The Garden in October

Slowing down and accepting

I was kind of dreading doing my October update of the garden, to show it in its straggly state, all yellowing leaves and browning flowers, but you know what? It’s fine! This month has been so beautiful here in New York that it’s impossible for me to not to finally embrace fall. It’s been sunny almost every day (a problem, actually, since we’re in a drought—hopefully we get some rain soon, but it has made for a month of beautiful weekends), cool without being too cool. And the leaves! This is my first New York autumn, and last week when my mom and sisters were here we went to Central Park, and it looked too pretty to be real, golden leaves falling onto the Bow Bridge and into the lake, which was a shade of Gowanus Canal green that weirdly enough only made the scene look even more like a landscape painting.

Nature at the moment—here in the parks, at least—is calm and serene. I try to absorb its peacefulness as I run in Prospect Park, nervously (and counterintuitively) listening to political podcasts. I can’t help myself—I’m scared. Going outside into our garden helps. It’s calm there, too, and maybe even more so as it’s slowly shutting down for the season. I don’t even get mad at the plants for dying, anymore. I’m leaving dried-dead flowers on the plants for the bugs and animals—this week I’ve had a sunflower and verbena decapitated, and I think I’ve seen the round little bird that did it, and I don’t mind, though I do take issue with whatever is digging holes in the pots.

Nature is taking its course, and I’m trying to get better at letting it. Not that I can stop it. But I do have a sense of peace when it comes to the garden, and right now I’ll take peacefulness wherever I can find it. Besides, the garden is doing better than I would have thought it would be doing at the end of October. There are flowers! And biennials forming strong roots. And even a few bulbs planted that should hopefully make some very early flowers for next year.

Pots of violas and some sweet alyssum, growing alongside a late-planted calendula

In Bloom

• Sweet Alyssum: Last month I sowed this, not thinking that it would even bloom before the frosts, but it did! And I love it and will definitely be planting it next year. Usually I see it around Brooklyn growing as bedding plants, but it’s very sweet (suitable name!) in a pot.

• Violas: The seeds I sowed last month have turned into seedlings that are still too tiny to bloom, but the two little violas I bought at the green market are still flowering, and also very sweet.

• Nasturtiums: The ‘Tip Top Apricot’ nasturtiums I sowed in late summer are blooming, and have taken the spot as my favorite nasturtium variety. That color!

Favorite favorite nasturtium: ‘Tip Top Apricot’

• Blue Lace Flower: I can’t remember when I sowed these—probably later/mid-summer since the seeds I sowed earlier grew into seedlings that hated the heat. I kept this plant on the shady side of the terrace, and it’s rewarding me with flowers at the moment.

• Montauk Daisy: They’re on their way out, actually, but I picked up a few plants at the greenmarket earlier in the month when I was on the lookout for flowers in bloom. I don’t love them to be honest. I bought them because they were three dollars a plant, and I already have my eye on prettier late-blooming flowers for next year.

• The holdouts: Nothing is looking exactly great at the moment (the cold batters the petals quite a bit) but I do still have vinca, cosmos, thunbergia, snapdragons, and nemesia blooming, too. When it comes to bouquet-making the pickings are slim, but I do still get little flowers for the bud vases on occasion.

A sad-looking impatiens, a primrose, and a pot of daffodil bulbs topped with a viola

Planning

So this is what’s really making the end of the 2024 garden season easier to accept. I am already writing down names of new plants to grow next year, planning for 2025 and what I’m going to do differently (a lot, probably. I’ll be writing a post on that). And right now I’m really focusing on the bulbs I’ll be planting. That will be another post, too, but I’ve already planted some ‘Minnow’ daffodil bulbs I picked up at the lovely local GRDN. Taking Sarah Raven’s advice I topped the pot with a little viola plant, both to provide interest and to keep the squirrels/birds/whatever is digging little holes in my pots out. But I’m excited! And still figuring out what I’ll be planting and how—I like the idea of bulbs in tiny pots, but I need to try at least one bulb lasagna.

My little plant nursery at the moment: viola seedlings and random biennials, along with some achillea I divided

I also spent some time over the weekend doing end-of-season chores, like washing out my plastic bin cold frames in preparation for the winter, and there was something very hopeful about it—not sad at all. I planted the tiny viola seedlings into larger pots, and also divided an achillea and potted up some biennials I’ve been growing together in one of the raised beds. The plan is to share them—I’ve become that annoying person who is always giving away plants, but it’s just too much fun to have my own mini nursery going. That achillea was growing much too big for the raised bed, anyhow, and I need the space.

I’ve also been very inspired by Carol Klein on Gardener’s World lately and all of her free plant-making, so I took some hardwood hydrangea cuttings and also some root cuttings of my verbascum. I don’t know if they’ll take—is it too late in the season?—but it’s so exciting to try.

After a long wait, the blue lace flower!