Saturday Photo: Grasses in Fall

One of the nice things about using various ornamental grasses in planting is the way they withstand the first cold. I took this picture 10 days ago, and even though frost had touched the begonias growing around the bed in which the grass was growing, the tall fronds looked beautiful. Since then the city's gardeners have dug up the plants, but elsewhere grasses are still standing tall.

Having said that, I'm preparing to go out and cut back the tall native plants I have growing in my Darwinian front garden (you know, what is fittest survives.) The maple leaves must be raked up to cut down on tar spot contagion for next year, and to do that I have to get down to the ground. Too bad the tall stocks of asters and Joe Pye weed must go, but that's the way the seasons pass, I guess.