This garden was spared by the frost that blighted my garden in mid-September. It is at a high elevation, and cold air sinks right down into the Merrimack Valley. My garden, in New Boston is on a small river, and is in a frost pocket.
The asters in the photo are self seeders and can run all over a border. This does not bother all New Hampshire gardeners, who have welcomed these asters into their front yards-
Above is “October Skies”, the Aromatic aster. I have not seen it spread by seeds, but both here and in Nashville, its clumps can double or triple in size each season. It likes poor, dry soil in sun. Chanticleer, the stunning Pennsylvania garden ,has a rocky hillside border with masses of this plant. Next year I plan to add two of my seed grown Prairie Golden asters into this bed to contrast with it.
This is what I believe to be the Stout goldenrod, another fall flowerer of dry New Hampshire fields. One can see it everywhere under the power lines cut through on the South Bow Road.
This is Solidago “Golden Fleece”, a Mt Cuba introduction and a Missouri Botanical garden “Plant of Merit”. Another dry land plant minimally watered in this summer of severe drought. It is a front of the border dwarf.
Above is a feral chrysanthemum found on the side of a Bow country road. Its foliage is crisp and green and its flowers are pink, though not on this plant, which was visited by one of the resident four legged pruners that traipse on cloven feet through parts of this garden.
Lastly, golden in the spring, but burgundy and orange now- the common forsythia.
Gardening On Granite 