Studies in Rust and Tan

There is a transition moment when the garden is moving from summer to fall/winter that it seems too scraggly and spent. I look at it every day and sigh. But then, something happens to my perception, and that scraggliness and those fallen leaves and twigs take on a beauty of their own.

So now, the garden is a study in rust, tan and evergreen. There are a few splashes of red, for despite our nasty fall dryness and lack of rain (that thunder was a welcome sound last night!), the yaupons have put out some nice bright red plump berries.

This ice blue pale-leaf yucca, Yucca pallida, really stands out among the brown feathergrass and fallen ash leaves.

A late purple coneflower or two is blooming among the blue grama.

And here's my Piet Oudolf moment: spent echinacea seedheads left for the birds with a spineless prickly pear in the background.

Now is the time to let the garden just sit there, while we go about our busy holiday lives. Come January, all of the little plans that are hatching in my mind may start to lead to garden work, but for now, they just swirl around in my mind's eye.

For a look at a garden that is stunning in its fall-winter form, check out the Federal Twist.