The latest cold front looks like it might stay a while. It chased off the rain with 25-mph winds. Temperatures dropped into the 30s. We covered the tropical plants in the garden, but the tomatoes vines are still producing.
To a person who did not grow up in the Southeastern forests, the leaf fall is spectacular. The maples and sumacs are red. The sweetgums and hickories are yellow. After the front, the leaves in the gutter were 5 inches deep.
A month away from the solstice, nature is shutting down. But you still see blooms. I passed a groundsel bush, Baccharis halimifolia, that was covered with the gauzy white flowers that reminded me of cottonwood fluff. Goldenrods never seem to die. And if you look closely, Mexican clovers, in genus Richardia, are putting out tiny white flowers under our feet.
Five weeks ago, we visited the stand of ironweeds, dogfennel and beggarticks that I’ve been watching along Yellow River. In warmer months, it’s a magnet for bees, butterflies and wasps. The ironweeds had stopped blooming in October. The dogfennel is now gone, but the beggarticks are still flowering.
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