Nice monkshood, Rouge. None of those here though! :-) Lots of things still in a showy state here - the first killing frost here usually isn't until the end of this month and it's been a very mild month so far. I took a few pictures this morning but too many to post so I'll just post a couple....

The backyard is mostly a green garden still with some silver/white foliage. A few leaves are starting to fall but not much leaf color yet. The squirrels finally seem to have found the fruitballs on the Milky Way dogwood so they are disappearing fast.

There is still a fair bit going on in the front garden. This picture shows some of the fall color in the front. The mums are one of the last things to bloom - they will fade to pink as the flowers are finishing their bloom at the end of the month/early November. I wish the Little Lamb hydrangea had a more attractive color than the muddy pink-red it turns after the white flowers fade! The heptacodium has dropped its white flowers and is showing some of the pink calyxes. Unfortunately they never develop the show the showy color they do further south in US pictures...!

Flowers are usually finished here by the end of the month but the garden still has colour from leaves and things like rose hips afterwards. I consider it interesting to look at well into December or early January - and then it gets boring until March when it starts waking up again :-) How does that compare to your garden which is further north than here?

Rouge, lovely monkshood! I like the color combination of the darker and lighter. And so upright. Mine are 5-6 feet tall and all floppy. Here's one that's just leaning, not completely flopped over lol.

:)

Dee

Dahlias take center stage here.,.

as well as Little Quick Fire.

tj

My garden has not changed much in the past month. We did have a couple of hard freeze so I pulled out all annuals.

Here's a neat fall crocus:

And sedum Thunderhead:

Maz you just reminded me I have some fall crocus as well. They've never done well for me though - always very leggy and weak, as if they are really struggling to grow and bloom. Tsuga, I just commented on your lovely dahlia on another thread. What a gorgeous color!

:)

Dee

Well, you asked for it- my garden in October.

This is the lunacy that is my life.

No lovely fall blooming here- just a behind the scenes look under the hood so to speak.

Most perennials have been cut back by now- anything you see in a white wire cage was newly planted this fall and is establishing- the cages are to keep dog feet off of them.

Once they get any size the dogs mostly go around, and by the time we do the last go-round of leaf blowing most of the wire will be gone for the winter.

Only to be reused in the spring to protect tiny hosta pips from being trampled before they get tall enough to be easily seen by the dogs.

Dogs + gardens is always fun :)

We bought the yard for them and try to co-exist gardening in it- it's always a fine line between their exercise and enjoyment and my own garden micro-managing. I think I've found a good balance but it takes a bit of effort.

Right now I am in a mad dash to get all my compost down- I have some of the best compost I've ever had from all the leaves we get here. This particular pile is leaves only - or supposed to be. It's a bit too handy to throw yard debris in, so there are a few sticks but by and large it's lovely!

This pile is just outside the fenced portion of my 'yard.'

Anyway, this is where I am right now.

Yesterday was the last warm day and today starts cooler weather work.

Just think of me out there tip-toeing through all the dog-proofing tryin' to get stuff done, lol.

cearbhaill you made me smile - my indoor life is similar with my cat. I was just commenting yesterday to my son how our lives revolve around the cat, and how we modify our activities and actions to work around hers lol.

On one hand I envy that you are so far along in your fall chores, but I also wonder that you get started so early. We're about the same zone, but I would think you must be at least a tad bit warmer down in Kentucky than I am here in CT (unless you've got an elevation thing going on lol). Isn't it a bit early to be closing up shop, so to speak, in your garden?

It does look like you've got lots of new stuff to look forward to in the spring! I'm going out this morning to get some more stuff planted. I should be out there right now instead of reading GW lol...

:)

Dee

Rouge & dee: love your pics of monkshood! I just checked their hardiness and some are hardy to zone 3! Another plant I will add to my list! :

@diggerdee zone 6 CT: I planted 5 fall crocus last year and this is the only one that came up. No surprise there, they were planted very late, when it had already started to snow! lol!

cearbhaill - as a dog-lover, I need to know.... :-) What kind of dogs, and how many, are your garden buddies? Pictures of them....?

I just checked their hardiness and some are hardy to zone 3!

@mazerolm_3a the most impressive ie healthy and vigorous stands of MH I have ever seen were in chilly Alberta Canada...all over the place. (I wish i could get my MH to bulk up).

"Isn't it a bit early to be closing up shop, so to speak, in your garden?"

Maybe. But I did a huge perennial bed redo and moved/bought/divided many things, so it looked like doody anyway. It's cooler now so I think I was a tad early but not too.

And of course I like when it's done.

@woodyoak we have Wolfhounds. I don't post a lot of photos as I don't like to 'promote' them, they can be a hard dog to own and certainly need no publicity.

I wish I could do bulbs- the chipmunks eat them all. I have to fashion wire hardware cloth cages for each group of bulbs and frankly that's more work that I want to be doing. I have some hyacinths, a few crocus, and a tulipa species plants that I love. One stand of lilies has made it.

But aside from that I'm in the middle of chipmunk wars around here and don't want to attract more to the three million I already have.

cearbhaill - Thanks for telling me the dog breed you have ;-) Wolfhounds are certainly somewhat unusual and beautiful big beasties but, tragically short-lived :-( I'm sure a couple of those big dogs would need lots of running-around space so I hope you have a big property!

Heres a few

The photos need to be enlarged to do them justice. Even so, I'm no photographer

my crop of monkshood

Lush crop of winterberries this year, fronted by oakleaf hydrangea

and persecaria lance corporal, I think. The tiny red flowers are

going by but I love the effect.

p. Lance Corporal

Another the same.

SORRY FOR DUPLICATE POST. THE LAST PHOTO

ISN'T A REPEAT.

SOME SMALLISH HYDRANGEA PANICULATA OR ANOTHER.

sorry for duplicates above

cant remember its name

I believe this is stawberry Sundae

planted atop a rertaining wall so it flops effectively

Cambodian Queen

will’s wonderful. Catalogue photos show

much stronger color so the contrast is very

effective. I don't know why these have wimpy

coloration

This morning in my fountain garden

Rouge - Nice to be able to grow Monkshood. I’ve tried it a couple of times and it just petered out for me. I didn’t realize they had a bicolor.

Woody, I haven’t seen your garden in Fall that I remember. Looks so well cared for! That arch looks amazing - you are growing Euonymous on it? Do you get more color on the Dogwoods before the leaves drop?

LovemyCorgi - Quite a patch of Rozanne and how is that still blooming? Your FireLight really does look great! I’m surprised that Calamintha is still blooming and it looks nice growing with the Mums.

I now have a Corgi in our neighborhood - it’s about 9 months old. Cute as all get out. They called him Mango. [g]

Tsuga - Dahlias sure add to the late garden. Yours are so bright and cheerful. And that Quickfire turned some nice shades too.

Maz - I LOVE that Thunderhead Sedum. How long does it stay that color? It eventually turns the rusty brown, right?

Cearbhaill - You are so on track with getting ready for spring. I hope you will post photos in the spring. I think it is a great feeling of accomplishment to get it done before winter and really look forward to less work in the spring so you can enjoy your spring garden.

It is still warm here, but only for the next 3 days, first frost forecast for Monday. It’s about a week late.

Wolfhounds! Wow, I think I’ve seen one once in my life. Such beautiful dogs, but I think it must take some courage to try to garden with one. [g] It sounds like once the plants get to a certain size, they aren't a problem. You have more than one?

As for bulbs, I have always read that daffodil bulbs are poisonous and critters leave them alone and that has been my experience here. Crocus disappear to the point I've stopped planting them. I have some that go unmolested in a large bed of Vinca but that's it. Hyacinths also seem to continue to come up every spring and we do have some chipmunks. Not the million you have.

Marie, that is the first time I've seen photos of your Fall garden. It's looking quite lush. Are these recent photos? My Oakleaf Hydrangea is already starting to turn color. I love all your berry shrubs and that Strawberry Sundae Hydrangea is a beautiful Fall color. I end up with brown on the Oakleaf but the Little Lime seems to have turned a nice shade of pink and cream. No photo of it, as the 5ft aster didn't get support this year and has flopped all over it. [g]

Trailrunner - Nice garden scene! Is that a dry river bed with a water feature? It looks very natural and must be a nice place to sit and relax.

The bees are sleeping in the Dahlia flowers - every one had a bee nestled in it the other morning.

pm2 - I must have posted Fall pictures before…:-) The ’cared for’ look of the backyard is somewhat of an illusion. A key part of the value of the rectangular lawn with the path around it is that as long as that space is kept relatively neat, the beds around it look organized - even though, if you were here in person and looking closely, you’d see lots of weeds and plants that need dividing or other attention! The ash tree is now dropping leaves like mad and the pines have done their Fall needlecast, so it is a bit of a mess at the moment! There is no point in cleaning up the leaves ane pine needles until all the leaves are all down…! The maintence service we have used now for the past two years to help us with Fall and Spring clean-up will be coming on Nov. 2 to help us clean-up in the backyard. All the ash leaves should be down by then. All the leaves are left in - or raked into - the beds as mulch but the lawn and the path around it get cleaned up (and the leaves and needles from there added to beds.) We are working slowly to clean the front garden ourselves.

The dogwood is supposed to have good Fall colour in the leaves - but it hasn’t been very evident! The tree is still green out there and I don’t rember any good color in previous years either.

I still have mixed feelings about the euonymus on the arbour - so it was good to hear your opinion of it :-)

Thank you everyone for ” liking ” my fountain garden. @prairiemoon2 z6b MA no it isnt a dry river bed. When I had my rock guy bring limestone I also had him dig a 4’ square to hold a 100 gallons plastic water basin . We placed cement block and a pump and he drilled a 1 1/2” hole through a limestone rock for the hose to the pump. I didnt want a fake rock 😬. It turned out great but I am still trying to naturalize around it . I have some ideas about scattering the rocks through the bed but haven’t had time so it is a work in progress as my whole yard seems to be! Guess I am in good company here 😊

Woody, I don't think you give yourself enough credit! lol I completely get how the lawn with the paths around it keep everything organized and once that is kept neat, everything looks great. We have a similar size lot and our back is similar to yours, except we have a wavy edge to the lawn, and the trees are in the neighbor's yards with screen shrubs in our borders. Once we have the lawn mowed and edged everything looks good. We use a lot of mulch to keep the weeds down but we still have to weed a couple of times a year back there.

Still, your yard looks wonderful, and part of that is your design in the first place. Your trees are healthy, well cared for, well placed. The lawn is green and healthy looking and the shed is a perfect complimentary color and again, well placed. So, all the more evidence of good care and design that despite some needed weeding and other tasks not done yet, it still looks great!

Oh, and the Euonymous Arch, what is great about it.... Euonymous can be so aggressive or you can consider it 'vigorous'. If you are going to use it, why not in a situation where you are trimming it on a regular basis any way. You don't have to worry about it not filling in all the way. It's pretty bullet proof, isn't it? I don't grow it but by reputation I thought it was free of disease and insect problems. It's variegated, which fits in with your garden well. It makes quite an impact trimmed up like that, a real garden feature. Plus, no one else has done that that I know of, so it's very unique. I love the shape curved on the inside edge and square on the outside. Makes me think of Roman arches for some reason. I suppose you have negatives about it, but from the outside looking in, that's what I was thinking.

Trailrunner, you did a great job with that fountain garden. I would love to do something like that! I love that you used real rock. And I wonder, does it draw in a lot of wild life and birds? And it is recirculating I imagine, how does that work with keeping the water clean, is it filtered? I only know that I just have bird baths that don't circulate like a fountain and they get pretty dirty fast from bird droppings and leaf litter etc.

The fountain part of it sounds like an engineering job. [g] Sure, you still have work to do, I think most gardeners believe that the garden is never finished. lol I know mine isn't. I thought it would be by now, but...nope. But if it were finished, I think you might want to start over again because there is a difference between having a garden to just enjoy and one that you are creating and working on. I personally want to have both. It looks to me like you have a great start, so you have a place to enjoy already while you are working on the rest.

Thats it in a nutshell. I need to stay active. Our son died at 42 yrs old on May 11 2020.Our family is never going to be the same. I have good days and bad. He loved the outdoors and plants and had orchids at one point in his life. He lived in Hawaii on the Big Island at the end of his life and was a SCUBA diver. The beauty of nature was everything to him. The fountain garden is for him .

There is no filter except what is on the small pump itself. The water never gets dirty and you can access the pump by lifting out at the corner of the grid that rests on the cement blocks. I tried the commercial product to stop algae growth and it didnt work. I now pour about a cup of Clorox in if I see algae on the big rocks. Works perfectly and 1c in 100 gal water is nothing. I see birds actually sitting under the water that spouts out of the top!!! Its hilarious. No other wild life that ive seen. i keep hoping for frogs but maybe they dont like the splashing?

If you want more info I can link the pump and grid set up. The two guys dug out the perfect square in no time ! I would never have been able to do it. just needs precise measurements and muscle!!! c

Trailrunner - OMGosh, that’s horrible! It just hasn’t been that long and he was SO young! I always think that people who can channel their grief into something positive that reflects the person they lost and can be meaningful in that way, are better off than people who never manage to do that. I think you made a good decision about the garden. And it is a living thing that will grow and change which can be fresh and new year after year. You can always look around and consider how much your son would enjoy it. 😀

Well, sounds like you have the fountain just the way you need it. I don’t know about frogs, but that is a good thought. They probably aren’t attracted to moving water.

As much as I would LOVE to make a garden like that, I’d have to rip something out here and I haven’t even finished my original design. So that’s not going to happen any time soon. I’m trying to figure out how to do less work instead of more work. LoL But there is always that pull to wish you could start a new garden over again.

I hope you will post more photos as your garden changes. Spring too.

pm2 - it's always interesting to see your garden through someone else's eyes :-) Many of the things you credit to design were just us making the best of what was here - I guess that could be considered design in some sense though....! For instance the shed placement was set by the location of the decrepit/ugly shed that was here when we bought the place. We tore that down eventually and built the one you see in the picture on the same 'footprint' in order to keep the survey valid :-) I chose the paint colors to mimic a big shrub and blend with the existing trees (I took a photo and picked the paint colors by holding the sample cards against the photo to find the best match....) The white pines, white ash and red oak were here when we bought the place - and were part of the reason we bought this property! We have added smaller 'understory' trees that have ornamental features (flowers and Fall color). We expect to eventually lose the ash tree to Emerald Ash Borer and hope the smaller trees will provide shade for the garden when the ash dies....

The euonymus is 'Emerald Gaiety' and we have others of them in various places in the garden so they repeat and link that arbour to the rest of the garden. The arch is indeed a Roman style - the iron worker who made it for us is Italian and he said it reminded him of 'home'. :-) I was actually inspired by a picture I saw in a garden history book that showed an old Italian garden with a series of arches in stone and tiles that had the look of this one :-) The euonymus might be too much work re pruning in the future. I think I'll get the maintenance service folk to do it next Spring to see how that goes... There is an insect called Euonymus Scale that I worry about that could decimate the plants, so I keep a close eye on it. If Scale did strike, I might just cut the euonymus all off and go back to the basic iron framework.

Woody - Keeping what is best about a property and adding to it, is definitely ‘design’. Actually, I’ve always been drawn to a good ‘renovation’ or restoration whether it be a garden or a piece of antique furniture, over something brand new. You chose the property that had the white pine, the white ash and the red oak. A great choice. Isn’t that what design is, a series of choices?

You could have done some pretty ugly things, right? Cut down the trees, planted trees that were out of scale for the setting. Tried to grow a tropical garden in a Canadian winter setting. I think you really did make the best of the property and saved the right things and added complimentary elements. It’s a lovely, peaceful space.

I suppose to trim the Euonymous, maybe a power tool. And someone else to use it, even better. Hope that works out. I hear you about the Euonymus scale. I have battled a boxwood specific insect for years and just hate to pull out my boxwoods, but next year, if I have the opportunity, I should really decide to either get rid of them or cut them way way back and give them a restart.

Then I discovered I have a big scale problem on my Blue Holly in the foundation of my house. Since I am organic, I won’t use insecticides on it. I pruned it back this year but it wasn’t nearly enough. Next year, I’m going to give it a rejuvenation pruning and if that doesn’t work, it’s going to have to go. Which I hate, because I enjoyed the holly and it is a good screen for a front window facing the street.

These are just problems you expect in a garden I guess, and nothing too difficult to deal with if you are in your 30s and energetic, neither of which either of us are. 😀

Nice to be able to grow Monkshood. I’ve tried it a couple of times and it just petered out for me. I didn’t realize they had a bicolor.

@prairiemoon2 z6b MA, please try again.

(My favourite MH is the spring flowering IVORINE.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5935533/the-start-of-monkshood-aconitum-season#n=2)

Rouge - Wow, that 'Ivorine" is quite something! And a spring bloomer too. Thnks for that link, i hadn't seen that before.