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Although this could very well be a picture of me finding a new treasure at a favorite nursery, it's actually an illustration by David Catrow for a children's book called Plantzilla.

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Growing Old Gracefully - It's a Mess out There!


Fall is a chaotic  time in my garden.  In addition to leaves falling from trees and plants continuing to grow and sag with the weight of rain and the tumult of wind, the gardener only  gets to play outside for a few hours on the weekend. Some would call it messy, I prefer to think of it as the garden growing old gracefully.


For some reason, the wind keeps this part of the path relatively leaf free.
 Perhaps because they all blow on this part of the path. 



The berries of Mahonia gracilipes are looking lovely.

Hail pelted the garden a week or so ago and tattered broad leaves.

Blossoms too.

I considered going kaleless this winter but then grabbed a couple.

The maples are coloring up nicely.




Meanwhile, out in the parking strips...



Poncirus trifoliata

There's still a lot of green to enjoy until Jack Frost comes a knocking. 

19 comments:

  1. Jack Frost is coming here soon as well. The wind pattern here blows a lot of leaves into the area around our front door.

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  2. I like the metaphor of our fall gardens aging gracefully! Yours has a lot of color and life left to enjoy before frost. I begin relocating leaves this weekend and it continues until January.

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  3. Yep, I love Autumn: big bold and a chaotic. That pot head lady is my favorite from your collection. Something very attractive in the slight turn of her head, even if her coiffeur is slightly messy today.

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  4. Looking quite lovely Peter, sorry you only get to spend time there on the weekends. Hopefully your Saturday is predicted to be as lovely as ours is.

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  5. Jack Frost visited us last night!
    YOUR gardens look SO fine to me. I like the aging wildness and randomness of it. Plants that do what they want with abandon and without concern for rules and propriety. Aging as I am myself, I GET it!

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  6. Autumm certainly has its charm in your area with all those colors! I don't see that here with so many evergreen trees. Btw I LOVE that fern in the Lady plant pot, just lovely! I'd try many plants/hairdos on her!

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  7. Hail?!!! I love fall color, whether attached to trees and shrubs or scattered on the ground. There's still none of that here. It's in the upper 80s today but that's a vast improvement to the temperatures over the century mark earlier this week.

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  8. I love your gracefully aging garden. I'm inspired to keep working in my gardens.

    FlowerLady

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  9. Yes, It is the time of frost and chaos. Leaves flying, plants coming inside and garden furniture going inside. Your garden is doing a graceful decline. I love that cloud pruned shrub in the background of one of your pictures. Is it in your garden?

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  10. If the lady (first photo) doesn't care if she has leaves in her hair, why should we?
    We got more clean up done today, but now I'm wondering, is it looking to tidy too soon? Fall is supposed to be messy. But that will most likely be taken care of with another wind and rain storm.

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  11. Love the button fern(?) hair in that first photo, complete with leaf ornamentation. :)

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  12. I've started digging up and moving plants, so as well as leaves all over and dying-back and decaying plants, I've got chaotic holes dug willy-nilly around the garden. It's so ugly. I haven't done any fall cleanup. I'm so behind on my fall chores, my behind is in front of me.

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  13. Very pretty, Peter. I prefer this type of look in the fall. A tidy autumn garden seems sterile. Growing old gracefully is a good way to put it. :)

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  14. Beautiful! What is this "messy" people speak of? Hm. My garden probably fits that description, too, but I prefer to think of it as passive nutrient recycling and providing winter food and shelter for beneficial insects and birds.

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  15. Gorgeous garden views my dear friend!


    our garden is changing it's color too .this time cold has not increased yet so prcces is slow.
    hubby is preparing it for seasonal flowers .

    yes growing gracefully and eagerly is needed by all living beings because experience is precious element to create charm and grace within

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  16. Growing old gracefully, I like that thought about a fall garden.

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  17. I do like those Mahonia berries. Your garden is looking autumnal and mellow.

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  18. I also dread the short days and even shorter weekends of fall. Hope you got everything in you wanted to, and sorry about the hail... totally uncalled for.

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Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I love to hear your thoughts.