On a golden pond, two ducks swim at The Edgewood Estate Sunday.

I was dubious about taking a Northwest Perennial Alliance garden tour last weekend. After all, my garden is not in the best of shape this time of year. But am I glad I went.

THE EDGEWOOD ESTATE

My first stop was at The Edgewood Estate, where owner Ilga Jansons graciously showed me around her garden. The five year old garden is being expanded and improved every year. She and husband Michael Dryfoos haven't filled every bit of their 32 acres but they've made quite a bit of headway.

Mums are a consistent theme in one part of the garden.

This restful spot is inside the vegetable garden.

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A Get Growing reader emailed me that he was the proud owner of two new trees. He got them after reading my post on fall color.

I thought I'd show you a few more autumn happenings in my garden.

This is beautyberry, aka Callicarpa. It has the most amazing (inedible) berries I've ever seen on a plant: metallic purple. It's incredible. I have two in my garden. They seem to like water more than my other shrubs do. The one I have planted in partial shade does much better than the one I have in full sun. The rest of the year it's rather inconspicuous but that changes comes fall.

This is sedum 'Autumn Joy.' There are several similar varieties on the market, all closely resembling each other. The leaves are grey-green and fleshy. It only grows about a foot high and makes a good front of the border choice when planted in a group.

I showed a branch of this tree, the stewartia pseudocamellia, in my last post. The tree has since turned a full crimson. It's spectacular. Can't reccommend this four-season tree enough.

This is a two-in-one. The foreground tree is a witch hazel (Hamamelis x intermedia). I have the red flowering variety 'Diane.' Right now the leaves are almost all bright yellow. These trees stay small and are the first to bloom (right after New Year's) with spidery red flowers. Looks fabulous when backlit.

In the background is a paperbark maple (Acer griseum). This is another great four-season tree. As you can see it has wonderful fall color. But it also its trademark flaky brown bark in winter and wonderful little green tri-tipped leaves in spring and summer.

Get out of the house this weekend and check out fall color whether it's in a nursery or just in the yards and forests of Puget Sound.

Author Lucy Hardiman will speak at Lakewold Gardens at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25 on "Voluptuous Vignettes: The Art of Making Plant Combinations."

Hardiman is a garden designer and author in the Portland area.

In order to get a sense of her style check out a video of her winter garden here. (Skip the first two minutes of ads)

Members of the Northwest Perennial Alliance get in free but nonmembers pay only $5.

Lakewold Gardens is at 12317 Gravelly Lake Drive S.W. in Lakewood.

This is the height of the fall color season in the Pacific Northwest. Though we can't match New England's display there's an appreciable amount of color in our region from both native and non-native shrubs and trees.

Trouble is, gas prices make leaf-peeping tours a bit hard to finance.

The answer: create your backyard kaleidoscope of colors. Not only is this a great time of year to plant (yes, shrubs and trees do fantastically when planted in fall and you don't have to worry about watering them) but you can see what your future garden residents look like wearing their yellows, oranges and reds.

Take a trip to your favorite nursery or visit a new one. You'll have the opportunity to see exactly what your new shrub or tree will look like every autumn.

One thing to keep in mind: you'll get better color results from plants in full sun.

Here's a few from my garden:

This is a branch of my Stewartia pseudocamillia tree. This remains one of my favorite small trees. It has lovely dogwood-like blossoms in spring, shiny green leaves in summer, an interesting form in winter and you can see the fall color for yourself.

This is the smoke tree (or bush) otherwise known as Cotinus coggygria. I have two 'Royal Purple' varieties in my yard. The summer foliage is indeed a dark purple but turns brick red in fall. There are also green leaved and golden leaved varieties out there though I'm not sure what their fall colors look like.

My last example is a less common tree but gaining in popularity in our area. It's a Parrotia persica also known as Persian Ironwood. I don't know if it has super strong wood but its original home must be Iran. It has a nice form and great fall color as you can see. In winter it has an interesting bark pattern similar to the the Psudocamillia.

There are countless other great varieties of fall color choices out there. Go find them and make your own leaf-peeper's paradise.

Some of you might remember the momotaro tomatoes I started in my bathroom this year.

At one point I thought I had lost the whole crop but they bounced back and now I can present to you a fully ripe momotaro (above).

They are beautiful tomatoes: round, medium sized and a great blend of firmness and juiciness.

Behold a sliced specimen below:

I'm not yet sure if they'll make my "must grow again" list. I am very fickle about what goes on that (so far: Brandywine, striped roman and sungold.) My only quibble with the momos is that they are slow to ripen.

I got a call from Ann Henderson of Parkland recently. She wanted to tell me about her butterbeans.

"I love butterbeans," the grandmother exclaimed to me.

For years, she was under the assumption that they wouldn't grow here. At least that's what she had been told.

But on a trip home to Mississippi she bought some beans as an experiment. The result: success.

She told me she planted a couple of rows this year (after starting them indoors) and was very pleased with the results: a bumper crop.

I haven't been to Ann's garden but she told me grows cantaloupe, watermelons, corn, collard greens, beets, carrots, cucumbers, green beans and okra. The okra and watermelon did not turn out too well, she said. But, I think that's a pretty good variety considering the summer we had.

Ann said she serves the beans with turkey, salt pork or ham.

I'll be over for dinner.

Mushrooms, yellow leaves, rose hips. We all have images in our mind when it comes to fall in the garden.

One of mine is spider webs. I almost smacked face first into this one when I went to check on my tomatoes this morning. Its owner was nowhere to be seen but I left it undisturbed in case she was still using it.

And besides, who could destroy such a thing of beauty?