First flowers....Last flowers

Fall is setting in around here and the growing season will be stopping in the next month. I am not sure that the alums were exactly my first flowers, but they come just as early as the tulips.

My last flowers are going to be the black eyed susan's. I had a stella o'dora lily that keeps putting out one more flower but I think it is finally done. All that is left to do is collect seeds from the zinnias and bachelor buttons. The weeds are getting the best of some of the gardens but I will get to them a few at a time. The susans, coneflowers, and sedum are fading but keep some color out there. We didn't have a normal summer season in Iowa as the rains kept coming. Now that the tomatoes finally started to turn, the rains have slowed down, and the grass is going to stop growing. In the corn fields you can see the firing start, (the plants die and turn yellow to tan), and the soybeans are mostly dead stems waiting for the combine to come and pick them. I still don't have all my projects done. But when the snow starts to blow, I will be done, ready or not.
I bought a second hand book today about Garden Crafts. A four dollar book the second time around. It has lots of garden sculpture projects in it that I may have try this winter. I will blog about it later..... Thanks for reading.......