Gardey don't dig no roots and tubers if at all possible which won't be come Friday. Dahlia and canna have a 70% chance of overwintering here thanks a good deal to our moist well drained soils. Extra mulch helps. I'm a hero when they come back.

I did put the Voodoo Lilies and Amaryllis into winter storage. Got the first killer freeze this morning. 23 degrees.

Christopher, when the garden goes 'Goth' it that time of year for Mother Nature to begin a very important duty which my Dad (a former well known horticultural writer) used to call "producing the stuff of life". He was, of course, referring to the annual process of decaying detritus producing Mycorrhizal fungus which is important for the growth of vegetation including food plants that sustain our lives. It is an interesting and ongoing field of research.

It is nice to have some scientific approval of my methods Nandina.

I'm all for letting everything be absorbed back into the earth. In my garden cleanup could be called inconsequential. I let winter do most of the work. Pick up sticks and branches. Chop and drop the rest with an eye towards aesthetics. By May the stubble is hidden. By mid July it is 90%+ gone and the bare earth is visible again.

Why on earth would I clean it all up when nature will do it for me?

I love your pictures, Christopher! The lighting, fogginess and color contrast are beautiful. I also really like the vignette with the springs and insulators. Very cool.

Thanks popmama. Daytime fog which I can get now and again and then some is a fun element to use in garden photography.

Lovely photos. In areas with winter rain or snow, leaves go back to the soil. My desert area, near mountains that burned over last month, is much different, so I really appreciate seeing these photos. Homeowners here plant shrubs and trees away from houses where they won't act as ladder fuel. And we water our compost heaps by hand.

Having all the decay be re-absorbed by fire is a whole other matter apple_pie_order. I'm sure there are plenty of fine gardeners out your way who know how to deal with that beautifully.

The rot and decay is coming along quite nicely this year.

I always liked to refer to part of my garden as "the ruins."

Very nice pictures Christopher! It really looks like pure nature and it is lovely! The first picture with the bike, hanging between the trees is a piece of art...you could apply to put it some art exhibition ;-) Was this your idea with the bike?

Yes I hung the bike in the trees. My entire frontage -acres- is a NC scenic byway called The Rattler. I decorated my stretch of the scenic for the rubberneckers. There are bound to be pictures of that bike viewed from above online. You know, social media and all that rot.