Happy Halloween.  I think today is the last day for the flowers… supposed to be in the 40s’s tomorrow windy and rainy and in the 20’s tomorrow night so the hard freeze will finally come.  I have been slowly working on the autumnal chores.  The iris and daylily and other “soft” foliage has been cut back, but I’ve left the woody stuff  for winter interest.  Today I’ll cut back the dahlias, cannas, and elephant ears and dig them up for overwintering.   The brugmansia, geraniums and all the other pots will come into the basement.  I’ve already brought in the succulents and orchids.   Some ivys and other things from the porch will come in as well.  The front hall will look like a tropical jungle until I figure out places to put everything.  I always save too much stuff.   I need a sunroom or greenhouse!

Here’s a few last looks before it all goes.

View out the upstairs window – this maple is always late but worth waiting for

Birch and maple

I love the heart shaped leaves on the Redbud in the foreground

The slide slope and back steps

Sunset from the porch

The leaves are going – the big wind and rain storm last week caused a lot of them to drop.  The 4 1/2 inches of rain we received here was much needed though.   We have escaped the heavy frost here so a few plants are still blooming –  dahlias, cannas, brugmansia, montauk daisies, sheffield mums, plumbago, verbena bonariensis and toad lilies to name a few.  I’ve moved a few things that needed moving and started cutting back some of the daylily foliage.  Its time to start putting the garden to bed,  but the big clean-up will have to wait another week or two.

Sheffield mums in front of a canna leaf

Highbush blueberry with gorgeous red foliage

A late turning maple framing some birch

Al fresco dining season is sadly over…

I thought it would be fun to see what else I’ve been doing to keep busy in the garden.   My garden club had a workshop where we learned to make sand cast cement birdbaths and I have made them three times now.

This is a rhubarb leaf

Hosta leaf

Papyrus

Three medium sized elephants ears – each about 18 inches long –  which my sisters received in October as early Christmas gifts

A huge elephant ear and a papyrus  drying in the sun

Finished elephant ear  – with a flip flop for scale.  This one is heading to Florida in February.

I think I’ll be making more of these.

I have had requests for fall foliage pix  from some readers who no longer live in the area.  On Wednesday, I took a walk with a friend and our dogs up a hill near our house and took a few photos.  Thursday morning, I took a walk around my neighborhood and snapped some more.  The light has been gorgeous and the leaves have really been putting on a show this year.   We had a big rain storm Thursday afternoon and the leaves really started coming off the trees.  Then the sun came out.  There was a rainbow and the trees were on fire.  Many leaves still linger today, but the peak is over and stick season is coming.

I love this tree – so many colors on the same branch

Williams Barn area – a mile from my house

More at Williams Barn

Williams Barn outbuildings

Cemetery across the street from my house

My side yard – close-up

More side yard

Hollis St – just around the corner

Hollis Street view from Common Street

Maples on Martin’s Pond Rd

Barn on my street

Rainbow after the storm.. view from my porch

Across the street

View from the porch

The sun came out after the storm and the light made this tree just flame orange

When I started this blog last spring, I discovered lots of other gardening blogs.  Many participate in something called garden bloom day.  On the 15th of every month gardeners all over post pictures of what is blooming in their gardens.  This is my first attempt at linking in to all that .. so here goes.. this is what’s happening in the garden today.  It has been a beautiful fall, and we have only had a light frost in the meadow so a lot of things are still hanging in there.

These dahlias are a bit faded but still nice – very old ones from my childhood that I have kept going for “ahem” decades

I love the edge color on this one – a miniature –  new this year – name tag is around somewhere

Autumn gentia – Gentian scabra ‘Zuikorindo’ – I have this in my alpine garden

Plumbago and iris foliage

Toad lily

Montauk daisy, some phlox and a dahlia peeking through

Sheffield daisy just beginning to unfold.. I call these Mom’s mums – because they came from my Mom’s garden

Allium ‘ozawa’

An African Blue basil and a marigold ‘Lemon Gem’  hanging out together in the herb garden

Maple and birch – the view from the back patio

And then there’s this guy..  I think those are definitely chipmunk cheeks – oh dear

Its hard to beat New England in the fall when the leaves are at peak.   They steal the show of course, but the garden is letting me know its not done yet.

Beautiful blue Monkshood

Sisyrinchium  – ‘Quaint and queer’

Aster – ‘Alma Potschke’

Basil – ‘African blue’

Orostachys from Peter G.

Orostachys iwarenge  the bees love these little plants

Sedum  – I lost the name of this one – gorgeous colors though

A late blooming allium

Pineapple sage

It is now autumnal out there in the garden.  We didn’t get frost yet so all the tender things are still blooming.  I’ve been transplanting and dividing some of the iris and daylilies that outgrew their spaces and moving around a few things that would look better elsewhere.  Its been very dry so I’ve had to water a bit too.

Cimicifuga ‘Black Negligee’ from friend Martha

Late blooming toad lily from friend Wendy

Canna and salvia

This rose came with the house – its competing for space with the Geranium macrorrhizum

I love the Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ and the smoke bush colors together..  these two are exactly where they were when we moved in

Withering daylily foliage

Here’s where I’ve done a bit of “remodeling” – the area was full of iris which have now been divided and shared with seven garden friends

This isn’t in my garden, but its just up the road a bit.. the leaves are definitely doing their thing

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