Not yet!

A few hours ago, a friend posted on Facebook that she was seeing snow flurries--in mid-October, in southeastern Ohio--not our typical October at all. I am not ready for winter, and neither is the garden. There are still "Fragrant Rose" daffodils to be planted. The potted tomato plant is sporting green balls too small for slicing and frying. After stubbornly refusing to bloom all summer, a cosmos started from seed in April is in bud for its its entire six-foot height (this plant not having gotten the memo that its species doesn't get that tall). I cut off the flowering stems in hopes that they will open in the house as the months without flowers go on for entirely too long.
Just a few days ago, the Blomburg Arboretum at the Parkersburg library was still pretty lively, with the aromatic asters in the shale barren bed in full bloom.

 The native grass bed was doing its delightful fall thing,

and the New England aster was still attracting its fair share of pollinators, eager to grasp the last bit of summery sweetness.









 Still, the approach of cold weather isn't all bad,since it does tend to intensify fall color. Even without it, the arboretum's American euonymus was putting on quite a show.

Maybe fall could hang on for a while before winter sets in?