Fall in the Garden

I went into my backyard yesterday - for about the first time this year. (It has not been easy to get around in my scooter. I had to wait until a ramp was completed in order to get into the backyard.)

OMG! I was in shock when I looked around at my plants! The garden looked more like an overgrown weedpatch! What a mess! No one has looked after it much this summer. And then there is the issue of the 'slowly-being-filled-in pool', which I had to maneuver around carefully so as not to fall in. It's still a huge 5-ft deep hole, but that is another story for another time!

I pulled up ragweed that had reached a height of 5 feet! Also some wild lettuce that was even higher and had already gone to seed. I will have lots of weeding to do next year if all this stuff seeds itself in! Most of my summer blooming perennials are finished. I had to keep reminding myself that it is the end of September, after all. But there were some bright spots. I found this lovely patch of wild sunflowers in the back corner. Usually I pull most of these out, but this year they have been allowed to grow. Don't they look great? It's kind of like botanical sunshine! I also found a lot of wild asters. These I have always pulled up in other years too, but this year they were spared. And look at how beautiful they are! Here they have found a nice place growing up through some well-established lungwort (Pulmonaria). The lungwort has long finished flowering, but it almost looked as if the asters are part of that plant.
Not only did I go out and pull some weeds yesterday, I also went to the first meeting of our quilt group, the Rouge Valley Quilters Guild. It was another first for this year, because I haven't been able to attend a meeting since last September. And I finally finished this little quilt for 'Quilts from the Heart'. It will be donated to a local shelter or hospital by our guild. It was great to do some 'normal' things. I feel as if I am getting back into the swing of things again!