Fall is definitely in the air. The mornings are cool, enough so that I need a jacket for our walk. The sunflowers are ready to be cut out after the gold finches picked them over until all the seeds are completely gone. And the robins are moving through. I've not seen them all summer, but this morning, quite a few were in the driveway and yard. Yesterday, as I drove home after visiting with a friend for the afternoon, the killdeer seemed to be grouping in preparation for migration. I don't think I've ever seen so many killdeer my entire life.
I love living where we have four very distinct seasons. Fall is my favorite of the four. It just seems like we're being told to slow down, relax, enjoy. I really try to listen and do all three as often as possible.
I worked a bit in the yard over the weekend, mostly removing the tall sunflower stalks and other ungainly weeds growing alongside the house. I'd left everything alone this summer just to see what was already here, and this is what I learned:
- clump of common milkweed at the back of the house
- clump of sunflowers outside the bedroom window
- clump of cup plants growing beside the porch
- a row of spider lilies from other side of porch to back door
- miscellaneous lilies sprinkled all the way around the house
- miscellaneous flowers and one to-be-figured-out bush all the way around the house
- brown-eyed Susans around back porch
- another clump of cup plants beside the outside entrance to the basement
There really doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the gardening, and while I enjoyed the cup plants and how they attracted lots of bees and butterflies, they tend to fall over and get in the way of the mower. Those will definitely be removed. Same goes for the milkweed. I loved the flowers and the scent they produced, but they're just in the way. I'm going to try and keep both the cup plants and the milkweed, but they have to be placed elsewhere.
At the beginning of summer, I cut back the grapevines. I decided to not keep them. The grapevines, though, had a mind of their own and grew back. I ended up wrapping the vines around the poles and guiding them along the little fence enclosing the small garden
area behind the garage. When I was cutting out the sunflowers near the small garden, I looked over and noticed one small clump of grapes on one of the vines. I decided to leave them for the raccoons or whatever animal decides to have a meal of grapes. Once they're gone, I'll pull the grapevines out completely and do something different with that space. I'm actually thinking I will remove the flowers I'd planted earlier in the summer and seed the bed with grass to create one big grassy area for Ado to enjoy once I get the fence in place. Which will be soon, I hope. My handyman called last night and said he was going to stop by the box store today and buy the remaining black vinyl chain-link fencing in stock so we can get going on it. Hopefully he was able to do so.
And it's mums time. This weekend I am buying mums. Maybe I'll put together a fall wreath for the back door. I might even pull all my sweaters out to see what I want to keep and what can go to Goodwill. I'm so excited to start wearing sweaters again. There isn't much in life that's better than putting on a comfy, slouchy sweater.
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