THOUGHTS OF FALL

On the pleasant, warm, sunny days, I can fool myself into thinking that summer's not over yet.  I know the calendar says October, but many of the leaves have not changed color yet, and as of this posting, we haven't had our first frost.  When I look around the gardens, it still looks like summer.  Loads of flowers are still in bloom - bright nasturtiums, yellow & orange calendula, deep purple pincushion flowers, true  blue plumbago and hummingbird sage, fragrant at night nicotiana, perennial hyssop, salvia and catmint on its second bloom, a few late roses, upright verbena which is still attracting the last of the butterflies and profusion zinnias which have bloomed non-stop for three months.  A pretty good display for October.

And of course, there are the plants that are at their peak at the end of the season.  Although my pineapple sage did not get as tall as it sometimes does, it is loaded with bright red tubular flowers.  Another one blooming up a storm is mina or firecracker vine.  We grow it on an obelisk in the garden at our entrance.  It's covered in sprays of yellow, orange & red tubular flowers.  Both of these plants are hummingbird favorites.  We don't get a lot of hummingbirds here, but I didn't see any this year.  Hope they're not going the way of the butterflies.  One of the best end of season plants is Mexican bush sage.  Tall and full, it's now covered with fuzzy, purple flowers.  Excellent color and texture in the garden - it always attracts a lot of attention from visitors.

Right next to Mexican bush sage in the greenhouse bed is russian sage, with its small purple flowers.  On a sunny day, I saw bees still working energetically at the russian sage and nearby on some thyme that was still blooming.  I did see more bees this year than I have recently.

The hard pruning I did on some lavenders that suffered badly from last winter's extreme weather really paid off.  They filled in well, which I expected, but their second bloom was spectacular.  Several of them bloomed as profusely as they usually do in the spring.  Hope this winter is easier on them.

Every year, (if I'm paying attention) I cut a big bunch of greek columnar basil before frost to bring inside.  It has long stems, with plenty of flavorful leaves and kept in water on the kitchen counter, provides fresh basil well into the winter.  I cut it last week, when they called for possible frost, but all the basil survived.  Basil roots easily in water, so I can always put up a couple stems after it roots to keep the crop going.