Still Some Flowers Out There

Fall is my favorite time of year to work in the garden. I love the crisp feel to the air, the smell of the leaves, the special quality of the light in the bright blue sky. it's nice to tidy up the garden, and put it to bed, with a whole winter to dream about how next year's garden is going to be so much better. It takes a lot of optimism to be a gardener!

While working outside today, I got to enjoy the brightly colored mums that the Curly One brought home from Gove Farm. Personally, I love the dark red mums, but the bright orange ones look really nice against our dark brown house.

 

The last perennial to blossom in my garden is this pale peach mum, which is just starting to blossom. The bees have to work a lot harder to find flowers now.

 

These two were sharing (briefly) till one moved on to a neighboring flower.

 

 

This fall,  we've had one of those mini-miracles that gardens can provide. Many years ago I bought an Electric Blue Sage plant. Two years ago it stopped blossoming, and seemed to have died off. When my husband moved a tree this year, this plant sprouted up next to it. I thought it was yet another Butterfly Weed, which is plentiful in my garden, and told him he could just pull it out. Luckily, he never got around to doing that, and look what happened! Definitely NOT an orange Butterfly Weed! A gorgeous Electric Blue Sage.  I love, love, love this color! Keeping my fingers crossed that it will survive the winter.

 

There are also some annuals still blooming their little hearts out, but the frost predicted for the end of the week will probably be the end of them. After that, the garden color will come from some tiny crabapples.

 

For a short while, that is, until the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks eat them all up.  Next they'll eat the hawthorn berries, and finally the viburnum berries. But by then, it will be time to start watching for crocuses, and the new garden season will be starting. I can hardly wait. I have plans, and next year's garden is going to be amazing! Just wait and see.