194 MY GROWING GARDEN 



Bean-poles are pulled up, tomato-stakes col- 

 lected, leaves raked away — but not many have 

 yet fallen — and every bit of trash that can be 

 rotted is taken to the compost heap, which is 

 once carefully turned and thoroughly wet during 

 the month. 



But now comes a snow flurry, and more nights 

 with hght frosts. The autumn color, often rather 

 flat and monotonous in this Susquehanna valley, 

 begins to be notable here, and a new garden glows 

 before our eyes. The contrasts are striking, and 

 on every side the eye is entranced with nature's 

 final burst of color. Here are the lilacs and the 

 mound of honeysuckle at the carriage step, in full, 

 deep, rich and glowing summer green, untouched 

 by frost, and with here and there in the honey- 

 suckle a dainty and almost super-sweet flower. 

 The arborvitae hedge has a brown undertone to 

 its dull green, but next to it there flames a dog- 

 wood, crimson in foliage and scarlet in fruit, and 

 a Viburnum tomentosum, in deeper crimson. Of 

 course my huckleberries, little though they are as 

 yet, are showing the fall blood-red foliage that is 

 but one of their merits, while not far away there 

 are spireas and other shrubs in full summer 

 foliage of green. 



In the Arboretum bed are some cotoneasters. 



