Today’s project: recycling labels for the next generation of annuals.

We’ll be experimenting this year with more fall-sowing than usual, hoping to ease a bit of the springtime crunch by getting some seeds in ahead of the winter.

After washing all the labels we’d already collected, I headed out to sweep the garden for any more. This Eastern Ratsnake and I both stopped short when our paths intersected at the path around the Cancer Plot. I ran to grab my camera and when I came back, the roughly 6ft. long snake was moving fast through Holding Plot and into Aphrodisia.

Continuing my sweep for labels, I noticed this Echinacea blooming, but with the telltale green growths on its face indicating infection with Aster Yellows — a bacterial infection that’s been plaguing our Echinacea since at least last year.

We’ve already pulled over a dozen plants this season, because plants infected with [the phytoplasma(s?) that cause] Aster Yellows do not recover.

Completing my circuit of the garden, I encountered some friends blooming: Tagetes minuta (Southern Cone Marigold, says Wikipedia) native to the southern half of South America, and Saffron Crocus (Crocus sativa), famous as the source of the sublime, expensive spice saffron (threads of which are the stigma and styles of the flower!);

the pond sitting low, due to the long dry spells of late;

and this bright orange fruit startled me into checking on the other tangerines, all of which are still quite behind this early-ripening fallen fruit!

All in all, a lovely day in the garden.

Put me in the mood for a blast from my past: here’s Chicane’s “Autumn Tactics” that I used to listen to back in grad school!

Our remaining events this month are all nearly full but you may be able to snag the last spot for this weekend’s Herbal Giving or Volunteer Day or if you act fast! (Don’t worry though, we’ve got a liiittle bit more of everything on deck for early November: check back for a public tour, Fire Cider workshop, and more Herbal Giving and Volunteer opportunities, to be published soon)

I hope you’re all enjoying this incredible day in this gift of a season!
Thanks for checking in!
-Veri