32 this morning, but probably colder than that away from the house.
Our first killing frost arrived this morning, although it still has not killed everything. Many plants still hang on, and the mulberry tree only lost a few of its leaves.
I went out yesterday and took photos of the remaining flowers, expecting all to be dead this morning.
The hydrangea in the front yard has turned a beautiful deep purple with hints of red. The flowers on this bush are lovely too, blues and purples intermingled with pink. It never has many blooms so I appreciate every one.
And here you can see it was ready to bloom again, but sadly the frost got this bush and all its leaves are wilted today.
The little sunflower I showed yesterday was also a victim. I decided to let nature take her course, and she did.
In the walled garden, the parsley is thriving. I am so pleased that it and the chives took to their planting blocks so well. It took a while for them to get going, but they've done very well.
The Calendula survived the night and these blooms were still there to greet me today.
I do love this bright flower. Did you know it's edible? I've sometimes sprinkled its petals in salads. I have read that the petals can be dried and used like saffron but have never tried that. My English friends call this a pot marigold. I like that name too.
The nasturtiums have been disappointing. After all my work, taking a nail file to each seed too, to help them germinate. They took forever to flower, and then the blooms were scant. I've grown them before, years ago, and remember them being more prolific. I don't think I'll bother with them again. These are also edible, although I don't think I've ever tried them.
One reason I wanted to grow them was for the bright variety of bloom colors. The ones that did bloom were very pretty.
The lettuce of course made it through quite well, as did the thyme.
And the begonias--I did not bring these inside as they are huge, so I expected them to be bitten last night by the freeze, but today they are still in bloom. Begonias are another of my favorites, they're so easy to grow and reward with such abundance of bloom.
It will be cold again tonight, so the hardy survivors will be tested again. I'm okay with letting them go. It's time. We had a beautiful summer of flowers and I am ready for winter's sleep to take over the gardens.
And anyway, the first seed catalog has already arrived, and I'm browsing and thinking about what to plant in the coming year.
Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.
We've had a couple of snowy days here. There is only a part of a row of carrots still left in the ground. I should dig them up today after work. My mom and grandmother always had begonias, and often had a pot or two in the house as well. -Jenn
ReplyDelete