Welcome to the September garden,
which is looking like a school girl’s unruly hair after recess! Some tidying is in order.
Beagles, labradors, and spaniels through the years all have been contained on all four sides of our home by picket fence or in the wooded area by wire deer fencing. It has dictated where we’ve dug borders for shrubs and flowers.
I can imagine deeper and more lush borders but that would impact the running field!
Is there a labrador retriever alive that could stay out of that pond without a fence to deter? Even an electric fence couldn’t dissuade the beagle from a romp in the wooded garden.
The light changes in September, the shadows lengthen, and the egret returns.
September can signal beginnings….the start of a school year, a child turning toward adulthood as the college year opens, back to work after a long August vacation. But the gardener sees September as the end of the growing year. Yes, we can extend our vegetables in a cold frame, we can plant a Winter garden 
and get our garlic cloves in the ground. September is time for the Autumn and Winter tuck-in. Much work to be done, but do stop for a moment, sit in your garden and reflect on all it has given thus far in 2012.
Jayne In Georgia 
Yours is a beautiful garden and – yes – quite a lot different from a California native one. In September we are looking forward to the beginning of our growing season – wet fall for planting, and Christmas through May for a lot of the best flowering natives (not by any means all though). I like your thought that September is the beginning of so much – my grandson starts school tomorrow! — as one happy example!
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Looks very idyllic. I love your pond, fence, tuteur, and stone bench.
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What a lovely September garden Jayne – a picture of serenity – you are so lucky to be surrounded by trees no wonder your dogs have loved it
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What a beautiful setting for a fabulous garden. I hope you’re enjoying the final days of summer.
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