The N.C. Governor’s Mansion Gardens in Autumn

On this glorious October day while walking through Downtown Raleigh between the Glenwood South Global Fare street fair and the Cooke Street Carnival, I stopped to admire the grounds of the North Carolina Governor’s Mansion.  With our run of mild weather, the annuals and other summer plantings are quite large and still blooming and showing off their colors and the leaves on the trees haven’t yet started to turn.

 

But signs of the seasonal transitions are easy to spot.  Many of the vines and trees have hanging seed pods.  And while there are still bell peppers and other summer produce growing in the kitchen garden, the cool weather collards are off to a great start, too.  The groundskeepers have begun planting pansies, that sweet flower that seems to be made for N.C. winters.  And there are so many flats of fall plants and flowers lined up on the sidewalk inside the gates of the Mansion waiting to be put into the ground.