Tag Archives: seasonal change

The speed of spring

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Spring drew on…and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps. ~Charlotte Brontë

Time for me these days is measured in garden time – the fits and starts of growth over days and weeks, never the same scene twice. The emergence of hints of green in early spring are transformed within a few weeks . . .

into a full throated chorus of rich textures and layers.

This has been a spring of extremes – days of hot weather, often over 80º F (27ºC) followed by days of bitter cold, with nighttime temperatures dropping to -20º F (-29º C), separated by a week of normal weather, and then repeated over and over throughout March and April. How anything in the garden survived is a mystery to me but also reassures me that nature is resilient beyond reckoning.

Fog arose after a February snowfall melted in sudden warm weather.

By April, the garden had changed from gray and brown to a full spectrum of color.

A violent wind storm in March

had unfortunate consequences for our neighbor’s house. We went to our basement to be safe but were thankfully spared any damage.

There are so many things to be done in the garden this spring. The Garden Conservancy Open Days tour on June 13 looms large on my “to do” list, pushing me to complete unfinished projects and make the garden ready for visitors. Special attention was given to the newer areas featuring native plants.

Each autumn our township collects all the fallen leaves from the neighborhoods and creates large compost mounds that decay for 3 years. They provide a mountain of leaf mold each April, free for the residents. My garden guys had already loaded and spread 3 cubic yards for me but I went back a week later to get another 1/2 yard to cover more of the woodland gardens. It is the perfect mulch for native plants – it improves the soil without triggering excessive growth.

The woodland plants reveled in their new coat of leaf moldwhile colorful blooms filled the sunny parts of the garden.

I was inspired to show the rate of change in the garden this year, which seemed to be captured best through video.

Wishing you a beautiful season of growth and blossoming!

All text, photos, and videos ©2026 Lynn Emberg Purse, except where noted.

The August garden – imperfectly perfect

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The garden in late summer is an odd contradiction of flowers swarmed by feasting pollinators Bumblebees on Echinaceaand plants, having fulfilled their seasonal life cycle, now tipping into senescence. Dead leaf caught in grass inflorescence

There is no stopping this process – it is life in the garden and the world, the dynamic of change and imperfection.

One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn’t exist. . . Without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist.
~ Stephen Hawking

Without the cycle of organic death and decay, the moss and mushrooms would have no place to grow and thrive.

Mushrooms growing on a mossy log

Tucked in the brown stems of a native iris that bloomed in May, a spider web is strung with drops of rain like a miniature Indra’s Net in the garden.

Long gone is the youthful beauty of June and July, when everything was fresh and colorful. But every day I treasure the richness and wildness of late summer, the garden overflowing with abundance.

The lines of the paths and arches are now blurred by plants freely growing past their boundaries.

Late blooming perennials like the hardy begonia promise fresh new flowers,Hardy begonia buds

while an annual amaranth drapes to the ground with a full season’s worth of bloom. Amaranth flowers

Late summer, more than any other time in the year, contains that full circle of seasons, a crescendo of life well-lived, the ebb and flow of a garden in all its imperfectly perfect beauty. Enjoy this stroll through the garden buzzing with life in August.

I wish you joy in the inherent wildness underlying this season of abundance, growth, and change.

The beauty of letting go

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How beautiful the leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days. ~John Burroughs

We had a glorious autumn this year. Each day, the colors shifted from green to gold to russet and burgundy, slow steps into the final leaf fall.

The hillside remained handsome for longer than expected while the leaves in the woods began their slow shift into the colors of fire.

Pixie loves the smells of autumn and the fun of running through crisp leaves.

The rosy pink blossoms of Hydrangea ‘Limelight’ glowed beneath the gold of the bitternut hickory leaves, a column of unexpected colors. The trees in the surrounding woods slowly crescendoed from a murmur of pale gold  to a full-throated song of orange and russet red.

Yesterday morning I walked through the garden, now quiet and hushed except for the crackle of fallen leaves on the path and the calls of a few winter birds. The leaves lie on the ground and pale winter sunlight has replaced the mysterious shadows and deep colors of autumn. The fall symphony has come to a close and winter waits in the wings, a new season carrying its own quiet beauty.

You can see the beautiful progression of color and leaf fall here – enjoy!

Autumn teaches us the beauty of letting go. Growth requires release – it’s what the trees do. ~ka’ala

A New Season

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maple leafAutumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~Camus

fallgrdnvertWP

Somehow, summer slipped by without me and now that I’ve returned to the garden, I find myself in a new season, deep in autumn’s glory. The oak and maple leaves are at their height of color, still clinging to their branches and rustling in the wind that brought November with it this morning. What a rich season filled with a touch of nostalgia for the flower-filled summer that was and a touch of sadness for the stark and cold winter to come.

I missed my garden this summer. Most of my attention was on a major renovation in the kitchen, followed by a nasty flood in the basement brought on by a series of torrential rains. Instead of a quiet summer tending the garden, I lived in a noisy dusty house answering dozens of questions a day from hard-working men who were there to make it beautiful and functional again. We are still putting the last few displaced items away but how wonderful it feels to return to the rake and the clippers and reclaim the last lovely days of the garden season.

In spite of months of construction chaos in the house, I stole a moment here and there to enjoy the garden and those memories inspire me as I weed and prune and prepare the garden for its long winter’s nap. The owls have been hooting in the early morning hours and the bluejays leave me a feather now and then as if to remind me that life goes on in all seasons.

My talented husband Bill Purse has graciously allowed me to include a track from his upcoming album Tribute, a piece called “New Seasons” that was composed by our friend Colter Harper (The CD will be released in December). Enjoy listening while you browse the garden photos that range from July to October! (All photos ©2015 Lynn Emberg Purse, All Rights Reserved).

Rose de Rescht and Phlox
Skipper in daylily
Plum daylilies
Daylly ‘Susan Weber’& Phlox
Rose and Persicaria ‘Firetails’
A flock of Phlox
Echinacea and Artemisia
October garden

The Old Year Passes

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Fast away the old year passes,
Hail the new, ye lads and lasses ~ from Deck the Halls

winter skyReflection and anticipation vie for my attention at this time of the year. Like Janus, for whom January is named, I look back at the year that has passed even as I look ahead to the new year to come. A busy fall semester and the hubbub of the holidays has kept me away from my blog until now, but in the lull before the new semester begins, I have been reflecting on this past year in the garden. It was eventful, partly because of the work done on the garden paths and the deck, and the day I welcomed visitors to the garden. I’ve created a few “time lapse” slideshows of the seasons passing in the garden as a way of sharing my memories of the year’s delights.

The gravel paths that were installed this summer have been a joy to walk on in all kinds of weather; more than ever, they define the shape and the structure of the garden.

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Some areas of the garden change more dramatically than others as the seasons bring new colors, new blooms, and new heights of growth. I was particularly happy with the border below the deck, set off by the new path, and the meadowy bed outside of the gate that I call the “herb circle” anchored by a terra cotta birdbath.

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Perhaps the most iconic element in the garden is the arbor that connects the outside garden to the garden hidden inside. Designed to echo the roofline of the house, its simple shape becomes the one unchanging element as the seasons pass.

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As for hailing the new year, seeds and plants have already been ordered and plans for the garden are in the works. I hope that you enjoyed the “time-lapse” images of the garden (all photos ©2014 Lynn Emberg Purse). A special thank you to each one of my visitors this past year, and especially my followers and fellow bloggers. May you have a new year filled with joy, beauty, and wonder.

To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring. ~George Santayana