The Early Death of Fall

Fall has come and gone in my gardens.  It lasted a whole 2 weeks.  Yesterday was our second snow, and this morning the ground was still white and it was in the upper 20s.  Normally, the temps here this time of year are in the upper 60's, with lows in the upper 30's.  By tomorrow evening, it will be 17 degrees. That's a normal for January, not October. With lows like that, all the plants will succumb to the cold.  No amount of plastic sheeting or blanketing will help my tomatoes from freezing.

Just 2 weeks ago this was a beautiful fall shot

I can't complain too much - last year we had an amazingly long and beautiful fall season, and I'm sure that by next week it will be warm and sunny here again.  But the leaves on the trees will probably just fall off, instead of producing great colors, and the perennials that still are blooming are probably more than done for the year.  The unpredictability of gardening is one of the main reasons I love to garden, as I think experiments are great and Mother Nature provides us with the biggest laboratory of all. 

Coneflower blossoms will be gone, but their seedheads will stick around to feed the birds

Agastaches and Asters taking a bow under the snow

Dogwood leaves frozen in time

Frosty bridge over the dry stream bed

Aspen leaves falling before their time to shine

As you can see from the pictures, today was dark and dreary, and so I'm sorry if the colors are a little off.  It's hard to capture the snow and fog while still having bright results.  And maybe the darkness of the pictures is just a little reminder that winter slumber is part of the life cycle of all plants.  It sometimes just comes way too soon.