Out and About: Good-bye to my Garden

Every Fall I have a difficult time adjusting to the weather changes, the shorter days, the Monarch butterflies and hummingbirds leaving, and my vegetable garden dying. This past October had so many rainy, dreary, and chilly days that I found myself inside looking out, checking my weather apps for a break in the rain and a spike in the temperatures. I brought my pot of purple sweet peppers in and out of the house to try to save them until they were big enough to eat. I covered herbs and tomatoes with sheets when there was a danger of frost. I  picked green tomatoes and ripened them on the windowsill and also stuffed some in a cardboard box to hopefully ripen and not rot and possibly eat at Thanksgiving. A couple of asters and phlox flowers have lingered in my garden. Around the village puffball mushrooms and many other kinds were prolific in October. Here and there some flowers defied the first frost. I finally pulled up my tomato plants, emptied my flower pots, and ate my underripe peppers. I will wait several months before looking at  garden catalogs so I don't get depressed. Meanwhile, I'll start Project Feeder Watch and keep track of the Monarchs and Hummers on Journey North.

Tomatoes Still Cranking in Early October

Purple Peppers with Lots of Blossoms

October 18th Freeze

Tomatoes Cranky

Late October Rose

Peck Avenue Woods

Assortment on South Lawn

Turtlehead Flower at Orient Park

Windowsill Ripening

Ali Gibney's Dinnerplate Dahlia

Puff O'Lantern (borrowed a stem from a pumpkin)