Arrested Development

Weather: Last Thursday’s morning temperature was 42; Friday it was 23. The lows have been below freezing ever since.
Last useful rain: 10/04. Week’s low: 18 degrees F. Week’s high: 76 degrees F in the shade.

What’s blooming: It’s too soon to know if any of the visible flowers are alive or freeze dried. Virginia creeper leaves turned burgundy before the cold, but other leaves simply died with the cold. It remains to be seen if any more change color.

What’s still green: The full effects haven’t been processed by plants, so many leaves are still green.

Tasks: My order of spring bulbs arrived after temperatures fell. It had rained 10/4, and water remained in the ground. However, the soil was cold to handle and to stand on.

The peaches seemed lighter when I put some bags in the trash this morning. I’m not sure if the cold forced them to give up more water, in effect partially freeze drying them. Of course, they warm every afternoon.

Animal sightings: Small birds, grasshoppers, ants and small flying insects still active. I heard migrating geese Sunday afternoon near the river.

Weekly update: I didn’t realize until this summer how much my sense of passing time is related to what I see in my garden. When plants stopped growing because of the high heat, I went into a hiatus. I knew what the calendar said, but my sense of time was that it was still early July. Until certain plants, like zinnias and cosmos bloomed, my internal calendar was frozen.

In the past few weeks I had a hard time adjusting to shorter day lengths. There were certain areas I watered in late afternoon, usually after I had eaten. Suddenly, when I did that, it was dark before the watering was done. I couldn’t remember to start earlier, because, or course, I was still waiting for the annuals to bloom.

We had another jolt this past week, when temperatures went from those of fall to winter. Plants didn’t have time to go through their usual deceleration. Since leaves didn’t change, my internal calendar again was suspended.

The cold temperatures mean nothing will get watered again: the hoses probably contain ice in the early morning.

Instead of doing any weed removal, all I can do now is continue trimming dead wood. I’ve only got a few more days left to use the presence of leaves as my criteria. After that, the only way I can judge if a limb is alive is if it is pliable. That isn’t a sure sign, but one can be sure that one that’s rigid probably is dead.

Notes on photographs:
1. Broom senecio (Senecio spartioides), 14 October 2019. This only started to bloom on a week ago Monday. The fact an insect was actively foraging suggests the flower is still alive.

2. Pink evening primrose (Oenothera Speciosa), 14 October 2019. This is blooming in a protected location, low to the ground and next to the heat-retaining rail-timber wall. They have been actively growing this fall. However, I doubt the presence of the ant signifies anything.

3. Catalpa with dead wood marked by glittery, light-catching pipe cleaners, 10 October 2019.