My Garden Needs Me

It's nice to feel needed. Even if it's only by your garden. I worked full-time this week and four of the five days were pretty tough days. I came home exhausted nearly every night and just about the only thing I did in the gardens was pick green beans on Wednesday night. Romie did the watering by himself, bless his heart.

Tonight, I took a walk through the gardens to check things out and WOW. My garden reflects my absence. Wilted daylily flowers hanging off their stems, little weeds popping up everywhere, ornamental kale decimated by cabbage loopers, and gigantic heirloom tomatoes waiting to be picked. It's amazing how quickly things can get out of hand.

Part of it is the time of year. August is when I start wanting to tear things out and getting them cleaned up, rather than to struggle keeping tired perennials looking good. I know if I just hang tight, the cooler fall temps will revive them and breathe new life into their weary stems. So I will do a little maintenance work tomorrow morning, before the temperatures reach the high 80s they're predicting.

Time too, to get those fall vegetable crops in the ground. The sweet corn is done, so I'll tear out the stalks and put those in the compost bin. This will increase the amount of sun the melons receive, and also free up some ground for the turnips and beets we want to grow for fall. The turnips are for one of Romie's co-workers. The beets are the second crop this year of one of my favorites. Pickled beets...mmmmmm!

It's hard to believe that we're in the waning days of summer already.