October 2022 In the Garden and the End of the Growing Season

In October you never know what you’re going to get and the hooks by my back door reflect just how changeable it’s been this month. Raincoat, sweater, jacket, fleece vest, winter coat… Even in a single day I may cycle through one after the other when I go out with the dogs.

It snowed on Thursday then again on Friday. Not enough to stick but still, snow.

We’ve had a couple of hard frosts but my garden has been carrying on.

Everywhere I look flowers are still blooming. I’m harvesting herbs and greens and the last brave tomatoes and peppers.

Soon I’ll pick the dried runner beans. I love how they’ve covered their half of the arch, meeting the malabar spinach at the top.

Some of the sweet peas I planted in the spring are finally coming into their own (where they weren’t shaded out by the collard greens).

I enjoyed the young leaves in salads, but haven’t found a recipe I’ve loved. Do you grow and eat collards? Have a favorite recipe?

I’m loving the dahlias best of all right now.

I’ll write another post specifically about the varieties I grew this year.

Andy’s Legacy Dahlia

I plan to store the tubers over the winter. Last year I wasn’t successful. I waited too long to wrap them after digging them up. Even the failures are good learning experiences.

Fall is a perfect time to think about what worked in the garden and what didn’t and to figure out what I want to do differently next year.

I’m not always good about writing all this down. In spite of the fact that I keep a journal and multiple sketchbooks I’ve never gotten into the habit of a garden journal. I blame it on the fact that during the gardening season I’m too focused on doing the work of gardening to want to sit down and document it. Sometimes I’m not even good at photographing my garden, though writing my blog is good motivation.

My blog is a good resource for me, too. I come back to my garden posts to remember what was going on each month.

I left the sungold tomatoes mostly to their own devices this year and the plants are towering over the fence. They got a bit of blight (but it didn’t slow them down) and many of the fruits split and fell from the vine, but even so I always had plenty to harvest.

I’m still harvesting them.

I tucked a canna bulb between my two sungold tomato plants. In the spring the bed looked like it had plenty of room for everyone. I’m always over eager when I’m planting.

The canna didn’t bloom until this month.

A nice end of the year surprise.

I’m amazed how many flowers there are everywhere I look.

In some ways my garden seems as reluctant to give up on the summer as I am.

Seeing all these flowers — some unexpected like the sweet peas, canna and these eggplants — makes me glad I’ve let things be.

On warm days I’ve seen so many honeybees visiting the garden, gathering as much pollen as they can before winter.

Diva Dahlias and sunflower skeletons

Skeletons of sunflowers and other plants like coneflowers may look raggedy, but when I hear the chickadees and goldfinches calling and see them harvesting the seeds it brings me so much joy.

I’m savoring these last days of the growing season.

Next week we’re forecasted nights in the 20s and my garden will slumber again till spring. I know I’ll be needing my winter coat, but I’ll leave the others on the hooks just in case.

What’s been going on in your garden?