At the End of September

With temperatures stubbornly stuck in the eighties and nineties I would have missed the beginning of fall this year but for the garden following its own internal clock: warmth or no warmth, once we passed the fall equinox, everything in the flower and vegetable border went into liquidation mode.

The autumn faithfuls, the stonecrops, are putting up a good show with their gradual color change from chartreuse to dark brown but everything else got the message that it’s time to retire for the season and shut down production.

I don’t understand what actually triggers this sudden shift, it must be the light levels or the altitude of the sun or something, the garden always knows best.

It’s time to start planning for next year, so I’m trying to focus on finding spring bulbs and moving early blooming perennials. We need more daffodils, we always need more daffodils.

The weather forecast promised a wave of chilly air next week, but there is no sign of that yet. So far September unfolded according to its regular pattern - warm, sunny and dry.