Nov 1 ... 1st frost

I have always said, "Halloween is the turning point," and this year that couldn't be further from the truth.  This morning was the first frost in my backyard.  Up until this point, there has been patchy frost in some of the colder frost pockets around town but nothing in the yard.  Despite this, things are still looking great... thankfully!  But in true fashion I decided it was time to embrace fall.  What better way than agave garden cloche shopping?! I tried many, I repeat many places in search of a fictitious belle shaped garden cloche that I had in my mind. funny how that works!  After what seemed a completely unsuccessful day, it hit me... winter garden cloche/ springtime terrarium!!!  And there it was, the perfect terrarium glass bowl (I don't even know if you call it that).  And whats better, it cost just $9.99, exactly one third the price of my intended budget.

so its not exactly what I was looking for, but the promise of a springtime terrarium project brings me exceeding amounts of joy!!  It actually was a beautiful day to be out and about.  And check this out ... a great friend of mine joined the agave club!!!  Check out her great plant taste....  agave ovatifolia "frosty blue!

And one of my favourite plants right now, yucca gloriosa "bright star!" I am really excited to see this great yucca more and more in garden centres throughout the area.  It has such striking foliage.  This one even has a similar appearance to agave desmettiana variegata. 

I am really trying to embrace this november/fall/winter mumbo jumbo in a new way this year.  My friend Becca and I went out for a walk in the local park and crunched our way through all the great fall leaves... thats right, I just said great and fall in the same sentence ... this is new for me. 

I'll admit, it is quite beautiful...

but there was a little more in it for me... Arbutus, ceanothus, lavender, and blue fescue grass

mmm... can you smell it?! Lavender never cease to amaze me. It's november and this thing was going to town like it was summer!!

I feel like I made a breakthrough today, trying to embrace fall that is.  We'll see how long this lasts :P 

October 1st on the north shore

It's october 1st.  In many ways there is nothing left to say, just "october 1st." It sounds cold.  But truth be told, I actually had a stellar first day of October on the north shore with great friends.  The natural beauty of the Pacific Coast is nothing short of awe inspiring even on a cloudy, drizzly day.  Our adventures took us to Horseshoe Bay where we trekked out onto a little island to sit out and enjoy some of the scenery.  I was soooo excited to see some of the native arbutus menziessi and even native sedum!!!  Here are some photos...

This enchanted looking pathway lead to a spectacular look out.

We had to get our feet a little bit wet along the way and it was every bit as cold as you could even imagine.

That being said, this arbutus welcoming us to the rock made it all worth while!

The view is not too bad either :P (I could only imagine a sunny afternoon!!)

I love the way the arbutus seem to grow out towards the water!

This is the view looking down towards the water where we spotted a seal.

And then to our surprise (and my joy), SEDUM!!!

Here's a close up. can anyone ID this cute little sedum?

Our adventure continued to my favourite North Vancouver nursery, Maple Leaf garden centre.  They were getting ready for fall in a big way.  I have never been a huge fall/winter gardener but I felt really excited about these great planters and cabbages/kale.

And these yuccas of course called my name... notice the yucca gloriosa recurvifolia "bright star" in the back left!? I was having a conversation with myself about how it really belonged in my garden! "Maybe it will help add some continuity... hmmm?"

What would a nursery be without succulent love?!?!?!

but wait .... what's this? AGAVE!!!! I had to whip out the google with this one.... agave frosty blue? turns out its an introduction from cistus... agave ovatifolia "frost blue" it should say.  To make things even better, they were on sale for $9.99! If you are wondering, yes, one sooo came home with me!

After a successful nursery visit we decided to head down to the Lonsdale Quay for some food and sights.  Here is the view of downtown Van from the Quay.

The waterfront had some great plantings.

Including palm trees!!!

These pictures don't even begin to capture the size of these.

The cordyline in this planter reminded me of a really crazy ponytail!!! 

To make a fantastic day even better... the sun decided to make an appearance and we took the aqua bus over to downtown.  Check out this amazing planting of grasses!!!  It has a really whimsical feel.  Imagine these swaying in the wind.

Vancouver never fails to excite with great container plantings!!  Check out this great tropicals display at the Pan Pacific Hotel.

I guess I shouldn't complain about October too much after all.  If this is any indication of the month ahead it is shaping up to be spectacular!