It's fall!

The Barnacles...in a rare moment of camaraderie.

 We seldom eat at the picnic table.  It's mostly a fort, step-up to the deck, or place to dye Easter eggs.

 Tomatoes and calendula!

Aren't these the Crayola colors of autumn?

Angus helped pick all those tomatoes.  Even though he looks at them as weapons and not food, he was pretty good and when we got done, he was so proud!

He's very discriminating, however.  If a tomato had a tiny speck of dirt, he'd proclaim it "ucky" and set it to the side.  We had to negotiate a couple.

 I've tried in vain for 9 years to grow nasturtiums.  The little envelope says, "Thrive on neglect! Good for children and beginning gardeners!"  Bah, humbug...

Every year, they'd put up about 4 little leaves, look around and die.  Or wait for some sort of pest to chew them to the ground. And die.

This year, I put them in the vegetable boxes, told them I didn't care a whit whether they lived or died, and walked away.

 (Of course, I also walked away from the carrots and spinach, too and I DO care about them.)

They bloomed!

Now that THAT garden conquest has been made, I'm going on to bigger things...

like gladiolas.

Will the garden drama ever end?

Cosmos....another plant that should be easy and thrive, but that never seem to reach maturity before the hard frost hits.

This year....voila!

Also neglected for months...

Marigolds.

People either love 'em or hate 'em.  There's no ambivilance with marigolds.

I love 'em.

They are the gaudy grandma of the garden...the one who wears a muumuu to a wedding and doesn't care at all what people say.  They're dependable, sturdy and have a distinctive scent that's not entirely unpleasant....and they're bright. 

They'd be at BINGO night in their dayglo orange visors.

These babies self-seeded in one of my raised beds, with gusto, and I'm so glad they did!

Makes me smile...