I am overwhelmed with the response to the fall photos I have been posting on my facebook page and I appreciate your interest and comments.    I always have mixed feelings this time of the year.  It is sad to see the plants and shrubs dying off but at the same time we can move on and enjoy the fall season with its varied celebrations.   Even as the leaves drop, I still have plenty of color in the garden not just with flowers but with the beautiful changing foliage.  In particular, the salvia farinacea is finally producing multiple blue/violet spires.  As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I will probably not grow this half-hardy perennial again from seed as it does take such a long time to bloom.  In the meantime though I am appreciating the blooms both outside and in flower arrangements in the home.

There is mixed schools of thought about how you clean up the perennial beds.  Some people prefer to prune the perennials down to ground level, but as for me I only partly prune the plants back and then clean them up more in early spring.  The same applies when I am pruning the roses, I prune off the dead flowers and partly cut them back and then will prune them back again maybe several times before the cold weather sets in.   

Once the leaves fall I rake them on the flower beds.  During the winter months the layer of leaves helps protect the plants and eventually will add nourishment to the soil when they decompose.  In the vegetable patch I tend to clear everything once all the vegetables have been harvested and I add several layer of leaves.  In the spring time I then dig the decomposed leaves in along with compost.  

As the temperatures drop so low in the winter, my husband completely drains the pond and the fish are transferred to an aquarium inside. We also dig up the tender water plants, including the water lilies, the scarlet river lily as well as the umbrella palm at the edge of the pond.   My husband has assisted me transferring the plants into a container on rollers which can easily be moved into the garage.  I will also overwinter the ornamental grasses as they do not seem to survive the extreme cold.  

We have an abundance of grapes even though the grape-vine leaves are turning.  I don’t think we will manage to eat them all so I think the birds will have a heyday devouring the remaining bunches.

I always look for deals on bulbs and replenish the garden as since moving to the Okanagan I find I loose a certain percentage of bulbs.  My favorite bulbs in addition to the staples (daffodils and tulips) are the blue muscari (grape hyacinth), snowdrops and miniature daffodils plus chinodoxas (glory of the snow) which has vibrant blue flowers.

This is a beautiful time of the year where we are surrounded by so many arrays of color.  One of my favorite photos is “the avenue” in Fintry Provincial Park where we constantly love to walk.   I took this photo last year which seems to capture the very essence of  fall.

Happy Halloween