Mid-October Garden Report

I'm going to interrupt my series on our trip west for now, and share the rapidly changing seasons around the valley back home here in Ontario.  The leaves are colourful, but less colourful than I ever remember before.  I've been working in the garden, getting last year's veggie bed ready for this year's garlic crop - which will get planted in the next few days.  Even though we've had our first frost, and the garden generally looks at its worst, I discovered several flowers still blooming.

The most interesting is this beautiful purple Clematis, which has just come into bloom the last day or two.  It was planted about 3 years ago, but has remained tiny and out of sight ever since.

But I guess it figured out how to wiggle through to the back of the fence where it could get some sunlight, and now it's in bloom for the first time.  Here's hoping it will shoot up the fencepost next year!

We have a couple of clumps of poisonous Monkshood, one of the last flowers to bloom, in a rich royal blue.

The last small sunflower is fading fast, but still a bright spark of yellow where it grew, still attracting bees.

There are a couple of bright red Smartweed blossoms.

And little clumps of these yellow and orange Calendula. I always find the orange ones are hard to photograph because the bright colour is such a highlight, it gets washed out.

There's a good sized clump of the Japanese Anemones, though they also are fading fast.

And at one end of the veggie garden the pink and orange mums are blooming like mad.  They started out as nice sensible symmetrical clumps, but now they're a tangled mass and I'm going to have to thin them out next year.

And just to prove I do a little work sometimes, this is this year's main veggie bed, all cleared of beans and zuchini, weeded, dug, and raked to get ready for the fall garlic planting.  Garlic here gets planted in October, and harvested in late July/early August.

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The seasons have definitely changed.  Blustery wind with blowing clouds and occasional rain showers the last two days.  The temperature is down to below 10°C (50°F), and I've broken out the lined winter pants for working outdoors.  And the forecast for tonight and tomorrow is SNOW!!  To be specific, we have a 'Special Weather Statement' that refers to the "First lake effect flurries of the season ... Several centimetres of snow are anticipated overnight...", depending on exactly where the bands of snow are located.  You have to be prepared!!