I know it’s time to do the fall clean-up in the garden, but it’s so hard to cut back or pull up plants that are still blooming, even if the last rain storm beat them down and tipped them over.

Yesterday was an absolutely glorious fall day.

After taking full advantage of the extra hour we got from “falling back,” I headed right out to the garden.

Well, after I checked with my neighbor and expert gardner, Melinda.

She grows the most beautiful dahlias, and I wanted to know if it was okay to cut mine back now.

But how can you cut back things that are still blooming???

And even things that aren’t still blooming are still beautiful.

This sunflower head is 20 inches across!

And my little sunflowers are still showing some color.

What’s prettier than yellow and blue?

And what’s fresher than daisies?

These line the whole west side of my vegetable garden.

I remember sitting on the lawn at my grade school during lunch and making daisy chains from the daisies that grew wild in the grass.

And later, when I was in high school, daisies were a favorite of the flower child generation.

I still love them.

On the north side of my parents home was quite a patch of big daisies that seemed to thrive on neglect.

When they sold that house a few years ago, I dug up a few and they haven’t disappointed me a bit!

Even my hollyhocks aren’t ready to say good-bye to summer.

And this feverfew grows wild next to my compost pile.  It got started when I tossed a commercial bouquet of flowers onto the pile last year.  Instead of composting, it decided to sprout!

Very high up on my favorites list are nasturtiums.

Could it be because they are so easy to grow?

Or because they cover so much ground?

Or because they’re ORANGE–the most popular color in Anna Lena Land?

Maybe.  But, the long and short of it is, I didn’t cut back or pull up any of the flowers.  I know with the next storm they’ll probably be goners, but until then, if they want to bloom, who am I to stop them?