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While we don’t live in the eastern part of Canada where there are brilliant reds and oranges in the fall, we have, for a northern and western part of the country, had a beautiful fall. The cotoneaster hedge in the garden has been a beautiful red for almost a month. And these past two weeks, the current shrub by the address sign has had a lovely colouration that I find most fascinating!

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Even our temperatures have been reasonable. Only two mornings with hard frosts back in early September and then the mildest of temperatures ever since. Granted, when it rained last weekend in Whitehorse, there was snow in the mountains around us.

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We have started to clean up the gardens, but are really reluctant to get too carried away when there are still flowers to enjoy. They aren’t here for a long time so why chop them down just to get ready for winter? That will arrive when it does and if the flowers die then, well, spring clean up will be the next opportunity won’t it!

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This is a very sad time in the garden. Plants start to die back, fragrant flowers aren’t fragrant anymore, the bees quit visiting, birds vanish, flowers fade and fall off, leaves turn yellow and brown or maybe red if we are lucky. So it is time to roll up sleeves and trim things back, mulch a few more tender plants, feed the mulcher/leaf shredder and build a second compost pile. We used to always scrub out the terra cotta pots and bring them inside to the basement for the winter. Two winters ago though, we emptied the pots as soon as they started looking sad early in September and put them into the shed to dry out thoroughly before the frosty season got started. We haven’t had a single pot break yet so I’m thinking that they only break if there is moisture in the pot when freezing temperatures arrive. I’m sure this would be the right time to say which plants did exceptionally well and what needs to be moved, but I think I need to ponder this a bit more. Maybe next week I’ll be more definitive than what I feel right now!