Fall herb garden cleanup

Even though our temperatures are still very mild, I know cold and probably wet can't be too far away, so it's time for more garden cleanup. The zinnias I put in the herb garden so many months ago...

April 16th

May 14th

...grew into plants the size of shrubs.

October 29th

They've been leaning over and crowding the rosemary, chives, and sage for months. I started at the back - really at the easiest point to reach them - and got to work.

The cages are protecting the New Jersey tea plants from rabbits. Hopefully, next spring those little plants will grow almost as big as the zinnias.

Hiding under some of the zinnias were hundreds of dill sprouts.

I'm hoping so see more of those next spring.

The other thing those zinnias have been hiding all these months isn't so pleasant:

Yuccas!

I knew the yuccas were quietly growing under the flowers, hoping I wouldn't see them. No dice, yuccas. I know my battle against you isn't over yet, and I'm not going down without a fight.

I did find enough nice orange flowers (my favorite) to make myself a small bouquet.

This is what it looked like when I was done:

Notice that one clump of zinnias in the upper right corner of the top photo (partially hiding the truck)?

Well, when I got to that plant, look who I found:

She was a little camera shy at first and didn't want to look at me.

Hello, lovely

She's been hanging around this flower bed all summer and I had almost forgotten about her. As soon as I saw her, I stopped cutting. I hope I left enough plant to keep her protected for whatever time she has left.

Mantis hangout

To get to our front door, you have to walk right past this fence corner. Every time I walk by now, I look for her. I'll keep stopping to say hi until she's gone.