An End-of Fall Perennial Garden

Another year, another perennial garden season comes to a close.  We've had several killing frosts by now, so all the flowers except for a few mums have died.  Thanks to a very warm October, I feel I finally got caught up on my garden chores.  Almost everything has been cut back now except for a half of one large bed, the fence line, and a little bit up by the house.  I know that must still sound like a lot to you, but it's really not.  I never get everything cut back in the fall because there is never enough time before the snow flies, so something is always left for spring.  And that's ok, by March or April if it's a warm day and the snow has melted, I'm anxious to get outside and do something. 

This is the time of year when I'm really grateful I have bushes in my yard.  They provide so much color with their foliage and berries.

This is the same bush as the one pictured above, but seen farther away.  

View looking west with my back to my own house looking at my neighbors house.  The yard has been raked now, the leaves were mulched and bagged ready to be put on next year's vegetable garden.

View of the western hosta garden looking up at meh house and enclosed vegetable garden.

I thought the trees in my yard had a lot of color this year.  They were more colorful in person than in the photos.  That is an Autumn Blaze maple behind a Burning Bush.

This is the first year my Burning Bush provided so much color.  Hubby moved it to a sunnier location because it was in the way of his landscaping project.  Wow! What a difference it made.  I didn't even think it would survive the move, but it thrived!

Yellow Maples behind the pine tree.

I leave the dried Hydrangea blooms on the stems until spring.  They provide so much winter interest in the garden.

Another view of the Autumn Blaze Maple,

This is a wild Black Eyed Susan that loves to reseed in my yard.  Sometimes I pull it out, because it can spread fast like a weed.  And sometimes I just leave it, because it is so pretty.  This year, it produced abundantly and looked so beautiful.  However, next year I may regret not pulling it out.  😆

The most disappointing part of this summer was we never finished our landscaping project.  We try and do one landscaping project a year, but this one is just taking a lot longer than expected.  Oh well, it took me five years to finish the western Hosta hill, this one might take as long too, but it'll be beautiful when we're done.  

It was a hill of wood retaining walls.  They were twenty five years old and just started to rot away.  The steps were also wood and were unsafe to walk on anymore.  So hubby has been pulling out the old retaining walls and building new ones.  The new ones will be covered in steel.  He also put in stone steps and is created walking paths between the walls so I will have more raised gardens to work in.  That is important as I'm not getting any younger. 

 And that is the very last garden post of the season!  

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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