Autumn has its moments but without a few rainy days and minus the cooler temperatures I’m at a loss. We could use some rain. The lingering annuals and a bunch of perennials, and even some shrubs, are wilting now and between you and me I’m almost hoping for a strong frost to come along and put things out of their misery rather than spend the next few weeks hoping for some last-minute miracle to come along and renew the decaying garden. I was also warm yesterday when I was out doing something in the sun, and flirted with breaking a sweat… which is totally inappropriate for this season of briskness and cozy jackets.
A form of the native aromatic aster, I think this one is ‘Raydon’s Favorite’, should be in every garden. It outblooms most chrysanthemums and is a late season pollinator magnet. Here a final bloom of the rose ‘Rosarium Uetersen’ adds a nice dash of coral pink.
Fair warning that this gardener rarely has a kind word to share about the autumn season, so don’t worry that my disgust and lack of interest in the yard means I’m struggling with some kind of seasonal trauma that I’m barely surviving, because that’s not the case. I’ve been busy and motivated, just not in the garden. Garage cleanouts, painting, puttering, and life in general are moving along nicely and I don’t really mind that the daily garden tour has turned into a ten minute walk of ‘meh’.
October colors in the front border. Okay, but kinda boring to be honest.
It’s been somewhat warm and the forecast promises warmer for the next few days, but I did notice a few things have been touched by frost. Coleus mostly. Cuttings were saved a few weeks ago and are doing fine, as well as all the other tender goodies which were dragged inside before the cold, and for some reason this year it didn’t seem like nearly as much work as other years. Many things are in the new basement area and apparently having enough space for your plants goes a long, long way in making the indoor migration less painful. As a way of celebrating I stopped by a greenhouse clearance sale last week and bought four new plants and that of course is not a problem at all since I stayed under fifteen dollars and I’m sure many people have purchased just one single orchid and then stopped.
I love euphorbia ‘Ascot Rainbow’ and hope it can survive the winter in this pot. Normally they are borderline hardy here, but maybe if I drag the pot under the protection of the front porch it will stand a chance.
So upon review it sounds like I’m just waiting for winter to come and wipe the outside garden’s slate clean and that might be a fairly accurate assessment. Year round gardening works for some people but I like a nice winter break, a season and a time to reflect, and maybe a pause in the battle to regroup. Some things look messy now and I like that I can tidy them up once at this time of year and have it stay that way rather than face a new field of weeds the week after I pull them all.
The potager two days before frost singed the awesomeness of the banana. Bringing other things in was a breeze, but digging and lugging this beast in?… remains to be seen.
A clean slate in autumn and ‘leave the leaves’ doesn’t necessarily play well together since my impression of the ‘leave the leaves’ movement is that one should leave all the decay of autumn in place until June or whenever of next year just in case a bee or lightning bug chooses to overwinter in that twig or under that leaf. It’s not a bad reminder that a tornado of leafblowers and a lawn crew which trundles off every last bit of fallen foliage is only leaving a barren wasteland of exposed soil, but it shouldn’t shame you into staring at a drift of leaves against your back door and a depressing flowerbed full of scarecrow twigs all winter. Do what you want. It’s your garden and as a gardener you’ve probably already thought about how your garden fits in with the natural world and how happy you’ve been to find it swarming with birds and insects and wildlife in general. Shame should be reserved for the desolate weed-free lawns of a golf course or the monotonous mono-plantings of some dull homeowner association. If you needed it I give you permission to trim back the dead things which offend you and remove the leaves which have become too much. Your garden will still be a refuge.
The last blooms of clematis ‘venosa violacea’ are as pretty as the first and are probably more numerous since I gave the vine a little trim after its first flush of flowers. A friend said trim it back completely in July, but I wasn’t that brave.
So that’s a lot of tough talk from someone who is likely to never have an immaculate garden to begin with. Other homeowners are complaining about a few leaves blowing into their yard and sullying their pristine turf while I’m usually wishing for a windy day to dump everything here. Most will stay where they fall but at some point a mower bag full of their chopped brothers will be spread on top. It’s a rare day when a twig or stem ends up in the trash and these days there’s not even much going to the compost pile since I tend to tuck pulled weeds and such into the depths of the borders. It may not be ideal from the perspective of the every leaf is sacred crowd, but even after a run through the mower for the sake of neatness and then a toss back onto the beds these processed leftovers still serve plenty of good.
Frost asters galore in the weedier parts of the garden. These have a decent winter structure so will stay even after death…
Mid October. Meh. If the weather were different and I cared more there would be a cleanup in progress but this year I’m not there yet and the mess is fine. You look at your own mess though and feel free to clean up whatever you want and know that I’ll have your back, and in the meantime have a great week!
sorta like suburbia 
You are too hard on yourself and garden, Frank! Your hydrangeas, grasses and asters offer plenty appeal. Frost has finished my garden and I will eliminate the self-sowers like V.bonariensis (god, do they go crazy), and Nicotiana alata. The birds are eating coneflower and agastache seeds. I will dig dahlias and plant garlic. Any brushy perennials that provide homes for voles will be cut back. Last winter they actually ate an 8′ wide, 30 year old Miscanthus, unbelievable! Only a couple blades survived. So no ‘winter interest’ grasses for me, the snow knocks them down eventually anyway. But yes, I am definitely a leave the leaves on the beds (not the lawn) person. A few choice maples’ leaves go through the barrel shredder for use as mulch next spring.
I must admit I, too, am looking forward to a bit of hibernation time. Lazy? Heck no! 😉
Thanks Eliza, I think I just prefer the ‘every day there’s something new’ time of year, and this ain’t it! I guess the colors and everything are nice, but I’d like some rain and some fall snowdrops 😉
I’m sorry to hear about your voles, they can be one of the worst pests and it’s probably easier to keep a deer out than it is to fight off voles. I don’t think I have any here… let’s hope it stays that way.
There’s a slight chance for another frost tonight. Still nothing serious, but enough to remind me that I need to bring the last geraniums in some day!
Lovely article.
thanks!
This was so timely, my front garden is getting little attention lately. Yours looks lovely! I do try to keep the pathways clear of leaves and let the beds do what they may. The aster is lovely, mine has taken to spreading around a bit-which is welcome.
I guess I’m close to where you’re at. Paths are cleared and whatever mulch fills the lawnmower bag gets spread over the uncleaned beds. I used to be able to top all the beds with chopped leaves but the neighborhood supply has dried up!
Next year I might spread the aster to a few new places, I think it could handle the drought of the berm and look nice with a few native grasses.
I’m convinced the plants are as confused as we are. A couple weeks ago a bee drew my attention to my St. John’s Wort blooming again. I made the mistake of ordering a few plants to put in the ground this fall, and because of the drought the soil is like a rock. I frequently check the U.S. drought monitor just to make sure I’m not dreaming this, and unfortunately it looks like practically the whole continent is too dry. Your “mess” looks beautiful to me.
Yes, we’ve been much luckier than most of the rest of the country has been rain-wise. It’s dry but there was enough drizzle to end the wilting and now with leaves dropping I think plants will make it into winter ok. New plantings? I’m eyeing the tulips and planting them might be a no-go if the ground doesn’t soften… well maybe not a no-go, but I sure will complain 😉
I never really appreciated the winter but as I get older I look forward to hibernating and enjoying my wild and wonderful garden from the comfort of the conservatory while drinking tea, reading, crochetting and doing other creative things. I remove only what offends me and leave everything else until late winter. There’s beauty in mess too, you know 😉. As for the rain I wish I could send you some – we had way too much, but shhh, I won’t complain. While some grasses and perennials have been flattened the garden looks lush and happy like never before at this time of year. Same goes for the slugs though which have never been fatter…enjoy the last days before the clocks turn and hibernation becomes real.
This week I chopped a few seeders which were threatening to spread baby fennel far and wide… and I don’t need to learn that lesson again! -but in general much of it stays until spring…
But, spring has been earlier each year and as more snowdrops are added I like to clear some space for them and well? Things get neater and neater earlier and earlier!
Speaking of winter beauty, do you ever see Lindera angustifolia grown? It has smooth gray bark, respectable summer foliage, and amazing fall color, but then holds on to its dead leaves all winter. It’s an ugly gray-brown mess all winter until warmth returns and I think it’s the most amazing thing!
No, I haven’t but the autumn colours look amazing and I like the fact that it’s scented bit ungly mess in winter- well, that sounds a bit less appealing. Do you grow it?
I do grow it! A friend shared some seed several years ago, and after killing off the batch of seedlings through neglect after transplanting, I was lucky enough to have a few roots resprout. I have three growing, which in my small garden is a statement on how much I like them. I’ll post photos next year!
I feel like I have been hibernating all summer and it hasn’t changed yet this autumn.
Still no rain this October. No rain is predicted as yet. Hopes and chances haven’t materialized. I can say I am tired of watering the newly planted. I like the fool, or gardener, that I am planted a couple of shrubs this fall. I couldn’t even dig the holes, had to recruit my Dearly Beloved. The soil is like powder way down there. It was strange to see it thus.
As to the leaf leavings, I am a proponent of doing what you like. Some years I leave them, other years I chop and plop them into the compost pile. All depends on my mood. ha… I am leaning more toward the leavings due to laziness. Oh no, I will blame it on my birthdays, they have to be good for something.
Your clematis is beautiful. I think I have tried to grow that one and it didn’t last here. They have to be tough to survive my gardening skills. Right now I can blame the drought. 😉
Have a great week.
Hibernate as long as you want, when it’s so dry things go from depressing to just plain ‘I give up’ and no one wants to deal with that, so grab another book lol
I won’t admit to how many clematis I have allowed to go to the light. This one must really be somewhat hardy since it does all right, but on the other hand it’s at the bottom of the garden and gets the benefit of some runoff from the rest of the yard. Too much rain in the winter but it doesn’t seem to mind.
This afternoon after a slightly bored tour of the garden I headed to the winter garden all filled with potted things and decided that’s not all that bad either. Maybe it’s indoor garden time…
I DO feel guilty about some tidying up of the garden in autumn Frank, but I do not do so as extremely as some (I know people who really do remove every single leaf and twig!) and all my ‘compost’ remains in the garden anyway, in a heap down the bottom where nobody can see it. 😉 The thought of looking at flattened grey stems all winter is depressing and I hope we have snow to cover everything up this winter. I can understand the feeling of wanting to get it all over and done with and put the gardening tools away for a few months. There is so much to catch up on over the winter months! Mind you, it doesn’t always work like that and I have had poppies flowering at Christmas before now! LOL! Love the clematis – such a soft blue. And the aromatic aster is gorgeous too. I have grown one in my new bed this year and am a little shocked at how big it has got, but am enjoying the late flowers. Hope some rain comes your way soon. And I hope you can save your banana plant. You could always wrap it in bubble plastic, as I have seen done before! 🫣
My brother likes to blow every leaf out of the shrubbery, cut the grass short, and trim every perennial down. I think it’s a little excessive but at least he does use the mulched leaves in the garden. Also he has hordes of deer, so a nice winter thicket might make them a little too comfortable and there are already enough deer ticks around his neighborhood!
Yes, I judge everything’s removal according to the ‘flattened grey stems’ rule. If it can stand up to some snow it can stay, if it goes to mush and disappears I can wait, but if it just turns into some shapeless mess of debris I will chop it up and hide it somewhere else… just in case we don’t get enough snow, which I am also hoping is not the case!
Oh, and like a mentioned to Annette, I so have a few snowdrops now which seem to appear earlier and earlier each year, and it’s nice to see them come up and show off in a somewhat neat garden 😉