The Summer Annuals Continue to Put on a Show!

Yesterday when I walked Sparky (our yorkie-ish rescue dog), I was struck by how beautiful many of the summer annuals still are in my neighborhood. No wonder many of us (myself included) are so late planting our pansies and other fall flowers. It's a real dilemma: if you enjoy that early fall revival of your summer annuals, you miss the prime time your pansies need to get established before the cold weather arrives.  But is really hard to take out flowers that still look like these (pictures taken during my walk).

New Guinea Impatiens

Dragon-wing Begonia

Tidal Wave Petunia

Annual Vinca

But that window of opportunity to plant pansies is closing, and I do love their cheery faces and bright color in the winter. So when I got home, I bit the bullet and began to clean out my summer annuals. Today's rain has given a few of the beds a short reprieve, but over the weekend, I'll clean out the rest. I'll plant a few beds with pansies and the others will get a winter covering of compost or leaf mulch. Speaking of mulching leaves, that will be the topic of an upcoming discussion.