Fall arrived exactly one day after summer said goodbye. In our home, I turned the air conditioning off and reluctantly switched the thermostat to HEAT! This inspired me to tackle the vegetable garden. It was looking very overgrown, and not in a good way. The morning glories were thriving, to say the least, but the tomato plants were tired and the zucchini plant gave up it's fight long ago against the stinkbugs.
After a long day of pulling out spent plants and cutting down vines, the garden plots looked clean and tidy. My husband hoed in some shredded paper to aerate the soil as well as compost to enrich it for next year. I did leave one tomato plant, a jalapeno plant, and the Thai and regular basil. I am not quite ready to say goodbye to homemade pesto, so potted up a few basil plants to (hopefully) winter over in our garage. (Have you ever been in an Italian restaurant that has huge basil plants growing year round?)
It has been a few weeks since I have seen a hummingbird, so I also took down the feeders and cleaned them with hot water, mild soap and a splash of bleach. I soaked the feeders in my laundry room sink and after a few hours, the black mildew was gone. Sadly, I stored the feeders away until next spring. I am always a bit melancholy when I realize those little guys have migrated. (It is a myth that the hummingbirds will not migrate if the feeders are still up, and the stragglers will benefit from the feeders.)
I did put in 2 types of lettuce seeds hoping we will have some for our hungry guinea pigs before a hard frost.
For fall color, I planted yellow and purple pansies in my containers after discarding the annuals that had seen better days. Pansies do well in the cooler weather and will even make it through the winter! (I remember when I moved down here from the Northeast and could not believe pansies were growing in January!)
So yes, we bid the summer farewell....but say hello to pumpkin farms, apple cider, and cozy evenings by the fireplace!
