Up until the first frost that arrived two nights ago, the garden still looked presentable. The hard-working annuals were still flirting with the notion that the atmosphere was pleasant enough to allow them to bloom, extending our pleasure in observing their form, colour and presentation. Now, when we awake in the morning it is to the spectacle of frost on rooftops and the garden is visibly struggling to maintain its fresh appearance.

It is, of course, a losing battle. Appropriately enough, some plants indigenous to far warmer climes than ours are visibly wilting, like potato vines. Yesterday I decided it was time to begin cleaning up and tidying the backyard. There will be more than ample work involved in plucking annuals out of the varied and many garden pots that thrive in our gardens and which are responsible for so much of our admiring pleasure through the spring, summer and early autumn.

So while we appreciate how hard they have been working to produce colour and texture and fragrance for our enjoyment, it's time they had their well-deserved rest. I will save what I can of the corms that can overwinter, the canna and calla lilies, and the begonias, many of which have been brought back and forth from their winter storage in the basement, to the spring planting in the pots and gardens, year after year.

While Jack and Jill cavorted in the backyard I snipped back hosta foliage, lilies and irises, Japanese anemones and geraniums, among other perennials, in preparation for winter's onset, not all that long into the future. It's a start, one of many efforts dedicated to bring the garden into shape before it seriously considers its long winter period of hibernation.