So while we were away in the Cape last weekend, this happened. We got home with just enough light last Sunday for me to be able to see that the zinnias and dahlias look like they came out on the worse end of a fight. (My mother, who’s on the coast, has not actually had a frost yet, and this was only a light frost – everything cold hardy is still perfectly happy.) And then we got rain for the whole week, so it’s Sunday again, and I’m just finally getting out to clean things up.
This is the state of the part of the backyard right now. The lawn desperately needs a mow too, but it’s not going to be dry enough to do it by the time it snows, at the rain rate we’re seeing right now.
I did get the dahlias and zinnias cut back, and I should be able to dig the tubers next weekend. (I really hope the weather cooperates.) You can also see one of the two rain barrels tipped upside down in the background of this picture. They’re both drying out before I clean them up and stow them. I had to completely drain them – I only ran low on water once in the one closer to the back bed in the whole summer.
About half the annuals in the front bed gave up the ghost, so I’ve pulled those out as well. The poor mums have just been flattened by the rain. Those are the only one of the five or so plants they’d put in that bed before the house showing that survived the winter. I will get rid of them eventually, but because I don’t have firm plans for the whole bed, they’ll stay for now.