My back porch, which overlooks the garden, is awash in color right now. My daughter’s collection of pelargoniums, portulaca, purslane and assorted other summer bloomers are in their glory. Looking at them is a treat, even though I know that it will be something less than a treat to get all those geraniums in the house when the nights start getting colder. As Scarlett O’Hara said in Gone With the Wind, “I’ll think about that tomorrow.”
In the meantime, though, I am using those pots to fix the disparity between the porch and the garden. While the porch shines, the garden is hiding its lights until the asters bloom in a week or two. By recombining the contents of a few of the porch containers, I can produce some abundant larger container arrangements to drop into bare spots in the garden. This will inspire me as I pull out the enormous tufts of crabgrass and make the wait for the asters a little easier.
It is natural to be optimistic in the spring garden, but it is much more important in the fall. I think that every bit of color you add helps to compensate—at least a little–for the few moments of light that we lose with every fall day.