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This tomato plant is one of the plants we planted laying down, it was on the stone the day we planted it, the next day it had lifted itself up towards the sun!
Here is the results of my companion planting and horse manure ammended soil in August. Never had plants grow so tall......grew corn and scarlet runner beans for the first time. Yummm!
There is a remarkable difference living in the tropics like the Philippines where I was born and raised; and living in a temperate country where there are changes of seasons == Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. In the tropics, we have two seasons. A long dry season and a long rainy seasons.
There were subtle changes though in the Philippines, when we experienced a few colder months from December to February. The colder months happen to coincide with the Christmas holidays with evening mass celebrated to await the big day for Jesus Christ. Simbang Babi (Night mass) was when you "see your breath because of the colder weather; even colder in the high mountains like Baguio City it is called the summer capital of the Philippines because it was once had milder weather even during the summer while it would be scorching hot in the lowlands.
In the tropics though, it may get cold but not as cold as in some regions of the US Thus, trees remain essentially green almost year round. Expect some plants, like bougaineville to have flowers almost year round provided they get enough sunshine. As a result, many insects, birds and other fauna remain vibrant year round. Tropical animals (including birds) can survive year round in the same ecosystem provided there is still a viable ecosystem. And, that is the tragedy in countries like the Philippines. Excessive logging deforested more than 90% of the forest; while urbanization led to once farm lands and forest lands converted to housing and commercial developments for a population of 110 million that has an area less than California (comparable in land area but the actual livable lands were less because most of the 7,100 islands are too small and the shorelines in the thousands of islands limit the area suitable for human habitats.
In contrast, the Northern parts of temperate countries like the US, where trees start to change physiologically to prepare for the coming Winter. The transient deep sleep of deciduous trees lead to dramatic changes in deciduous trees to a burst of colors -- reds, oranges, yellows to ultimate shades of brown of fallen leaves or some leaves left cllnging to the branches (described poetically in one of Robert Frost poem "October".
Only evergreens remain green as well as the red berries to give life and color during the late Autumn months the deep sleep of trees during Winter.
It is a welcome sight therefore to have some trees and shrubs like Goldenrod (Solidago) to start blooming in early Autumn with some varieties persisting to late Autumn for the South migration of butterflies, like the Monarch butterfly from Canada and Northern states, to Texas and other southern n regions, ultimately down to the South hemisphere to certain "ancestral migration" all the way down to Mexico.
Some late migrating birds may feed on the fruit seeds of certain late blooming (and fruits bearing) Goldenrod (Solidago) during late Autumn and possibly during the Winter, since certain species or varieties of Goldenrods remain evergreen.
The tragedy is that viable ecosystems are diminishing in many areas along the migration routes and more so in the final destinations of butterflies, birds and other fauna (?)