Late September, Spinning Down

It's not noticeable unless you know the gardens very well, but they're starting to slow down and come to the end of the season.  Some plants I'm letting seed out at this point.  Plus I need to deadhead again, which is a huge job at the end of the season as the flowers don't last nearly as long.

Here's the standard grass photo.  As always, click on any image to embiggen it.



And the standard garden shot, showing the northwest edge of the gardens.



While still bright and colorful, plants are now a bit harder to control, and the bud production is slowing as the days get rapidly shorter.



They're still impressive, but even the marigolds are sporting smaller blossoms.  The blue and red salvia aren't showing any seasonal changes as of yet, but that's coming.



I've imposed the garden edge for the fall so the grass is a touch brown around the gardens.  That'll go away the next time the gardens are edged.  Still, the front edge under the fringe tree looks pretty good!

Labor Day Photos

While the gardens are moving past peak, the lawn is just coming into its own as of today.  It'll continue to improve through late October before starting to stall for winter.  As always, click on any image to embiggen it.

The standard lawn shot:



And the standard garden shot.  No real fading is visible here yet, but things are starting to get a little leggy and weaker as the sunlight fades.



Here's a closeup from the center of that shot, facing the house.  Again, you can see the over-growth and the fact that I have to work much harder to keep up with the dead-heading.



Individual flowers are still doing very well, of course.  This is a Magellan scarlet zinnia, one of my favorites.



The front garden is doing well.  This is the section north of the driveway, but I'm also more careful here since this is visible from the street and to all the surrounding neighbors.