I’ve been in a fall state of mind for exactly one month now, enjoying the slightly cooler weather and the subtle seasonal changes. This has probably been the sunniest month on record, with only one day of rain in the last three weeks. Because it hasn’t been scorching, it’s been easy to ignore how dry everything is becoming.

Although our back lawn is pretty much reduced to crispy straw, I’ve been watering the  major trees every few days. The raspberries are now in their fall fruiting period and need lots of water, as do all the veggies. Other plants that are often ignored are hedges, so I have been paying special attention to the boxwoods, cedars and rhododendrons. I haven’t done much other work in the garden lately except cut back some of the plants that have been dying off including the spring vetch. Once that was out of the way, the cyclamen started to bloom, which is one of my favorite fall blooms.

Fall cyclamen under the larch tree

Borage

Most of the wildflowers have died off , but the borage is growing strong and taking up huge amounts of empty space. I will definitely plant that again next year.

The other thing I did last weekend was to transplant all of my neglected houseplants into larger pots and cut back all the dead foliage. As long as I remember to water them, they should be good for another year. I threw out all the dead orchids as the leaves were all dried out and crispy. This year I am not going to be nurturing any high maintenance plants indoors during the winter, which simplifies things significantly.

The big activity planned for this week is planning. I have someone coming this week to give me a quote for tree/branch removal. The firs and rhodos on either side have grown to touch the house, so it is time to cut them back as well.