Cultivating Beauty: Fall Garden Photos

Today, my friend Jerry of the Large Truck helped me gather concrete blocks to line our landlord’s garage (a barrier between mulch and siding), straw bales for winterizing beds, rebar for protecting trees with chicken wire, and potting soil for winter sowing herbs. The guy at the concrete pickup commented, “Well, surely, your garden must be just about done, isn’t it? All packed up?” Um, not exactly. I told him I grow all fall and winter, and things were still quite lush, thank you very much. 🙂

As integrated beings who are part of Nature, we can hold, embody and honor all the contrasts, both the flowering abundance and the rotting into compost, which brings forth fertility and life. As one season fades into another, we need not mourn or fear what comes. Death is part of life, and if you keep sowing seeds, then life keeps popping up throughout the year. Today’s misty Northern California weather surrounds the flowers like a soft blanket of autumn beauty. From my heart to yours, enjoy!

Greetings from the front yard

The central front bed with reblooming snapdragons, mums, zinnias, sea kale and other bee and butterfly havens

asters, hyssop, lavender, iris, black eyed Susans and more up front

perennial hollyhocks that will bloom each year, along side the newly placed concrete to protect the landlord’s garage

alley side grapes, raspberries, with poke poking out in the background

new alley-side garden bed with concrete liners

back yard beds

glorious sedum, marigolds, nasturtium and black eyed Susan’s with a peek of rose

apple tree and friends — aronia berry, jostaberry, marigolds, strawberries and more

cherry tree and friends — in the spring we’ll see flowering chives and daffodils

first ripe lemon

first ripe fairy tale pumpkin

cosmos and compost –with brassicas

nearly finished tomato beds with lavender, daikon radish, marigolds, tomatillos and parsley filling in the blanks

straw bales ready for putting this bed to bed

back yard beauty