a certain death just around the corner

I'm surprised to see that the lavender plants which I pruned in August are flowering again. I don't remember this happening last year. I thought they were done for the season, but here they are in October sending fresh spikes of purple.

The rest of the garden is slowly turning brown. It has been bone dry for almost two months. I have limited my watering the sugar peas and a few other plants that are mightily trying to race against the season.

The beans have all turned brown now. The marigolds next to them have more seed heads than flowers.  The African violets next to the zucchinis and squash have all turned to seed. The sunflowers are just about done flowering and the birds are amazed at their good fortune.

The end of the growing season is here, but some of the plants in the garden did not get the message. The tomatoes do not seem to be in any great hurry to turn red, as if they have all the time in the world. The ones in the hoop that I've stopped pruning in September are still sending out shoots and flowering like there's no tomorrow. I feel like whispering, "You can slow down now."

The cosmos are in full bloom and are not showing any sign of stopping. The dahlias are giving it their last go, as if the remaining buds are trying to catch the last train. Everyday now, I go look at them to see if this is the day when it all ends for these gorgeous bloomers. But everyday, the dahlia blooms looked back at me with surprising charm, still flowering amidst all the dying plants. Some of their leaves are turning yellow, but don't let the dahlia buds see that. They are doing their thing to the very end, whenever that might be. One year, they flowered until the first frost killed them in November.

The zucchinis and the yellow squash were very productive this season. They all had healthy leafy green leaves that were larger than my head, but the unusually dry, hot summer has caused most of the plants be afflicted with powdery mildew, a common disease for them. Today, I had to get rid of most of the leaves of the last remaining plants.  There are still some fruits that should mature in the next few days. The squash and the zucchinis to my amazement are still flowering, not caring at all that it will all end soon.

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