Putting the Garden to Bed

We have had a most spectacular fall here in CT, warm sunny days and cool crisp nights with hardly any rain. Just like Camelot!  But all good things must come to an end.  Although we have had a couple of light frosts, we haven't had a hard freeze so many things are still blooming. I wanted to take advantage of this nice day to empty some of the big containers on my deck.  I had already cut back most of the perennials last week.  There were some rewards for the job.

This was one of them.  This hydrangea bush is the best I've ever had.  It is a small shrub, not meant to get big, but it is covered with blooms all summer long. They start as a pale pink, then turn to mauve and then finally to this gorgeous russet.  I picked a bunch to put on my kitchen table and I could have picked many more.

This was another.  I planted several Knockout Roses in the ground this year and one in a big container on the deck. It had gotten quite leggy and it fell over when my Hibiscus tree fell over onto it. The Hibiscus tree was finished for the season and I got rid of it, but I pruned the rose way back and put it in a corner of the deck where I hope it will winter over. I was able to pick enough roses to make this pretty bouquet for the coffee table in the family room.

The herbs in the containers still look great, so I will leave them.  My 2 Sun Gold cherry tomato plants look terrible but are still producing enough to give me few tomatoes every day, so they will stay for now, too.  Someone forgot to tell my lavender that it is autumn, since it's blooming its fool head off. That will stay for the winter anyway since it is a perennial. 

I'm getting tired of watering, weeding, pruning, and fertilizing, but I know that next Spring I'll be ready to start all over again. One of the joys of gardening is having the next season to look forward to.