The Last Night

First frost is expected this evening, although it's possible that we might miss it.  In that case, frost won't be expected until very late October.

Still, even a near miss will damage or kill some of the gardens.  Some has already gotten old and died, some don't respond well to temperatures under 45°. I've pulled out and composted about a quarter of the gardens at this point.

First, the standard shot.  As always, click to embiggen it.  Although we had a short drought, the grass came through just fine and has attained its October dark green.



The front gardens are doing fairly well.



Whether we get frost or just very cold, the Melampodium won't ilke it and will probably die tonight. They don't much like temperatures below fifty and they're extremely unhappy at 45.



The dahlia are still doing pretty well. Here's a Jennifer's Wedding dahlia, probably on its last night. I cut off all the fresh blossoms just after photographing this and put them in vases indoors, where I can get three or four extra days out of them.