"Aaah, September. You begin to sniff a change in the air, see a variation in the quality of the light, and though much of the garden is still going strong, there is an imperceptible winding down and phasing out. This subtle waning reminds me of the frenzied Fall planting that will soon take place. The last thing wanted is to inadvertently unearth some sturdy grower now approaching dormancy but invaluable to the entire garden picture come Tour Day, so never has my perennial labeling been more meticulous. Knowing that the plants will all soon disappear, I get seriously down on all fours and check everything for a label, and wouldn't you know--there are at least twenty plants unmarked! No longer! They now all have their cozy metal markers sunk into the earth as close to their main growing stem as could be placed."

Excerpted from DIRT, The Lowdown on Growing a Garden with Style, by Dianne Benson (pg.149-150).