There seems to be a different quality to the flowers that bloom late. I could be making this up but they seem to absorb the light more than reflect it like summer flowers do. (Don’t they?) Maybe it’s just that the lower light makes everything catch it and keep it, summer’s hanger-onner blooms included Or maybe fall flowers seem extra-special and luminous simply because they keep the season colorful for us and nutritious for the wildlife right up to the bitter cold. (Click on pictures for better view.)

Asters and Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ have finally come into their own and the space they’ve taken up all summer is totally justified (except for the 4′ wide ones in the North Garden that bloom even later than this…)

What would we do without fall blooming grasses like purple love grass (Eragrostis spectabilis) and pink muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris)? Both are natives and I know the purple love grass reseeds because I have it coming up like a puff of smoke out of a driveway crack at home. I don’t remember ever growing the mist grass before and I’m deeply in love (but can’t seem to take a decent picture of it.) Even if that doesn’t reseed (and I don’t know if it’s likely to), I’m looking forward to the clumps increasing enough to get a good shot. This year we’re going to try to winter-over purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’) down cellar. Anyone had any luck with that?

The toad lily (Tricyrtis hirta) surprises everyone, even those of us who have always been fond of it. It’s just that strange and lovely.

But strangest of all is the crabapple in bloom down at the water’s edge. We can only surmise that it is under extreme stress after being defoliated by Irene, swamped by extra high tides and subjected to wide night-temperature swings in the last couple-three weeks. Clearly it’s desperate to survive – like it always has so far in the toughest spot. Fingers crossed. There may be a new crop of apples yet for the birds…

What’s catching the light in your garden?

If it wasn’t for the thick morning fog we might not know that the seasons are in an indecisive transition. And if we didn’t crash through strands of fog-lit spiderwebs with every step we wouldn’t know we were sailing into fall.

It’s transition time for the gardens that feels a little like waiting out a slack tide. We’re still enjoying all the activity in the garden; excited to see brand-newly blooming flowers (a subject for another post) and we’re certainly not ready to let go of any of summer’s color or seed heads. Instead we’re spending more time on patrol for skrunky leaves and tenacious weeds. If you’re in the same boat, trying to keep your garden looking its best for a few more weeks, try cutting back old leaves from Japanese anemone (leaving the seed heads, of course.) There’s a life-raft of bright green foliage coming up inside the old – it makes a bigger difference than you’d think. And removing brown leaves from everything else – dahlias, phlox, veronica… is almost as gratifying as deadheading ever is. On the other hand, some plants blacken in a dramatic keep-able way. I wouldn’t dream of cutting down these cardoon yet (above, left) or even any of the echinacea.

We’ve got big projects on the horizon that we’re itching to begin as soon as the mansion closes for the season (after Columbus Day weekend; reopening the day after Thanksgiving for Christmas.) This winter the North Garden wall will be restored(!) and we need to move all of the plants out of the adjacent beds and into the vegetable garden-slash-nursery bed. The deadheads started making room in there yesterday (instead of deadheading.) We’ll also take that opportunity to get into the other North Garden beds to amend soil and relieve years of compaction. We’ve got another big perennial haul-out planned (we’ve had it with the daylilies and enormous asters) and we’ll do our usual musical-perennials with everything else, trying to get it just right for next year.

But for now we wait, fuss, and plan. Is your garden in transition too? Are you starting fall projects now or waiting until the last minute?

(Click on any picture for better view of webs, spiders, weeders, and fog.)

It’s a challenge to keep a vegetable garden productive and handsome into the fall. Cool nights set back and do in the hot season crops like cucumbers, beans and summer squash. Tomatoes are slowing down – the ones that weren’t destroyed by Irene, that is. Over the last 2 weeks, Blithewold garden volunteers – the Deadheads and Rockettes have put in extra veg-garden time harvesting the late season bounty. – With tomatoes and the last of the cukes, beans and endless kale, we have gone well over 700 lbs. in total donations to the East Bay Food Pantry! Personally, I’m shooting for 1000 lbs. before winter kicks us out of that garden.

And winter is going to have to push hard. We have invested in row covers and seeded down spinach, lettuce, carrots and turnips. And of course we still have Brussel’s sprouts and those lovely cabbage (and endless kale) to look forward to. Gail and Linda also planted our first ever garlic – because we’re already thinking about next year.

The garden looks – I hesitate to say it, but it’s true – better than ever. The cabbages, like I said, are spectacular; the kale is excellent and even the artichokes have sent up a new flush of sterling-silver foliage. Freshly prepared rows are dusted with seedlings – such a hopeful thing! And along with harvesting, the volunteers spiffed and weeded the whole garden. We wanted to make sure that everything would be as gorgeous as possible for the Fall Family Food Fest (The One Day it’s OK to Play with Your Food!) this Sunday.

In addition to all of the activities associated with that event (like gourd juggling, sushi rolling, and Mr. Potato Head making) our good friend Pam Gilpin will be giving a slide show on the amazing not quite invisible world of garden insects (at 11am in the mansion). Her pictures are truly incredible and a little alarming. And Blithewold’s own Dan Christina will be leading one of his famously fabulous tree walks (at 2pm from the Carriage House). The forecast for Sunday is only gloomy if you decide to stay home instead.

How’s your vegetable garden? Are you celebrating a fall food fest too?