I'm not ready for fall....but my windowbox planter is. It's filled to the brim with a combination of mums and kale, twigs, dried seed pods and leaves. Of course, I'm not sure how long they're going to last.
You see, my poor plants are at the mercy of late summer temperatures in the Midwest. I've decided that Mother Nature is going through menopause. Not that this surprises me....after all, she's gotta be a couple of thousand years old.
Just after labor day, we had our first seasonally appropriate fall weather here in Illinois. Daytime temperatures were in the 60's with night time lows in the 50's. I put an extra blanket on the beds, got out my sweaters and made sure that I could find my favorite boots.
Even though my planter box was looking the best that it had in weeks, I tore out perfectly good petunias and composted them. I was ready for fall...bring on the mums...the kale...the pumpkins. So I went to the nursery. I looked around. I asked the lady behind the counter where the pumpkins were..she laughed at me. Right. Out. Loud. And then she said,
"Oh wait, You were serious....pumpkins....in September...in Illinois!?!?!?
Good luck with that."
I did manage to find a great selection of mums, ornamental kale and other fall plants at my local nursery. I added perennial heuchera (which will be transplanted at the end of the season before the ground turns to stone...or when the guys come to replace the windows..whichever comes first), dried leaves, and some lotus pods, dried artichokes and dried pomegranates that I found when I cleaned out the potting shed last weekend.
There may be some pumpkins added at some point....
or not.
Mother Nature is having a hot flash this week and temperatures climbing into the 80's for several days so the pumpkins are probably at least several days away. So, if you happen to be in my neighborhood, jump in the car, turn the air conditioning up to high, grab a pumpkin spiced everything and drive by to see my fabulous fall window planter box in all of it's autumnal glory.
In the mean time, I'll be the woman in the line at the market wearing a sweatshirt because my summer clothes are packed away.
Thanks so much for reading!