Our Midwest fall garden

It's been a spectacular weekend back in St. Louis, with cool sunny weather, celebrations of the St. Louis Cardinals' World Series Win (http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=stl, woohoo!!) and the antics of Halloween. But I am in my garden today (Nov.1! -- isn't Oct. 15 our last average frost date here?!). And that ubiquitous Cardinals red that filled my brain for the last week is beginning to fade. Now there's a whole new color palette to enjoy. Under the hues of the turning trees, there are the purply blues of winter-hardy pansies that I purchased and potted up (but plan to put in the ground today or tomorrow for effortless color under daffodils next spring)...

There's a harvest of some of the very last of the pumpkin-orange Sun Gold tomatoes (http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-7929-sun-gold-f1.aspx)...

... while yellow-stemmed Swiss chard (okay, plus a few Cardinal-red stemmed ones) wait in another bed (http://www.botanicalinterests.com/products/view/0113/Swiss-Chard-Bright-Lights-Blend-Seed/srch:swiss%20chard)...

...There are herbs out the wazoo (it's November and even the basil still thrives! crazy!)...

I move the last of the tender plants to our basement light-room, now filled with orchids, a few annuals for an experimental over-wintering plus a Meyer lemon tree...

After a meeting in mid-town, I take a walk through the nearby Missouri Botanical Garden (http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/) and see, among other things, bees and butterflies getting the last nectar from fuzzy blossoms of Mexican bush sage...

...while busy Mobot volunteers put in some of the hundreds of thousands of bulbs that they plant each fall, for beauty next spring.

I am inspired (guilted?). I think about the bag-o'-bulbs hanging in my garage -- some of the new Midwest Mix that I purchased via Brightside St. Louis (http://brightsidestl.org/). I go home, sort them out and plant 90 of them.

Here's a favorite from the mix: It's called 'Barrett Browning' in ivory-white with orange coronas. It should look spectacular, blooming above all of those re-emerging pansies! One of many things to look forward to in 2012!!