My beauties

Autumn comes upon us in the lengthening, cooling shadows and a twilight that descends sooner than we've become accustomed to. A few days ago, I noticed a distinct reddish-orange tinge near the top of the mountains, as the Gambel's Oaks yield to the first high frosts. Two heavy showers last week spurred another wave of wildflower blooms, and the hills all around us are outright green now, giving us a splendid last show before the chill descends for good.

In my gardens, I've started letting things run amuck -- the basil bed now reaches halfway up my thighs, and in addition to a sudden burst of enthusiasm from a late-blooming zucchini plant, I have another life form -- a gourd plant, perhaps? -- twining rapaciously around the tomato plants, laden with their ever-green fruits, and even straining towards the lowest elm branches. Were the first frost to hold off till November, this strange plant would surely bear a bounty of something, but I don't think I'll have the good fortune to see this mystery through to fruition. The bed of rainbow chard, beets, and kale that I planted last month is growing wonderfully and just needs some thinning and then a thick blanket of straw and manure to weather the onset of winter.

To prepare them for winter, I am amending and also slowly expanding my narrow garden beds (really more like borders) to build outward on the improving soil quality. Digging in one bed, I found lots of worms -- a gardener's delight! -- and am encouraged that this dry, rocky, alkaline, clay-and-sand stuff is finally coming to life. It motivates me to clean out the chicken house again soon; it's a nasty job (which reminds me, I need more dust masks) but the "gardener's gold" seems to be working as my Jupiter's Beard, Blanket Flower, and other perennials root deeply and this year's annuals put on big blooms and, now, big fat seedheads. I'll be collecting seeds soon from some interesting cosmos "sports" and a few other flowers that did especially well this year. Since I used organic heirloom seeds, I expect fertile seed and beautiful flowers next year, too.

I'm planting bulbs now, too: I put in somegiant allium and crocus today, and will plant scilla, daffodils and tulips later in the week. I'd love to plant the whole back yard in wildflower tulips, which are not only lovely but also xeric (drought-tolerant), but the digging and soil amendment would break my back. Maybe next year. Oh, and I have some iris to plant, thanks to the Socorro garden society. I'd like to plant those along the side of the store once the stucco is finished (next week? the stucco guy keeps getting sick) because the purples and yellows would look beautiful against the pale yellow stucco.

Only one big question remaining: what to do with my perennials in pots? I suppose I should plant them... but I'll probably leave them for now because they make the front yard so pretty. Winter will seem so bleak once they're gone... maybe I'll fill the pots with small evergreens and fake flowers or something....

Tomorrow I'll report on my knitting -- just two projects ongoing -- and give a quilting progress report. To have progress to report on, I will turn to my sewing corner now. Adios.