Welcome Fall

 We’re already into the middle of September, and I keep expecting that first frost to come any night now. It’s not just cool in the mornings now—it’s cold! My fingers were going numb as I cut flowers this morning, and that was around 8:30am. That makes it perfect flower-cutting weather, by the way! They do much better when you cut them cold.

I have continued working on clearing out the garden and planting what I’ve purchased. Just today I was able to get the last coneflowers and the 3 sedums planted. I am getting my color rows filled up! I’ve still got quite a bit of room in the white row—I want to get some daisies this week to put in there, and maybe some phlox or penstemon. The yellow/oranges have about half a row left, and the pinks are down to about 1/4 row. I need to start and fill up a blue/purple row, as well.

My cosmos are finally blooming! I just cut a whole bucket of them this week.

I’ve also still got quite a bit of transplanting I want to do—moving some of the perennial bachelor’s buttons out of the Oval Bed and planting all of the lilies in crates into the garden itself, as well. We had some awesome thunderstorms this week that really helped my transplants survive! I’m pretty sure our secondary water will be turned off sometime in the next couple of weeks, as well, so any rain we can get is a blessing!

The garden is so full of weeds. It’s discouraging, to say the least. The purslane has gone crazy with the extra moisture and has formed a mat of green covering the ground. The red root pigweed is all over, as well as another one that I don’t know the name of, with very wiry tenacious roots. Plus the other usuals: bindweed, grass, goathead thorns, mallow, etc. Too bad those weeds aren’t worth any money. I could make a fortune! Instead I just battle them, always and forever. There were some monster-sized weeds in the front flowerbed that I managed to pull out, roots and all. That was satisfying, let me tell you!

We pulled out our fall decorations the other day and now a rather eclectic collection of pumpkins sits on top of my piano. During the summer time I want clear surfaces, but come fall, I’m ready for a little whimsy and something new to look at again. I’m craving apple cider and wanting to find an orchard (or a friend!) with an apple press, like we had going for us in Washington. Apple cider. Yum.

One year at the orchard in Washington, this is what we picked! We weren't planning to get very much.

Last year at this time, I was canning everything in sight, but I’ve really only done one round of canning this year—apricots. I may still do peaches in the next week or so, or we may just eat what I canned last year. The veggie garden was pretty much a bust this year—we have a handful of green tomatoes on one of the vines—so I am anxious to just get it all cleared out and prepped for winter.

Is it sweater weather where you live? What are some of your favorite fall traditions?