Have you taken a look around your neighborhood lately? If you have neighbors like me who don’t pull their annuals or cut back the perennials until winter has put them to bed, you’re bound to find some flowers still in bloom.

In my yard is a large mum that I planted out last summer after the blooms all died off. The pot held three plants in yellow, pink and red, and though most of my plants are long dead, it still brightens an intersection of my pathways.

My Autumn Joy Sedum has finally stopped blooming, but it put out bunches of red color for weeks after the rest had died down. Also, the yarrow I planted around the front yard is still blooming.

And because I placed them on the south side of the house, my pansies are still full of blooms, creeping across the ground like a blanket. This has been an unusually mild fall, which I suppose may make up for the colder than average winter expected, so the weeds are still growing (to the delight of all my birds), but it means extra work for me–and extra time to get those outdoor projects done before snow gets here in a couple of days.

I better pull out the Christmas lights and get them up before this next cold front hits. There’s nothing as miserable as putting up lights when the eves are dripping with icicles.