Thursday, November 8, 2018

My October Garden

October usually has two faces, a still summery vibe at the beginning of the month, and a distinctly autumn feel at the end. Our last frost date is often predicted to fall mid month, and it almost always happens exactly then. I never want it to happen, but thankfully the first one is mild enough not to do much harm. Only the most tender plants get nipped that first time.





As the month progressed, the frosts continued to arrive, getting a little tougher each time. It was time to let go of more and more annuals each time. The last veggies were picked and the raised beds cleared out. It's a little sad, but part of me enjoys the break. Of course I make up for it by changing over to autumn plantings and pumpkins. I'll leave them out until Thanksgiving before switching out to Christmas greenery.






But until frost came creeping in, there were still zinnias to enjoy. The first photo below is my beloved Queen Red Lime zinnias. You may have noticed that I didn't feature any photos of them this year. That's because they did poorly, and barely thrived. I'll try again next year, and hope for the best. I did have issues with a insect vector virus, so maybe that's what happened. And if you are a zinnia fan, I really don't recommend the purple prince zinnia seeds that I often see on seed displays. They germinated in abundance, but were otherwise disappointing.






Of course dahlias are a force in early October. They were so intense that I had to run out for more supports and still needed more. Those big gorgeous blooms were weighing down the whole plant.





I also had plenty of butterflies in the garden early on. Even after the frosts, I'd still seem them now and then, especially the painted ladies. I'll sure miss them over the winter.






My roses seem to like the cooler autumn air, and continued to shoot out blooms. Honestly, they looked better than they did during the summer heat.










It's mid November now, and much has changed. We're expecting a little snow soon, much to my chagrin. But there was much to enjoy in my October garden, and I'll share some final shots now. I did spend a lot of time at the end of the month finding fall color displays to photograph, but I'll share that in another post soon. As they say "I'm glad that I live in a world where there are Octobers".









4 comments:

  1. Hi there Robin : )
    You have had such a pretty garden turn out this year and your pots have been gorgeous !
    It is always sort of shocking to me how brown those hydrangea go when they are finished .. I missed cutting some while they were still such a beautiful pink to dry for my office.
    I have let a lot of the garden go since we were so tied up with the reno business .. Spring is going to be very busy with clean up so I better get in better shape to be able to handle THAT !
    I love all your pictures of the butterflies .. they are wonderful !!

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    1. I don’t know what it is that makes butterflies so appealing to me, but I spend much of my summer chasing them around my garden with my camera! I’m glad you enjoy those photos.

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  2. You have had such beautiful blooms and butterflies! After all the lovely summer and fall flowers, it is sad to see them succumb to long nights and frost as winter approaches. But here we are blessed with short (although muddy, cold, and messy) winters. I enjoy the frosty weather around Christmas, and I delight in any snow we get. But after January, I seriously start looking forward to spring blooms!

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    1. I think I’d like to have short winters, but I do love the change of seasons. Today we had both an ice storm, and later our first snow, so my garden looks nothing like this now!

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