{"id":2243,"date":"2017-10-23T05:19:50","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T13:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=2243"},"modified":"2017-10-23T05:26:12","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T13:26:12","slug":"octobers-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/octobers-end\/","title":{"rendered":"October’s End"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"At<\/a>
At October’s end, this rose blooms on.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I am alone in my garden in late October I often think about music, especially Ralph Vaughn Williams\u2019 elegiac settings of English folk tunes. \u00a0My favorite is the haunting \u201cFantasia on Greensleeves,\u201d\u009d because the musical images just seem right for the season of variable weather, early sunsets and mornings when the grass glistens with frost. \u201cGreensleeves\u201d\u009d is about memories, and on the surface the garden is on its way to becoming a repository of memories. \u00a0Rose hips on the once-blooming bushes remind me of their fragrant summer blossoms, and the ever-increasing piles of brilliant fallen maple leaves take me back to the spring days when the newborn leaves were the size of mouse ears.\u00a0 The roses of Sharon\u2019s abundant seed pods make me think fondly about the clouds of hollyhock-like late summer flowers.<\/p>\n

But as I go about the business of planting the usual excessive number of bulbs, raking away the leaves and clipping spent aster stalks, I am struck by the vibrancy that still looms all around me.\u00a0 So many plants have vigor left. \u00a0The columbine leaves, for example, are as fresh and green as they were in May\u2013maybe more so. \u00a0The scented geraniums, awaiting return to the indoors, are huge.\u00a0 The rosettes on the first-year foxgloves are also enormous, oblivious to the fact that they won\u2019t produce flower spikes until next spring.\u00a0 Roses that have been deadheaded recently still pop occasional blooms and some have produced new reddish leaves. \u00a0\u2018Ghislaine de Feligonde\u2019, an old-fashioned shrub rose, has been so busy sprouting new canes that she has not even paused to acknowledge the cooler temperatures. \u00a0Butterfly bushes that I pruned a month ago do not look as if they are about to descend into winter gloom. \u00a0Tiny larkspur seedlings are coming up all over the back garden, and in the lower garden, the brunnera or false forget-me-nots, are plump and apple green. \u00a0Even Sarah, the fifteen year-old charcoal-gray cat, interrupts her daily naps to languish on the front porch, lying in a square of sun and watching the world go by.\u00a0 She goes no farther than the porch, but she shows no inclination to come inside, lest winter creep in while she is not paying attention.<\/p>\n

So I rake carefully to keep from disturbing those tiny larkspurs.\u00a0 I continue to weed. \u00a0I stifle the urge to defy the seasonal imperative and divide the overgrown \u2018Autumn Joy\u2019 sedum. When I see a blossom on any plant, I leave it there or clip it for an indoor bouquet.\u00a0 I don\u2019t worry about the new growth on the roses because I have a sense that the roses know what they are doing.<\/p>\n

Of course much of this growth and greenness will end when the hard frosts come in the next few weeks.\u00a0 The still-blooming dahlias will turn black in the cold and the exuberant morning glories will die.\u00a0 The gradually cooling soil will turn even colder. Right now, though, it is a joy to be outside because there is so much life under every dead leaf.<\/p>\n

I used to think that the best way to get through late fall in the garden was to focus on great expectations and dream about spring. \u00a0After all, those bulbs sleeping under the soil are like debutantes, indulging in a long bout of beauty rest before the big horticultural coming-out party next April and May.\u00a0 Since the party was already arranged, it was easy to dismiss the end of October and the onset of November as a collection of depressing days with little to look at except blackened flower stalks and large leaf piles. \u00a0But now I know better, and my greatest pleasure comes from watching the abundant life and changing scene every day in my beds and borders. \u00a0Waiting and hoping are good and necessary, but celebrating the here-and-now is even more important, especially as we turn back the clocks and get adjusted to the fact that winter looms<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I am alone in my garden in late October I often think about music, especially Ralph Vaughn Williams\u2019 elegiac settings of English folk tunes. \u00a0My favorite is the haunting \u201cFantasia on Greensleeves,\u201d\u009d because the musical images just seem right for the season of variable weather, early sunsets and mornings when the grass glistens with … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,5],"tags":[255,267,1509,11,1358,352],"class_list":["post-2243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-winter","tag-autumn-gardening","tag-fall-gardening","tag-october","tag-roses","tag-seasonal-garden-chores","tag-seedlings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2243"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2248,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2243\/revisions\/2248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}