Last Wednesday, which as I write this was just five days ago, I went out to he vegetable garden and picked a bunch of peppers and tomatoes, and some flowers.

It was a warm day and I wondered when fall was really going to arrive.

Fast forward to Sunday and the breeze was cool and the honeylocust tree, which is always the first tree in my garden to give up its leaves, was shedding them at a remarkable speed, considering that just days before it seemed to drop one leaf, then another… slowly…drip, drip, drip. A sure sign of fall.

Then as I was mowing the front lawn on Sunday wearing gloves and a jacket, I spotted the first of the autumn crocuses in bloom.

These are the last “new” flowers of the season.

If falling leaves, cool breezes, and autumn crocuses aren’t enough signs that it’s fall, there is one last sign.

There’s a frost warning in the forecast for Monday night into Tuesday morning.

I repeat.

A frost warning.

Good thing I picked all those vegetables. And took some cuttings of the African blue basil to root. (If you are a regular listener to The Gardenangelists podcast, you’ve heard Dee and I talk about this basil and why we take cuttings of it to root each fall.)

Now it’s time to take that last exit out of summer and head straight into fall. No going back once we’ve had that frost warning.

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In other news, I’m going to be on Instagram Live on Wednesday, October 11 at 1:00 PM EST. To watch, go to Spoken Garden’s instagram page and follow them. Then on Wednesday, sign on to Instagram at the appointed hour and you can watch them interview me about critters in the garden. We’ll also talk about my children’s book The Halloween Hare, and there might be a mention or two of Creatures and Critters: Who’s In Your Garden, my fourth book of humorous gardening essays. It should be a lot of fun!

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Thanks as always for reading to the end!