A gardener's musings at the twilight of the growing season

Leaves from a gardener's notebook:

• I wouldn't give common witchhazel much notice if it bloomed in spring, along with most other shrubs. But it doesn't. Instead, its fragrant, yellow, straplike petals unfurl in November, after most of the autumn leaves already have fallen.

For gardeners hating to say goodbye to the growing season, it's a last hurrah.

• A berry-producing shrub such as winterberry or American cranberrybush provides two shows for the price of one. First, you get the colorful berries, then songbirds that come to eat the fruit.

• The big, leathery leaves of our hybrid chestnut trees are beautiful, especially when they turn a handsome russet-brown in late autumn. We're glad new hybrids make growing chestnuts possible, after blight all but wiped out American chestnuts in the 1940s. Not raised on the pleasure of "chestnuts roasting on an open fire," we're content to let the squirrels enjoy feasting on the nuts after the prickly burrs split open.

• I think the golden fall color of ferny asparagus tops is quite beautiful, especially when backlit by the sun. As soon as the tops are completely dead, though, out they go. Fall removal helps thwart asparagus beetles. I also try to pull out all the old stumps left behind after harvest, because those stumps are a favorite place for asparagus beetles to lay their eggs.

• The starry, rose-purple blossoms of Ozawa Japanese flowering onion delight with long-lasting autumn blooms. Only about 8 inches tall, they show off best planted near a walk or patio.

• It's not too late to plant that sack of bulbs still sitting in the garage.

• Rabbits munch on young trees and shrubs when the garden is dormant. We try to protect all our vulnerable woody plants by surrounding them with a cage of chicken-wire fence fabric.

• Now is a good time to replace brittle plastic perennial labels with durable metal markers. I also like to renew any faded names on markers, while I can still read them.

• The mix of shredded leaves and grass clippings collected by the bagging mower in autumn makes perfect mulch for perennials or strawberries.

• November, not January, is the best time for a gardener to make resolutions for the new year. With the memory of this year's garden still fresh in my mind, I like to stroll through the garden making a list of plans and plants for the coming year. I know my garden will never be perfect, but I enjoy the challenge of trying to make it better every year.