Last night in my garden, I noticed two more green tomatoes getting up to size. The plant is in a container, but it defies being contained! Branches are flopped on the pot of thyme nearby or in the potted Satsuma.

Roses are still blooming with Ambridge Rose getting ready to burst with all its fat buds. I think the katydids have finally realized that this is a dangerous place to come to eat; I'm finding fewer and fewer of them munching on rosebuds.

Sweetpea shoots are now about 8" tall, though unable to reach their supports and are floundering around with their 'arms' outstretched like a toddler trying to walk.

Beets are growing big leaves with burgundy veining. The bugs haven't discovered them yet so they are still 'untouched' and flourishing. I think I shall have to thin them once again. There's something about thinning that feels mean, somehow...

Today in my garden everything is getting a gift from Mother Nature's watering can. It has been raining for the last two days. No storms or severe weather, but a gentle slow rain that will keep October from living up to its reputation of being the driest month of the year. The mums are so heavy with the precipitation that they seem to be bending down to kiss the earth. I notice that a group of blooms on my mandevilla vine haven't noticed that their connection to the earth has been severed. Their stems are dangling in mid air. The pot has been moved to the covered patio to protect it from the predicted freeze. Beside them, my whiskey barrell is full of purple heart, sweet potato vine, and dusty miller. I have covered them nights so I can enjoy them for a few more weeks. My rose bushes look healthy but have no blooms. My maples have dropped their leaves and the ground is covered with a thick carpet of gold and red leaves, unaware that the mulcher is waiting to do its job when the weather clears. It is strange how it can look bleak and beautiful at the same time. Now under the patio, it's a different sight. Pots of impatients, geranimums, ferns, german ivy, and begonias are still in full bloom. I'm hoping for seed pods to mature before the really hard freeze does them in.
Pots of flowers line the wall waiting for the ride to my DD's garage to winter over. The deer that have fed regularly in my garden all summer, have come closer to the house and helped themselves to the remainder of the hostas.
They needed cutting back anyway, so I just took pictures, and didn't run out screaming and yelling at them. I'll save that for spring when the ritual will start again.
I hope everyone keeps posting, I love knowing what is going on in your gardens. MeMo's duck and goose, Eduardo's trellis, those that are fortunate to have an extended growing season. Thanks for sharing!

Smoke!!! Yesterday I woke up to an uncanny yellow glow, which lasted all day. No blue skies here and the birdbath had black ash floating in it. The fires are not in our town, but the Santa Ana winds are blowing the smoke and ash this way. Today a bit better-- some blue sky showing, at least. I went out and hosed off the plants, and heard them sighing in relief. The birdbath has fresh water. Going outside even briefly has given me a headache. The roses are blooming beautifully in their fall flush glory, though, and there are some fall leaf colors too--- guess I will have to appreciate it from inside the house though. Hope this is over soon. Four firefighters are down...
-Becky

The morning was cool and brisk perfect for the task of prunning the roses. The Austins got a series haircut in preparation for their move to the country. I also spent time today dreaming about the new gardens. My grandaughters have each chosen a color for their new garden at Nana's new house. April's will be yellow, Bekah's pink, Karlie's red, Kassie's blue and the baby girl due the first day of spring will be orange/peach. I can't wait to get all my seeds from the seed trade sorted by color for their new beds. All is good!

"It is strange how it can look bleak and beautiful at the same time." oh daisy, that is just so perfectly exquisite! Another poet in our midst.
in my garden today....I just glimpsed it after sunset while checking my chickens. Got home late from delivering kids to various functions for the evening. The sky was a perfectly yellow-gold-grey with a silver sliver of moon peaking over the trees. The stark, black silhouette of the tree line stood sharp against the last light of day. As much as I hate to see the winter come, there is something strangely exhilerating, something primally moving about it. Maybe it's just the change of seasons, but with winter it seems so much more raw and beautifully painful.

I think Jack Frost might strike tonight, I felt sorry for some of the plants and dug them up, put them in a really big pot and brought them into the porch.

I think the tomato vines might be gonners tomorrow am.

the cosmos look so pretty, many of the maltese crosses were bloomed out today, there are several poppies wanting to pop open but I do not think they well be allowed....a few strawberry blooms, I keep picking them hoping to help out the plant not sure that is the right thing to do....

Leasa

Yesterday we awoke to warm and humid temps, so for now our chilly weather is over. This morning we woke to clouds heavy with rain, brisk breezes, and finally the rain fell. The ground has become parched where I don't water, and other things have been saying please give me a drink, so the rain was nice. More is expected. Even though it was warm and very humid and drizzling out this morn, I went out and picked a bouquet of roses, Blue Girl, Chrysler Imperial, Messimy, Golden Sun, and a couple of more but my mind is blank as to what they were, even though I can see them in my mind. ;-)

Texas sage is loaded with their beautiful mauvy colored flowers, white cat's whiskers are bobbing in the wind, roses are scenting the air as well as rosemary and Mexican Oregano.

Wind chimes are making their sweet tunes and today is another day to be thankful for.

FlowerLady

Here in northern Michigan we have just enjoyed two beautiful sunny days in a row, which is something to cheer about this particular fall. October has been a lot colder, grayer, and rainier than usual around here, and, although I usually enjoy the muted palette of late fall once the leaves have fallen, I am finding that it's bringing me down a bit this year.

I spread a thick layer of summer's compost amongst my flowers a day ago, as far as it went. There never seems to be enough of that wonderful stuff. The peony leaves have turned a beautiful complex blend of orange and yellow this fall and are still pretty enough that they have escaped being cut back so far. The dark red heuchera is still pretty, and some beacon silver is still blooming it's little heart out, in spite of the fact that I transplanted it from summer pots, and I had to scrape some snow away to dig the holes for it. Thank goodness the snow's all gone now.

I grew a couple hundred sunflowers this year, some for cut flowers and some for birdseed. I lopped off about forty of the seed-loaded flower heads yesterday, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to separate the seeds for use in the birdfeeder. Maybe I should just put the whole heads in the feeder and let the birds figure it out. They have already been working on them a bit in the field.

We're back to gray and rainy today, with the added attraction of heavy wind predicted for later today, so I think I'll do some overdue tractor maintenance this afternoon.

Happy fall to all.

ThinMan

Well, a few hundred miles down the lake from Thinman it is one of those perfect fall days. Strong winds are making it feel much colder than it is, but those same winds are making the big fluffy clouds race across the sky, allowing the sun to burst through and highlight the fall colors.

All the color left in the gardens are from mums, marigolds, nasturtiums, and pumpkins. It's a perfect fall mix!

As much as I love summer, I am eagerly anticipating the dull days of November, the time before the snow when everything seems so bland. We spend a lot more time inside with friends and family, and it's our time of year to slow down and just appreciate life.

I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween on Tuesday!

Today is a perfect fall day here in Texas. After some days of high winds, there is hardly a breath of breeze today with temps in the lower to middle seventies. Perfect for porch swing or hammock time.

The fall flush is done, but there are still sporactic blooms on most roses. Tree leaves are slowly beginning to fade into yellows and golds. In another week, the teenaged oak in the back yard will be an old scarlett color.

We planted out some bunny food (aka as pansies) this afternoon. I immediately mixed up and sprayed our homemade Bunny-B-Gone in an attempt to discourage feeding. The pansy blooms are lost in the midst of the other fall blooms, but they will shine as soon as we've had our first freeze. There are two flats of white pansies waiting to go into the white garden tomorrow afternoon.

The profusion zinnas and salvias are going gangbusters. Bees are buzzing around the Mexican heather and Mexican bush sage. An occasional Monarch still flutters in for sip at the blossoms. The deep purple morning glories are as pretty as you can hope for. Even though I can't quite bring myself to rip them out, I know the purple and multi-colored zinnas are done. Tomorrow, maybe. They have been a delight since August.

This is the first week in many many weeks that we haven't had to mow, although we may need to by next week. Everything is definitely slowing down.

Happy

Today was gorgeous here in Atlanta too. Cool, but perfect for heavy work. The maple tree next door is losing leaves already though. I thought maybe this would be THE year we'd get color on it before losing the leaves. But two or three days of rain knocked all the colour out, so we enjoyed what we could of the semi-colored "snow leaves" on the grass and in the veggie gardens.
The weather was perfect for thinking of cold frames, so the one I was gifted went out, and the seeds I planted too late of calendula and snapdragons went in, hopefully to speed up and get ready for winter planting. I threw the red and orange swiss chards in there too, also late planted.
Cool weather also got me thinking of winter sowing. I've actually already started winter sowing, since it is time to plant fresh native buckeye seeds. They must stay moist for good germination. I also set up the first winter sowing table, but I'm thinking of making perminent nursery tables with wooden legs and frames and tops of the metal mesh.
Tomorrow more edging goes around the expanded potager to hold in new pathway materials. The beds are full of greens, radishes and other yummies!!

GGG

Today it's cold and overcast -- no, really!! -- in the San Francisco Bay Area. The vivid color has left the Chinese pistache trees, and the leaves are falling to the ground. You have to be careful when there's too many, they're actually quite slippery en masse, even on a concrete sidewalk. Only 1 rain so far in the last month but Nov 1st starts our rainy season and they are forecasting a mild El Nino year, so a bit more rain than usual is expected.

I have the rare gift of being able to stay home until the end of the year, then will have to go out and get a new job. So I am taking the time to get our legal/financial affairs in order (have procrastinated long enough!) and occasionally get out into the garden to do the bigger tasks I've been putting off. Took out one star jasmine but will let my gardener take out the other, I think it's too big for me to handle by myself. Will take out the Senecio confusem vine -- pretty, but the ever-present ants love to cultivate aphids on it like mad. I hate spraying, so have decided to take it down and plant something more sensible and pest-free.

High winds made the cannas lean over. Soon I'll have to tie them up or cut them back. The new plantings have done well in the final part of the backyard that we finished just a year ago. We had bright orange and red canna flowers almost the entire year. It was so pleasant to sit out on the new lower patio on warm weekends, better than a vacation because it was right outside the door! Nursed the beds through the dry summer and now we'll see how the plantings do if we indeed get a wet winter. The soil in this section is still mostly clay, and I may find myself replacing some plants by the spring. But that's for the future; right now I'm looking forward to not having to drag the hose around for the next few months.

There's so many plants still in bloom here. I walked to the post office and enjoyed seeing everybody's landscaping. Some bad, some good, but everybody's is different. No boring conformity in this area! From my own garden I cut roses, hydrangeas and dahlias for the vases. Aren't they pretty?
{{gwi:757034}}

Well, I think y'all need to share pics over on the gallery of all this fall glory. : )

I've got mums with green eyes, pumpkins that think they're cats, and hollyhocks that refuse to give up the ghost.

Happy Halloween!
Diana

Today in my garden things are beginning to thin out. We've had heavy frost the last two nights, and it barely got out of the thirties yesterday. So my wax begonias are gone (last spring I made the "mistake" of planting them in between my hostas, and they grew up through them -- just beautiful), and the fuchsia (my first time growing one -- I'm not all that exercised about them, so I didn't bother saving it), and while the petunias weren't technically dead yet, they were scraggly enough that I went ahead and pulled them, too.

The hostas were mush, so I cut them back, and moved one of them, and I divided my coral bells (from one four inch pot two years ago I have enough to edge six feet of bed now), and I also took some divisions to give to my new next-door neighbor. Oh, and I also moved The Bleeding Heart That Ate New York.

Now all I need to do is clean up my front flower bed, and I think we're set for winter. It's a good thing -- according to the weather forecast, the rainy winter season looks like it's about to set in [g].

We had trick-or-treaters visit tonight, and the father of the kids said: Do you mind if I bring my wife to look at your garden? She is in a car.
Well, that was a great treat for me, since I love people enjoy and admire my creation. I am not humble at all when it comes to my garden :-).
Natalie

Today in my garden the leaves are beginning to turn shades of red, purple and orange. Such glorious colors I want to set up an easel and paint everything I see.

The rains came for the first time yesterday. The ground smells heavenly from the rain, like fresh mowed grass. I can almost see the hydrangeas laughing with glee for the first bath of the season.

The first thing I notice is how quiet the garden is in the fall. The bee's are gone along with the butterflies. Birds beginning to move on and migratory birds passing through. I miss the life that abounds in spring. But Spring will come again in time.

ThinMan, can I beg you for pictures of your garden :-) I'd love to see all those sunflowers.

Edna