This year, we planted a cutting garden with the hopes of providing plenty of flowers for the inn. Despite the excessive rain this year, the garden did well. And it even managed to survive the first frost, so we had flowers from June through the end of October. Even a few in November...
... zinnias, nasturtium, & alyssum ...
... sunflowers (Keeping the bees happy) ...
... cosmos & salvia ...
... lisianthus, ageratum & rudbeckia ...
... cleomi & huge sunflowers ...
And in October, while harvesting the pumpkins, we cut some of the Kong Sunflower heads to collect seed for birds!
... sunflowers (Keeping the bees happy) ...... cosmos & salvia ...... lisianthus, ageratum & rudbeckia ...... cleomi & huge sunflowers ...And in October, while harvesting the pumpkins, we cut some of the Kong Sunflower heads to collect seed for birds!
Pumpkins, gourds, and flowers are harvested for decoration, inlcuding goldenrod from out new meadows. 
The last of the kitchen crops are picked before the first frost, just in time for soups and stews.
With the harvest complete, there is still time for planting before the ground freezes. New blueberry beds are dug and planted. 
Twelve evergreen trees are also planted; that's almost 50 trees in the past two years.
One of our green initiatives has been to convert areas of maintained lawns into meadows.
Meadows improve water quality, prevent soil erosion, provide wildlife habitat, and decrease fuel consumption from less frequent mowing... 
... not to mention, they can make for some beautiful scenery.
