There are definitely early signs of fall in the Findleberry garden which I think during my photography shoot today was enhanced by the hazy skies from the ongoing fires in Washington.  (Let’s hope with the forecast of rain that these fires will be subdued).   The rockery garden in particular shows the sedum (Autumn Joy) forming pink buds, the lacy leaf maple starting to turn by the pond, and more significantly the abundance of red berries on the cotoneaster.

I note too that the leaves on my large Japanese maple are starting to change colour and many seed pods are forming.  These will eventually self seed in the garden and I will have fun growing them on.

In my main garden beds, flowers that I relate to fall are in bloom, i.e. the heleniums (Helen’s flower) with their lovely orange/yellow blooms.  The delphinium that I bought the other day on sale has now put out a number of flowers and I didn’t think I would see them until next year.  I even have a second blooming on my maroon coloured hollyhock.

Most significantly though is finally after a good month of white blooms, the flowers on my hydrangea paniculata are starting to turn with lightly tinged pink petals.   As the season progresses these blooms will turn a deeper pink and they work great as a dried flower.

 I continue to harvest vegetables from the garden and luckily I have more company arriving so I will be able to use up a lot of the tomatoes, cucumbers and basil.  We have had a few parsnips but they are still very small, however, both the beets and swiss chard did very well; the greens of which work well in salads.

Some of my hanging baskets have peaked while others are still performing well.  One of the yellow calibrachoas is still blooming profusely and I discovered a white begonia that grew from a tuber that I tucked in a basket and had completely forgotten about.

Over the next few weeks there will be many more changes in the garden as we move into Fall.