The October Garden

It's long past the time I should have updated you on our garden.  It has remained remarkably colourful right into the third week of October, thanks in part to the fact that we STILL haven't had any frost!  Don't remember it ever being so late, and there's no sign of frost yet.  The Zinnias are the best, bright red and orange, and straight outside the window I sit at.

On the other hand the planters were cleaned out a few days ago, and they're now looking terribly empty.  Compare to the photo below.

Yes, the bright yellow Marigolds in the foreground were there until just a few days ago,  Note that the only flowers still in bloom in the background are those red Zinnias.   

There are two schools of thought among gardeners about cleaning up in the garden in the fall.  One adheres to the principle of leaving it to winter and letting the birds feast on any seeds, the other believes in having it all neat and tidy and ready for winter.  Before we moved here I was the chief undergardener (the one who did all the work), so it didn't matter.  I have learned in the past few weeks that Mrs. F.G. strongly believes in the latter position.  It will be a fight to even get her to leave the Zinnias until first frost.  Everything else has been completely trimmed and tidied up.

Our Lavender plants have done extremely well this summer, growing from small plants in pots to this once planted out.

This pink Echinacea is a new purchase earlier this fall.

And we still have blooms on the yellow Rose.

Mrs. F.G. (who has to do all the work now, so I owe the beauty of the garden entirely to her), has a nice display by the front door.

And she's been experimenting again with tuffa pots of various sorts.  She hasn't done this for 20 years.

P.S.  The cows we're seeing around here are all beef cattle, not dairy.  Most of them will have access to a barn during the winter, but cows get over-heated easily and benefit from being outdoors most of the time, even in cold weather.  And they do have built in fur coats.  

I'm not sure about why farmers who raise calves apparently sell them in the fall and bring in others.  Maybe they just keep in their own and bring in extra.  I'm going to have to do some research.  I do know the cattle they bring in will start out at 600-900 lbs. and will reach market weight of about 1500 lbs. when they're sold the next year.