By Jill Williams
“October is the fallen leaf, but it is also a wider horizon more clearly seen.”– Hal Borland.
Most of my glads bloomed after Labour Day.
It was so reassuring to see them again after their poor show last year. I constantly change my mind about what the best cut flower is but for now it’s definitely the glads. In the spring it will almost certainly be daffodils.
We have had several hard frosts where the lawn is all white in the morning. I don’t really mind as at this time of year I can’t face another cucumber or tomato. Or zucchini. I have no problem at all cleaning up those spent tomato plants and moving on to getting ready to plant garlic.
People seem to be opinionated about the best time to plant garlic but I have found that it doesn’t matter much. As long it gets in there before it snows it will be fine.
The very prolific trailing nasturtiums close to the house haven’t been affected by the frost. They survive the first cold nights and keep on blooming into the Indian summer that we get every year.
There are a few porch plants that I bring in on cold nights. It’s worth it to do this as it will warm up again and they will keep on blooming for several more weeks.
I always forget that the trailing rosemary blooms twice a year. It’s covered with tiny purple flowers and the bees are all over it on every sunny day. It can stay out until November and then it gets a major pruning and comes in for the winter.
Is anyone else tired of seeing poor scruffy plastic planters of million bells? These will actually do well if they’re repotted into good soil in a bigger pot. Mine are still blooming and their flowers are almost as big as old fashioned petunias. But unlike old fashioned petunias they don’t have to be dead headed. In a bigger pot they usually produce a few seedlings that can be saved over the winter and can go outside next spring. I haven’t had to buy any new plants for a few years now.
I wonder if we will be lucky this year and once again have no lady bug swarming. Last year was the first year in decades that this didn’t happen. I didn’t miss them covering the south and west sides of the house and I didn’t miss having them inside all winter.
There seems to be fewer cluster flies than usual this fall. If they went away altogether it wouldn’t bother me. They are one of the few annoying things about an otherwise enjoyable time of year.
It’s always a little sad when I realize that the hummingbirds have gone. The orange honey-suckle vine beside the door has some fall blooms on it and there are no hummingbirds to enjoy them.
The phoebes are still here but they won’t be for much longer. I have noticed the last few years that they come back and hang around close to the porch where they nest before they migrate. Or maybe they have always done this and I just wasn’t paying attention.
I have heard some trees down by the creek falling in the middle of the night so that can only mean one thing. The kingdom of the beaver is being rebuilt for the winter. They have been gone for several years and I haven’t had a pond beside my cabin. They stay away long enough for the poplar to regenerate and then they come back. This is a never ending cycle and it’s good to see the pond reappearing once again.
I’m looking forward to bulb planting once it’s a little cooler. And there is firewood to organize and so many more fall jobs to keep me busy until it snows.
I’m choosing to be positive and hope that the forecast of a milder winter is correct. No snow until Christmas; wouldn’t that be wonderful?