A few remaining Fothergilla leaves that were sheltered from last week’s wind by a stone wall. Color was especially nice this year.

A perennial candytuft/Iberia sempervirens that blooms spring and fall is still blooming along with a few pink columbine leaves

These black eyed Susans selfseed around the front drive and walk. Most are faded but a few are still hanging on

These self seeded petunias are also still blooming along the south facing foundation. Everything so far is in a sheltered spot against the house.

That Fothergilla really does turn a bright orange! And I didn't know that candytuft bloom in the fall too. I've tried them before but they petered out.

I think I got everything the garden could offer before this cold spell that is starting tonight. I just went out and picked the last of the Mustard for Smoothies and we had more parsley for roasted potatoes last night. We used Yukon Gold potatoes and they were not half as tasty as the French Fingerlings we had from the garden last week.

I picked two Rose buds yesterday in the hope they will open in the house, but that's the end of them. Even the Mums are flopped and fading and the Sedums have turned brown. But the Oakleaf Hydrangea has gone from deep maroon to bright red and still has most of it's leaves. And alyssum is still blooming well. I should have taken photos today.

I wonder if anyone is ready to drag the hoses in?

I feel like it’s a relatively bloomless November in my garden. The Japanese anemones and coneflowers are all finished, and the honeysuckle, which sometimes has a late burst, is quiet right now. I usually have a couple late roses, but they’re done, too; All I’ve got going are a couple asters. Will try to get a photo later.

Prairiemoon, I was raking up the path and looking at the hoses yesterday. Will probably bring them in this weekend, when I insulate the beehives. Need to drain my rain barrels, too.

Nekobus - well, we don't normally expect to have things blooming in November really. I would think through October is as much as we usually can expect. Isn't a hard frost later than usual this year? What blooms in November in New England?

Oh, thanks for reminding me, the rain barrels need to get drained and dragged into the basement. I barely used mine this year. And I need to wash out a few pots before I put the hoses away. I should be out there today doing the last minute things, but I'm just distracted with other things.

I did notice a couple of blooms on the Honeysuckle when I walked past it this week. Nothing impactful. And it is a vine that has never produced fragrance, so I'm apt to shovel prune it one of these days. I also noticed some Cuphea in a pot that was still blooming although I haven't seen a hummingbird all season.

Last year, my mature blue holly bloomed a second time in the fall. The Bumble Bees were thrilled. I saw a couple of blooms on it yesterday but nothing like last year.

Last night we were sitting at the kitchen counter and my husband said he saw a hawk whiz by the window about dusk. I usually spend more time outdoors then I have this growing season, and now we're putting down the storm windows again. *sigh* Maybe I'll just have to get out more this winter!

I disconnected my hose and drained it yesterday, but I'll leave it out all winter as long as it's empty. I think it was Jane who told me she always does that with no problems, and I've done it a few years now. It's a lot easier than putting it away somewhere.

Lovely roses, PM2. I still have some roses blooming although not as fancy as yours.

Zephirine Drouhin by the porch:

Good old Knockouts are great in the fall, submerged in ornamental grasses:

Blushing Knockout is always one of the last to keep blooming:

Ilex opaca 'Goldie' berries are turning yellow now.

This branch is from the holly that was smashed by a falling pine branch a few years ago:

I'm glad that PM2 had a blue holly bloom in the fall. I've been scratching my head and looking at this one. It looks like it got pollinated and the flowers may form berries.

The big old winterberry still has leaves and the berries haven't been eaten yet.

The cotoneaster berries contrast nicely with white wood aster seedheads.

I'm at Houzz's ten photo limit so I'll continue in another post.

Claire

One of the Kousa dogwoods has nice color accented by the cotoneasters:

One of my fothergillas got smashed by the falling pine branch too, so I propped it up against the pine next to the propped up holly. It didn't bloom but the leaves have nice color still, although not as red as NHBabs'.

And the Thanksgiving Pilgrim turkey is flying again:

Claire

Claire, I’ve noticed around here that the knockouts seem to have blooms on them late into the fall. I like both the darker and the blushing color. And that Zephrine Drouhin certainly had a lot of blooms this summer, did you get a lot of repeat bloom?

Glad your holly that was smashed is coming back for you. Yes, I see you have blooms on your holly too. I’m going to have to take a closer look this weekend to see if I see more. My holly that bloomed, was a male Blue Holly, so no berries. And I saw a Bumble bee on the shrub today - surprised because I thought they were all gone.

But I do have a female Blue Holly, maybe 'Blue Princess', in the back, that has a bumper crop of berries this year. There was a Gray Dogwoond shrub in front of it that shaded it a fair amount and it was damaged in a storm and I cut it to the ground in the spring and let the suckers grow up around it. So the holly in the back had a lot more sun this year. Amazing how many more berries you get with more sun.

Quite a lot of berries on your Winterberry! I don’t grow that, the berries will stay after the leaves drop, right?

What a cute Thanksgiving Turkey! lol So cheerful! I can't believe Thanksgiving is about 3 weeks away!

PM2: I didn't get a lot of repeat bloom on the Zephirine Drouhin rose, just a few buds and blooms at a time. It's not in full sun so it probably would get more blooms then. I have another by my deck which is even shadier so it doesn't really repeat.

The winterberry berries stay after the leaves drop - at least until the end of December when the birds decide they're ripe. The robins will be checking regularly in late December and suddenly one day there will be a large flock, often with cedar waxwings, and they'll feast.

The Goldie berries will last until late winter/early spring and then slowly disappear.

Claire

Yours go pretty early. I have an Aronia that the berries stay on a long time. Maybe they are not sweet enough for them. [g] I get robins in flocks too for the Gray Dogwood with white berries and the Aronia, but I'll have none this winter, because the new growth on the suckers didn't produce any flowers. The berries on the blue holly, I have no idea who eats that. I can't see it that well from the house and the berries seem to disappear a little at a time.

My Zepherine Drouhin usually blooms again in fall, though I didn’t notice this year as I was gone.

The robins eat holly berries here. They are typically long gone before the cedar wax wings return.

Here is this evening’s sunset. We got a bit of snow this afternoon that didn’t stick on the roads, but on leaves and grass and dried hydrangea flower heads there is a delicate dusting of snow. Wind chill is supposed to get to around 0 tonight, early for us here.

As I was doing a range of indoor and outdoor chores Sunday afternoon, I watched this front move slowly north. I liked the way this late afternoon sun lit up the edge of the clouds.

Really pretty sky! I appreciate your open space photos and sky and horizon photos so much. I feel like the only time I see the horizon or a big wide open sky, is on the highway. [g]

Thanks, PM2; I am glad you enjoy it. I feel very lucky that I have this view, that someone recreated this as a farm field in the 70s (it had grown up from the 40’s when it stopped being an active production dairy farm), and that our current local dairy farmers have done such a great job with rebuilding soil quality and practicing good soil conservation. I love watching the view over the year as it changes as the growth stage of the crop changes. Long views are common in the Midwest but a bit rarer in New England. It is also wonderful to watch weather sweeping up the field, whether it’s a front like this or a sudden downpour or thunder and lightning.

I always enjoy NHBabs' long view, and she has it in four seasons! My long view is seasonal - it slowly appears when the leaves are gone and mostly disappears when they come back.

Now that the leaves are going, my winterberry is getting more dramatic. I wanted to photograph it a while ago, but it kept raining and the ornamental grass plumes were all matted down. There's a short window now before the next rain this afternoon and I couldn't wait for some sun.

View from my kitchen window:

And there was a photo bomber as I tried to get a close up of the berries:

The squirrel didn't appreciate my watching so it left as fast as it came:

Claire

Blue jays go well with winterberries too.

Claire

Claire, you have planted such a nice winter view, with the winter berries and other hollies, the evergreens, both broad-leafed and conifer, and the tall tan grasses. And then often the sky and water as well in other places.

I made the mistake of planting my winterberries in a spot where I can’t easily see them from inside. I think I should transplant some of the suckers to where I can see them more easily, perhaps some behind the house as well as some by what remains of the farm pond which tends to grow wet-loving plants even though the moisture can be seasonal.

Thanks, NHBabs! The view from inside my house is enormously important to me, particularly from the kitchen window when I'm doing kitchen things. I sometimes overfill a pot with water because I'm busy looking out the window and forget the faucet is running.

Winter snow cover is really erratic here - every four or five years we get significant snow but otherwise there can be no or minimal snow cover. This is both stressful for the plants and means I need to have lots of evergreens and berries to look at instead of just brown plants and bare branches.

I don't have a good sunset view so I'm waiting for nice morning light now that I can easily see the bay.

Claire

Babs, did you ever live in the MidWest? I also love watching weather sweep in from a distance.

Claire, That's quite a stand of winterberries! They're so mature. You must look forward to the change when the leaves drop. You can't see the water from your house, right? But there is a sitting area where you can, right? I wonder, the cliffs there have been eroding and I wonder if a lot of the planting behind you had the intention of holding the cliff? It would seem that the tree roots would help in that regard.

i don't really have a long view. Instead I'm trying to screen views of neighbor's yards. [g]

I haven't planted winterberries because I think they need more moisture than I have. I use Blue Holly instead and I've used Taxus. The larger they get the more I enjoy them. I have a 'Sky Pencil' Holly that is tall and narrow. It was moved 2 or 3 years ago and this is the first year that I've thought it's starting to settle in. It likes it's new position much better with more sun. This is the first year I haven't had yellowing leaves and I had a lot more black berries on it. We just tied it up for the winter.

Gray and rainy out there today.

PM2: The winterberries date back to my parents' garden and I remember them being here when I was a kid, although I never saw the berries because we only lived here in the summer. The house wasn't heated then and we lived in another town the rest of the year.

I can see the water from my house when the leaves are down. The cliff was eroding when I was a kid and my parents kept throwing organic matter over to stabilize it. I remember sitting on the edge and spitting watermelon seeds over. It's been stable for years now with trees growing on the cliff, but I can remember erosion of ten feet per year the first few years back then.

Many of the neighbors keep their yards tree-free to maximize their view of the water but I'm quite content with a seasonal view. The more roots the better and I like the shade in the summer. I still throw branches and leaves and pine needles over and I'm experimenting with carefully tied bundles of cardboard to add bio-degradable material for mulch.

I like large shrubs too - I don't want to be the tallest thing in my garden.

Claire

Correction: I may have seen the berries and just not remembered since my parents always opened the house for Thanksgiving Day (the water was shut down on Columbus Day weekend). They closed it down again after Thanksgiving for the winter. We kids and friends used to visit downtown Plymouth for the Thanksgiving Day festivities.

Claire

PM2, I grew up in Cleveland and still visit my mom there, so I grew up with open sweeps of both water and farm fields as part of my visual vocabulary. I had grandparents in the Boston area as well as a dairy farming part of NY state as well. I now have a sister in WI and a brother in the foothills near Denver, so I have spent a fair amount of time in the mountain west and in WI and MN with them because we have spent vacations together for years. I also have a sister in CA, though I don’t spend quite as much time there. I feel lucky that I have siblings (and their spouses) that I consider friends. DH died this past spring, so I expect to head to WI some time in the next 5 years so that I have family nearby. My brother’s illness has made me realize that as we are aging, having family nearby is really important to me. I will really miss this property quite a lot because it is the most beautiful place I have ever lived, but I can’t see myself aging here.

Claire we have family members who had a place in Plymouth right on the cliffs. I think of that every time I see your property. :-) They were definitely not gardeners, but they enjoyed their time there. They had young children who loved it there.

Babs, Oh, SO sorry you lost your husband in the spring. There's very little that sounds harder than that. And that your brother is ill as well. The older we get, the faster the time seems to go by and the more loss we seem to have to endure. It's hard to have one loss to deal with but illness in the family and loss at the same time, it's a lot to cope with.

You sound so good though! Like you are really managing. And still here posting instead of in a funk somewhere. I doubt I'd do as well. :-)

You were lucky to live somewhere that you could be so close to nature growing up. And it seems to have had a lifelong impact on you. And your siblings too, since they seem to have moved to places where I am only imagining are close to nature. The foothills near Denver etc. I've never been to any of those places, but I always consider them to have a lot more open space than we do here. Although up in New Hampshire you probably have more space than we do in MA.

You do have a large property there and I'd guess it's a lot to keep up with for one person. So sounds like a well thought out plan to move near family. Who knows, there's no reason to think that you won't find a new place to live that you love as much.

And the one thing I'm glad about, is that since we all visit online, even if you move out West, we'll still be able to see you posting, if you don't get too busy. [g]

In all honesty, this forum was one of my lifelines along with in person friends and family, so thanks to y’all for being here. It was visiting I could do during the year DH was ill and also now that I am back and forth between NH and CO. It makes it easy to get nerdy with other gardeners even when my garden isn’t within reach.

Denver is a big city, but the foothills and up into the mountains as well as out into the open ranch land east of the city are rural and small town.

Well, our gardens are just about out of reach all winter and that never stops us from talking about them. [g] I find when I just want to focus on something positive and not stressful, I always turn my mind toward the garden. So yes, it does help you cope for sure.

I think I am the only one in my family that would prefer a rural or small town life. Some of them just love the city. So the rural areas of Denver sound great to me. I hope you will take photos next time you are there. I think you already posted a few...

Glad you keep posting, we all really appreciate your contribution, I'm sure. You've always been a very consistent and enthusiastic and knowledgeable GW member. I can always depend on an answer to a question from your direction. So thanks goes to you as well.

:-)

Funny visual, Babs with a U Haul full of plants! [g]

Ditto on always trusting your input, Babs.

I did the vehicle full of plants last time I moved, but that was just across town. I don’t know what I will do this time. Maybe I will move the plants and let a moving company take care of everything else. ;>\. Or perhaps just order tons of new plants when I move. :>)

It will likely be at least a couple of years before I leave - I am committed to staying a minimum of a year and may stay until I hit 65, depending on what happens with housing and health insurance. My job may be portable, especially since I can work remotely if the internet connection is good, and my boss spends time in WI not far from my family, so it may be doable. My sister is retired but her spouse is still working and we haven’t made any decisions on where we want to land in the final consideration. I feel no need to make decisions now. I will definitely continue posting regardless of when and where I end up.

DH wasn’t into holidays as different from other days, so I don’t anticipate feelings of loss will be any different than other days, and those ebb and flow. Taking things a day at a time.

I did get all the grassy fields mowed this year, and planted and harvested a fair amount of veggies, though because I wasn’t around in September I didn’t get the final harvest in before our early frost. I converted all heat to propane rather than wood (I don’t use a chainsaw), so that reduces the work load as well. While DH was sick, I found someone to mow the lawns, and he has continued that for me. So the work is manageable solo and I can stay as long as I want. But as I continue to age, the likelihood of serious health issues increases and I would prefer being near family for that as well as ongoing support and interaction going both ways. I can’t imagine not having a garden of some sort as long as I am not bedridden!

Sounds like you've made the hardest decision already (the intention to move) and the rest is detail (where, when, how). You've given yourself plenty of time to deal with these details and you should be able to do this well.

I'm sure you've already added good internet connection to your "must-have" list and that will be a joy.

Good luck with the ongoing moving process!

Claire

Not New England . . . I am cheating. Denver suburbs where we have had about a foot so far. Up in Loveland near the Continental Divide west of Denver they have 36” and snow is still falling.

PS. Sorry about the sideways photos. I oriented the tablet the direction that worked last time, but it isn’t working this time.

Sounds like you have already made a lot of good decisions along the way to end up on a beautiful property, doing something you love, being able to manage the work load alone, staying close to your family. Takes sound thinking and planning to find yourself with time to figure things out instead of in a crisis. No reason to think the decisions you make next won't follow suit.

SNOW! [g] I am just not ready for snow. Maybe by Christmas Eve, I'd look forward to it, but that's about it. Ideally a consistently brief, 3 months of winter and snowy weather is what I'd love. Maybe December, January, February and then magically spring would start March 1st. lol. I might even be happy with 2 months, but I'm not crazy about the 4 months of winter.

Beautiful pics - especially like the one of the wreath on the fence. That is a nice large wreath and looks great even covered with snow.

Lovely snow-filled pics, not what we usually see on the November thread. I have to admit that I've had the snow shovels and ice chopper out since early November when we had a real cold snap. Luckily the rain stayed on either side of the cold snap so we didn't get any snow. A little well-mannered snow cover would be OK - enough to protect the plants but not knock down tree branches or even trees.

It's in the mid-fifties today and I have three shrubs covered that are probably beginning to sweat. I'm not going to take the covers off though. Next week is supposed to get colder.

My porch entry is transitioning from Halloween to Thanksgiving.

Maybe the lawn dragon can scare away any snowstorms.

Claire

I love that this thread started with flowers and ended with snow, even if it was December at the end due to my tardiness in getting the December thread posted.

I just deleted my snow pictures here since they belong on the December thread. I moved them.

Claire