ablaze with colour and beginning to drop their leaves. The burning bush too is adding its scarlet-worth, as are the spireas. The tall Dahlias with their saucer-large flowerheads are as yet unperturbed by the turn of weather; they're late bloomers anyway, like the fall asters, the black-eyed Susans. Morning glories still going strong, ditto roses, cosmos, begonias, zinnias, marigolds, turtleheads, geraniums heucheras, hostas, snapdragons, strawflowers, nasturtium, lavatura.
Ah, but the time has come. I'm a fall-neat freak and like to put our gardens in order to face the winter. So that when the beds are cleared, I am able to plant bulbs to cheer us up in spring; daffodils, tulips, narcissi, miniature iris. And so that we can dump the many garden pots' soil into the gardens as well, preparatory to storing the pots safely in the garden shed, safe from frost damage.
Not to mention that this too is the time of year we choose to empty one of our three composters, to spread that black gold over the garden beds, giving them a good warm blanket for the winter, enabling the compost to break down further into the soil below. So, it's time, I'm afraid, to begin pulling up the annuals, cutting back those perennials which haven't yet been cut back.
Sad, as right now the gardens are still brilliant. They soothe the eye, gladden the heart.
posted by Pieface @ Friday, October 06, 2006
<< Home