Mid-October Garden

The garden is well on the wane by this time of year, but we've still got a fair amount of activity out there. This zinnia, for example, just bloomed -- it's probably going to be our last one. Most of the zinnia plants are looking pretty rough around the edges, and even this blossom looks a bit gnarled.

The inulas are completely done, their yellow petals and green stems having turned brown and their flowers gone to seed.

But the verbenas are still plugging away...

...as are the cosmos. And there's still some insect life, as you can see. There's a bee on that central flower, and right next to it is a crab spider, lying in wait for a smaller, more manageable insect than that gigantic bee to consume.

Here's a closeup of the spider. Autumn is spider season, and the garden spiders have been out in force for several weeks, their webs suspended everywhere. Maybe that's how spiders came to be synonymous with Halloween?