I thought about sharing photos of the harvest over at the other garden: tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins. And some of the new growing things in our home garden. But I’ve really been feeling the fading of the summer garden. That slow (in our climate) switch into cooler weather gardening. I like dead-heading all the summer flowers and trimming all the herb stalks that have died back until next year. I like the yellowed seed heads and the oak leaves starting to fall and a general sense of fading and rest that overtakes so much of our garden this time of year. We never get snow, the ground doesn’t freeze solid. The nights get frosty occasionally but for the most part the garden remains. Yet there is this ebb and flow within it. Some things grow and bloom and set fruit and seed during the warm summer, other things wait until the rains return to sprout and flourish.
And there are signs everywhere that the switch is occurring.
So often we only see photos of the vibrant, growing, well-tended summer garden in magazines or online. But I think the transition and the fading and the returning to rest are just as beautiful, if a bit more wistful and nostalgic. I’d probably feel differently if I lived somewhere with 10 feet of snow every winter. I’d probably mourn and cry and feel abandoned by all the green growing things. But here in Napa, I feel a sense of peace and of place and time. The dying back, the going dormant, the switching over to winter plants and winter growth and the return of all my beloved weedy greens. All these signs of transition make me feel happy.
I think the autumn garden is beautiful.
lovely photos amber. i think you are right, our climates do seem very similar (in reverse).
I love the changing of the seasons, but I think my favorite is fall. The colors are amazing around here. I noticed some leaves changing already. I don’t know why, but the crispness holds a promise of beginnings for me…maybe because I’m a fall baby. Beautiful photos. The last one is my fav. I want that purple for my yarn.
Lovely pictures, Amber. I, too love the changes, and the rest that comes with a fall and winter garden – drying seed pods, doubled over sunflower stalks, fading colors. It is a whole new world when we’re digging through 10 inches of snow to harvest carrots that are happily buried under the earth, but still beautiful all the same. In fact, we may have our first snow this month. I think last year’s came at the end of September. We’ll see…
Beautiful pictures. I love the transition of the garden at this time of year, it holds a totally different kind of beauty and magic.
I love this time of year precisely for the juxtaposition of harvest bounty and fading bloom. It is such a wonderful magical time, just like the gorgeous sunsets that are common this time of year. Did you see the sky last night?! Sometimes I feel as though it signals the end of hard work in the garden and then I giggle, because in northern ca a gardners work is never done! (I actually love this of course!)
I, too, love the fading garden—-and the faded one. So many people I know “put their gardens to bed” for the end of the season; me—I pretty much enjoy the seed pods and the dried rudbekia and the garden “debris”; it all looks especially beautiful if we’re lucky enough to get a snowfall! Just beautiful photos—as always!