Morning Coffee in the Autumn Garden

 

There is a particular pleasure in carrying the first cup of coffee outdoors on an autumn morning.

Summer mornings have their charms, but they often come with a sense of urgency. The day is warming quickly. Work needs doing before the heat arrives. The sun is already announcing its intentions.

Autumn is different.

The air is cool. The garden may still be wet with dew. Sunlight comes at a lower angle, catching the tops of grasses and illuminating the edges of leaves. Perhaps there is a little mist lying beyond the garden. The coffee is hot, the chair is cool, and for a few minutes there is no compelling reason to be anywhere else.

This is one of the simplest ways to enjoy an autumn garden — and one of the best.

A Garden Is Meant to Be Lived In

We gardeners can become terribly industrious.

There are bulbs to plant, leaves to rake, perennials to divide, beds to tidy and containers to prepare. Autumn, in particular, encourages lists. Before long we can spend so much time working in the garden that we forget to sit down and enjoy it.

Morning coffee provides an excellent corrective.

Choose a place to sit and make it part of your daily routine. It need not be an elaborate terrace. A bench beneath a tree, a chair on the porch, a small bistro table beside the kitchen door or an old wooden chair at the end of a garden path may serve perfectly well.

Indeed, a slightly secluded place is often better than a grand one.

The important thing is to stop.

The Autumn Garden in Morning Light

Autumn reveals details that summer sometimes conceals.

When flowers are abundant, our attention naturally goes to them. As the season advances, other things begin to matter: the shape of a tree, the arch of a branch, seed heads left standing among the perennials, berries ripening on shrubs and the movement of ornamental grasses in the breeze.

Morning light makes these details particularly beautiful.

Dew collects on spiderwebs and grass blades. Fallen leaves deepen in color when wet. Pale seed heads glow when struck by low sunlight. Even an ordinary wooden fence can become handsome when long shadows fall across it.

This is also an excellent hour for noticing what is happening in the garden.

Birds are busy. Squirrels are making plans of dubious legality. Bees may begin visiting late flowers as the air warms. Migrating birds sometimes appear unexpectedly, stay briefly and are gone.

The garden is awake even if the gardener is not quite there yet.

That, presumably, is what the coffee is for.

Make a Place for the Morning

If you regularly enjoy coffee outdoors, it is worth creating a small place specifically for it.

Begin with a comfortable chair. Add a small table large enough for a mug and perhaps a book, newspaper or pair of binoculars. If the seat is exposed to dew, choose furniture that can tolerate moisture or keep a cushion just inside the door.

Consider the morning sun when choosing the location.

A place that receives early sunlight can be delightful as temperatures fall. A corner that was too sunny in July may be precisely where you want to sit in October and November.

Shelter matters, too. A porch, garden wall, hedge or group of evergreen shrubs can provide protection from cool breezes and make an outdoor sitting area comfortable surprisingly late in the season.

Keep a warm throw nearby. Sometimes that is all that separates "too cold to sit outside" from a very pleasant half hour.

Surround Yourself With Autumn

A morning sitting place can be made more seasonal without turning it into a harvest display.

A few well-chosen containers are enough.

Pansies and violas provide color through cool weather. Chrysanthemums offer the traditional autumn palette. Ornamental grasses bring movement and texture. Heucheras contribute handsome foliage, while small evergreens give permanence as other plants begin to fade.

Natural materials belong easily in such a setting. Terracotta pots, aged stone, weathered wood, iron and woven baskets generally improve with a little wear and seem particularly appropriate in autumn.

Pumpkins and gourds can certainly be used, but restraint has its virtues. Autumn already knows how to decorate itself.

A branch of colored leaves in an old earthenware pot may say more about the season than a wagonload of decorations.

Bring Out the Proper Cup

There is something to be said for using a real cup outdoors.

A travel mug is wonderfully practical when driving down the highway at seventy miles an hour. Sitting quietly beneath a maple tree is another matter.

A substantial pottery mug feels right on a cool morning. So does an old china cup and saucer if your garden seating is near the house. A small tray can carry coffee, cream, a spoon and perhaps a piece of toast or warm bread outside in one trip.

These are little things, but rituals are largely composed of little things.

The pleasure lies partly in refusing to hurry.

Listen to the Garden

Try occasionally leaving the telephone indoors.

Without its persistent company, other sounds become apparent: birds calling from the hedge, dry leaves moving across the path, acorns striking the ground, a distant dog, church bells perhaps, or merely the breeze moving through the trees.

Autumn has a quieter voice than summer.

This can also be a good time for reading. Poetry, devotional reading, a gardening book or a few pages of a favorite old author fit easily into an autumn morning. But there is no requirement to accomplish anything.

One may simply drink coffee.

That is occupation enough.

Notice What Needs Doing — But Don't Do It Yet

Sitting in the garden has a practical advantage as well.

From a chair, you see things differently.

Perhaps a shrub is obscuring a view. A container would look better moved several feet to the left. A bare place needs an evergreen. A path seems to lead nowhere. A tree has grown enough to change the character of a border.

Make a mental note, or write it down.

Then remain seated.

There will be time enough for the pruning shears.

When the Morning Turns Cold

Do not surrender the habit at the first frost.

As autumn advances, simply adapt. Wear a sweater or jacket. Bring out a blanket. Move the chair into the sun. Choose a sheltered corner.

A porch can be especially useful because it provides protection from dew and light rain while preserving the feeling of being outdoors.

On genuinely cold mornings, even ten minutes outside can be worthwhile.

There is something deeply satisfying about holding a hot cup between your hands while seeing your breath in the cold air.

The garden is moving toward its winter rest, but it has not ceased to be a garden.

A Simple Morning Coffee Corner

• Choose a seat that receives pleasant morning sun during autumn.
• Place a small weather-resistant table beside it for your coffee, book or binoculars.
• Keep a cushion and warm throw just inside the nearest door so they stay dry.
• Add one or two containers of cool-season flowers or attractive foliage nearby.
• Position a lantern beside the seating area for mornings that begin before sunrise.
• Keep the immediate path clear of wet leaves and other slipping hazards.
• Place the chair where you can see both the garden and visiting birds.
• Carry coffee outside on a small tray to avoid repeated trips indoors.
• Leave your telephone inside occasionally and give the garden your attention instead.
• Stay seated for ten minutes before deciding what garden work needs to be done.

One of Autumn's Small Luxuries

We often imagine luxury as something expensive or difficult to obtain.

Yet some of life's finest luxuries are remarkably modest: a comfortable chair, a quiet garden, cool air and a cup of hot coffee.

Autumn makes us conscious of time. The leaves that were green only weeks ago begin to turn. Flowers fade. Daylight shortens. Migrating birds come and go. Every morning is slightly different from the one before.

Perhaps that is why sitting quietly in an autumn garden can feel so satisfying. We are not merely looking at the season. For a little while, we are participating in it.

Tomorrow morning, before beginning the day's work, pour the coffee and take it outside.

Sit down.

Watch the light move through the garden.

The leaves can wait.

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