First sign of fall

Puttering around in my garden on August 1, I found my first sign of autumn. A mum has a bloom showing color.

It is too soon for fall!!!!!! Or is it?

What is your first sign of fall, and when does it happen?

I, too, have a couple of mums blooming. Mostly, they are lower than the tops which I cut back a few times in June.

Sure sign of fall here is flocks of tourists coming to see the "colors", LOL!

I too haave a couple of mums in bloom. I'm ready for fall or at least cooler weather. Yesterday only got up to 90 and was wonderful. this morning it actually felt cool when I went out to feed the birds. there are even clouds in the sky but I am afraid no rain in them. Donna

One of my mums is showing color already. I was thinking maybe I should have pinched them back about 2 months ago, does anyone do that to get them to bloom a bit later when we really need a few spots of color? I'm not really ready to think fall yet even after the hot week or so that we just had that stressed everything and everyone. Yesterday was cloudy all day and this morning we are getting a bit of rain. RuthOlive, maybe there is hope for it getting all the way up to you.

MaryE, I pinch back my mums 3 times before July 1st. Makes 'em fuller.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo....*huddling in corner, rocking self back and forth*

We had such a long winter last year, it was almost 5 months, all that snow that I want summer to last forever.

I do have to admit - when my casa blanca lilies faded, I felt a twinge of sadness, that the season wouldn't last forever.

Oh to extend the season. Best way might be to move south.

So, I'm in denial for a bit and hope for a long summer, extending well into September and a Fall extending to February.

No mums blooming here yet, but when the pumpkins are ready to pick I know fall is here or will be here soon. Also when the leaves start turning, my car has the in between mix of dew and frost on the windshield, and that special crisp smell that only fall has.

I have a couple mums blooming and I have kept them cut back too. I get very melancholy when the garden starts to go to sleep. I wish it could bloom forever.

If one can afford to live in CA (we keep thinking prices can't continue to rise, but they do -- scary!), you could garden all year round. But the downside is, there's no 'rest period.' You weed and mow every month! Sometimes it's kinda exhausting....

Anything resembling autumn, weather wise, is a ways off for me. Thank God! I can't stand the winter. Even our little winter.

sbarr, is there room in that corner for me? I'll have to find some place to huddle in the next few months. =(

I suppose the irrefutable indication that summer is almost over is when the spider lilies pop up. Much as I love 'em, they are soooooo depressing.

Cheri'

Fall? That's when you can start planting lettuce again isn't it?

jkom51, I used to live in Berkely in the early 70's....in my opinion it was the perfect climate. Loved it.

*huddling in corner with sbarr. I don't want any thoughts of fall yet either!!!!! It is August! And it seems we really haven't had summer yet.

No real heat waves, no drought, lawns are still green everywhere, it must be spring still!

But wait, I heard the 90 day cicadas a month ago, young robins have fledged, so, OK, it is summer, but early summer, right?

Right?

umm, I do have one chrysanthemum blooming, and I, um, really really like fall (ducking so as not to get hit by flying objects!). the crickets sang for the first time here on august 1 and I saw the first cricket in the garden, just a teeny one, on august 2.

Here we go, the August poem

It is august

the heifers enter the millet field
like children entering a lake.
they are belly deep
just past the gate
and no longer walk, but wade
through millet and dew to a point
mid field, where they bury thier noses
in the grassy grain.
It is August, crickets and chickadees
sing, but robins do not
fruits and gardens, grains ripen to harvest
days slowly shorten, fading to black
we wait for the gathering in,
summer come to climax.

I am puzzled about the crickets. I have crickets chriping from as soon as spring warms enough for them to thaw. At least mole crickets (those nasty things). Do y'all mean field crickets in fall?

(while I am getting Kathleen's attention with this, I am tossing a rose-petal ball from hand to hand behind my back. Shhhhh!!!)

Thanks for giving me hope!

(hiding behind the Hansa rose bushes) I'm talking about the black crickets that hang around in the gardens and sometimes get to be a couple of inches long. When you hear the first cricket IN THE HOUSE, you have 30 days until the first frost. It mostly works, too.

Come on, after this miserable wet summer, fall has got to be better, right??

HAH! missed me!

All Mums blooming here in our garden! We finally have relief and nice 70 degree weather the past few days.

Nice poem Kathleen!

It is a little sad....I missed the Margaton Lily's in their prime bloom because I was away. Caught them yesterday, they are almost over........

black walnut trees are losing their leaves-im already depressed!!!

Only 3 days in the 90s this yr-this stinks!

We had 1 day over 90 this summer, only a few that made it to the 80's. It has rained more than 2/3 of the days this summer. After all the annual summer droughts, I am rejoicing in the rain!!!!!!

*ha! gotcha that time ;D

Anyone else want a rose-petal ball?

Hey, my guard was down! Sue was saying something nice about my poetry! (lower lip out in a pout, whipping a wreath of catnip and mint out - which floats to the top of Kathy's head!!)

*(who quickly grabs some ornamental grass stems and makes them into corn dolls and tosses them to Sue) Here! Help! Distract her again!

Wow lupi! You are fast at making them corndolls. I'll take a rose ball? It sounds like a good thing anyways. Probably smell great?
I LOVE fall!!!! Don't get me wrong, I love spring and summer too. But autumn is the best. Especially here in Georgia. We don't get it untill late september and it lasts into November temperature wise. The smells! The air! The new sweaters! Come on y'all?! We go to the north georgia mountains for a long weekend of fall colors and horseback riding. Usually the last weekend in October before Halloween is the prime time for leaves here.
Of course I guess it's easier to put up with winter coming with no snow, pansies and alyssum and dianthus everywhere and daffs in Feb. *ducks*

Ouch, a corn doll hit me on the back of my head while I'm innocently trying to smell my fading Margaton..... hmmm, cute Lupy! Now, ladies stop throwing stuff, and I would like to view a rose ball too, but don't throw it at me, it might hit the last lily! I gonna duck behind Angie!

I'm not making any assumptions on your size Sue (since I don't know you and all). But, I'm 5'2" 120lbs. Good luck hiding behind me! lol

The monarchas are flying south, few and far between, but nevertheless they are on the move.

And today we had our first heat-breaking shower! woohoo! Of
course now it is like a sauna outside.

I had the freat pleasure to meeting Melvatoo yesterday, and my van which is generally in shape was gasping in the heat because the a/c was on full blast and we were stuck in traffic... HOTTTT and bothered stand-still traffic.

I love every season cept summer in Texas!

The cottonwood trees are losing leaves, the grass is brown, and the locusts are singing loudly every evening. Sweetcorn is for sale everywhere and the tomatoes are waiting to be canned. The ground has wide cracks in it and the weeds are all flowering. There are many signs of fall in Iowa. Almost forgot....the hummingbirds are becoming more active. During July, they are slow.

*gently wafts a rose petal ball over Angie's head to Sue

Rose petal balls can be either tight-packed like making rose beads, or loosely packed so that they fall in a shower suitable for strewing the path of a VIG -- Very Important Gardener :)

Don't y'all make corn dolls? I am thinking of making some BIG ones to use as scarecrows this fall. Whatcha think?

Go for it darlin.

I would rather make tamales from those corn husks!

Uuuummmmmm, haven't had a good tamale for too long!

Here in Michigan I can see a few buds on my mums. We normally clip them once on Memorial Day and again on the 4th of July.

It is beginning to look like fall now, and I still have a few annuals to plant. But then there is tomorrow. I am already looking forward to spring to see all the daffodils that I plan to plant this fall along with the others already planted.

Winter is a blast. My business depends on it for furnace sales. Personally I could skip Jan-Mar and go into spring, but it does not work that way. At least in March I will start planting seeds under the full-spectrum lights.

Remember:

Brave your storms with full endeavor;
Let your vain repinings go.
Faithful hearts will find forever
Roses underneath the snow.

(Anonymous)

Bird

I know it can't be true......

are there REALLY mean people out there wishing for and looking forward to fall

Say it ain't so!!!!!

I know it can't be true......
I know it can't be true......

I just realized one major reason I dread fall: fall clean-up.

I love my trees. Really! I love the way they provide shade all summer, the way they provide clean air, lots of places for birds to nest, food, the rustling sounds, the way they move so beautifully, and the way they help keep the cold winter air from getting to me. I love having all the organic matter that leaves provide.

But fall? I don't want to spend months and months cleaning up after them. Day after day after day after hour on my hands and knees picking leaves out of all my beds, then more hours grinding them up, spreading them, grind them, spreading them, picking the newly fallen ones, grinding them, eternal circle.

I mulch my beds with the tons of Oak leaves that fall here. Course, I keep having to pull up the baby oak trees that want to grow in my beds, but that's not a problem.

I also grind and spread, but it's not that big an ordeal once the beds are mulched.

Plus, I don't mind leaves on the ground. =)

But I hate fall anyway.

Cheri'

I bought a red chrysanthemum yesterday - a big beautiful bushy one called"Helen" - it is gorgeous, my favorite red and starting to bloom. Not that i'm pusing the season or anything, but it is such a wonderful plant, evocative of the autumnal beauty awaiting us. . .

I'm thinking "LAKE EFFECT" for Kathleen.....

Corndolls sound too cute. Lupi make one and post a pic!!

I love fall because:

The air changes
Football season starts
Halloween (and Pumpkins in the garden)
and... because I'm still challenged to create a fall blooming garden

Now, now, let's not get into THAT yet, CC!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's just mean, and here am I, already sneezing from those rose petal balls that Lupy keeps throwing at me and stuck in all this mud besides!

OH, Kathleen, I very carefully removed all the pollen before I made these into balls! Of course I did! You know I use my pollen! So must be the bane of fall, RAGWEED!!!! (sorry, gazundheit to all you hayfever sufferers who were caught unaware.)

Sue, there are tons of things you can plant to have autumn blooms. Toadlily, Japanese anemone, autumn crocus, some early Erica carnea, and one of my favorites, Mexican bush sage to name just a few! You can do it!

My corn-dolls really do scare crows :) I love to make things, but some are better in theory than in reality.

Who else makes corn-dolls? Gotta be a talented old-fashioned person who can show a better specimen than mine.

*scattering toadlily seeds on Sue's garden :)

The ragweed is bloomin! AAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH