It's Cuddle Weather

 We had our first light frost this morning which is almost two weeks early.  Finally the gloom has cleared and we are enjoying brilliant sunny days with highs lower than 70F (21C).

It wasn't a hard frost, just touched the roofs and fences.  The garden thermometer DID say 32F though.  

We are ready for Autumn.  All of the perennials and grasses have been cut back.  Most of the annuals have been pulled.  The vegetable garden is mostly cleaned out.  I do have a nice crop of peas coming.  They can handle some cold weather so we will still be able to harvest what is just filling out now.

I have a Sun Sugar cherry tomato plant going strong.  I snack on these all day and I had been keeping up with the plant until about a week ago when it got ahead of me.

The Pole Beans were still looking beautiful yesterday before I pulled them out.  The beans that were left were pretty tough and mature.  I picked a few that are waiting in the fridge but we got all that we needed from them this year.

And there are the Sweet Potatoes.  They will be harvested next week.

There are still a few pretty flowers here and there.

The Dahlias are just hitting their stride.  Below are the singles.  They are extremely popular with the bees right now.  My main garden chore each day is deadheading Dahlias.  The six (out of fourteen) Bee's Choice singles that I overwintered and planted again this year are growing monster plants and blooming well.    I numbered them and #2504 (which I called Cosmic Red) and #2510 (which I called Lavender Teacup) are out in the landscape beds, five feet tall, and blooming very well. 

This year I grew out a few more "Bee's Choice" seeds from the ball and decorative Dahlias.  Out of the tray I started, I only ended up planting out four transplants due to space constraints.  Out of those only one plant is still thriving.  It is an offspring of Bloomquist Gordan and it is a very bushy plant with many buds on it.  This is the first flower to open.  It is pretty impossible to guess what lighter colored variety it is crossed with.  There are several possibilities.  Maybe one of the other blooms will give a clue.  I really like it.  I'll save it for next year and see if it continues to thrive.  

Offspring of BQ Gordon

BQ Gordon

My Dahlias will take quite a bit of frost before they start to go dormant and need to be stored.  That is the last garden chore of the year.