I know it's hard, but it is a part of the life cycle. II have a brown thumb so I don't usually get that far. With traveling in my future I don't want to have to handle pets or plants.

I don't plant anything anymore, so there's nothing to dig up.
Apartment living cuts way back on my urge to grow stuff.

The cycle of seeding/planting, growth and harvest was one that was just part of being. Yes, I enjoyed the spring and first blooming the best and as the cold sets in and gives way to bare branches and empty beds I do my Scarlett O'Hara - fiddle de de, I'll think of that tomorrow.
Now, it's the cold that gets me and that I can't ignore. Rainbow colors really help to cheer me up.

All my plants are perennial or succulents and I bring them in when it starts to get cold. I actually think they like it better indoors. I have a lot of perennial in the garden year round.

Goodbye time makes things/people even more valuable and meaningful.

I enjoyed gardening when I lived in Washington and had a huge yard, which ended up looking like a park. A lot of work. Now that I've been 15 years full time on Kauai, I don't miss the gardening at all. The resident manager of my condo complex takes meticulous care of the potted creations he puts together and places around the grounds. He always has a "thriller, a spiller and a filler" in a variety of colors and textures, to keep them each unique and interesting. No threat of freezing, but they do wilt in the heat if not watered every day. Hard to tell what season it is sometimes.

Maybe the ritual of having to pull out the summer flowers for the winter bareness is a way to celebrate the change of the seasons and make space for some fall/winter creativity. The "newness" of flowers in the spring is something those of us in the tropics take for granted since so many of our plants flower all year long. There is something to be said for the changing of the seasons, and the cycles of plant life.

You have the thrill of planting fresh flowers in the spring!

They look lovely. During winter just look at the photo and know that next year they will be back.

My sister lives in Oregon and she and her husband just sold their house in town for a place in the burbs. They spent about a week moving nothing but plants because 'I'll be damned if I leave them behind for someone to kill them!"

I live in the tropics so I am going to ask why you pull the plants out?

If you lived in Dallas...a Tornado would have saved you the trouble.