It’s Here Now, Fans of Fall

It’s definitely end of season.  I see the signs everywhere–not just on the calendar.  It continues to rain here, as though preparing us to make a decision about building an ark.

The Blackeyed Susans are a bit seedy, were leaning, and … I ripped them out.

I’m at the point where I’d just like to rip things out and clean up, but I do still have tomatoes coming on and the rain has revitalized the green beans, a treat courtesy of hurricane Florence and a generally damp weather pattern.

Looks like some hard work compared to getting pollen from the zinnias, but perhaps this bee wanted a little variety.

The thing about ripping out, though, is that the bees and butterflies and birds are so busy in the flowers.

Like this black swallowtail…

Sometimes there is so much movement among the blossoms that I stop and try to see individual things. And there are a lot of them still collecting pollen.

And this Monarch.

So I’ll give them extra time.

I’m sure the bees will appreciate it, even if they don’t give me credit.

I have to search through the flowers now for my bouquet.  The blossoms are increasingly spotted and don’t last as long.  Still, this was coming.  All those folks declaring end of summer at Labor Day knew it, but I deny it right up until the fall equinox.  Officially, that was yesterday evening.

Now this one I could have picked.

I’ll savor the last few tomatoes and green beans in the next few weeks, put the garden to bed for the winter in good time, and look for the pleasures of autumn, perhaps among them the Katsura tree at Dumbarton Oaks, whose turning leaves smell of cooked sugar.

And speaking of sugar, I used the last of the peaches in a pie. Into apple and pear season now!