SNIFFLE

Woe is us. Yesterday we pulled up the last of the green beans. We’ve already ripped away one area of tangled morning glory and dug up the caladium bulbs, hopeful that they will hibernate in the basement over the winter and be ready to grow again next spring. The leggy impatiens are ready to go, but I’m not ready to part with them quite yet, and the coleus are thinning out. The mums have lost their luster.

Watching the gardens die out with the approaching colder weather makes me sad. It’s like losing grand old friends who I’ve become attached to over the past six months. I don’t want to part with their cheer, and I feel so crummy when I yank up the annuals, cut back the perennials, and toss them in the compost pile like yesterday’s garbage.

Yes, the fall colors are beautiful but so fleeting. Probably by next week most of the red and golden and yellow leaves will be gone from the trees--on the ground, waiting to be heart achingly (and back achingly) raked away into crispy brown piles. If you know how to treat my autumn blues, short of electroshock garden therapy, please plant some ideas on my calendar to make the next four or five months zip by.