I've noticed that my garden looks very different since I began to look at it as my own Bit of Earth instead just a flowerbed. I expect both beauty and nourishment from my labors in the soil, so it is not quite as "perfect" as the "professionally landscaped" look to which I formerly aspired. I find much more beauty in it though. Nothing in nature is perfect and what grows around my house is much more organic than ever, both in form and in fact. This, I like.
Color is rampant in the fall garden and many flowers continue to do well despite some frost. I think being close to the house gives plants like the Sweet Alyssum (in the first picture) a little more protection from freezing temperatures. I did not plant pansies for the first time ever this year, but plan to mulch over in December and plant early spring lettuces instead.
We had our first frost this weekend....and our first fire crackling in the fireplace! Before the frost, the pineapple sage was a riot of color, but alas it is now withering quickly; I will cut all this back in January and have a wonderful, herby shrub by the front steps.
This year, we made our first scarecrow as a Halloween/Autumnal decoration. Next to him, you can see the paper bag scarecrows that were a fun craft for the toddlers in the house. They loved making them despite my inability to locate googly eyes.
After the dry heat of August, I cut back all of my tomato plants and, lo and behold, they sprang to life again! Most of these were harvested green and I'll use them for some fried green tomatoes. These Cherokee tomato plants are done for the year, but I do have lots of seeds for next year. Even my children know that inside a seed is a whole living organism, a miracle, just waiting for us to plant and nurture it.
The square-foot gardens still had quite a lot of flowers and herbs growing last week, but I think the Genovese and Thai basil will not make it much longer. I do have some broccoli and snap peas growing (my first fall crop ever), and we'll see if we get to harvest them in a few more weeks.
The cherry tomatoes continue to grow in the front flower bed. Perhaps they derive heat and shelter from the large holly that also supports them to a degree. I plan to leave them as long as possible since my four-year-old loves to pick and eat them whenever he passes by. This is the beauty of fall. The savoring of the last moments of life as we watch all the leaves fall and all the flowers wither. We see the world die, but we know that it just a stage before it is born again into something new and wonderful.
I used to dread fall, to dread the coming cold and darkness and bareness it heralded. Those bright colors on the trees didn't fool me! Now I welcome it. Life is full of those cold and bare spots, but without them, we could never enjoy the spring. So now I welcome fall and winter and even the dying of the light, because it offers a chance for rest and, ultimately, rebirth.
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