Autumnal Musings

 We're finally into autumn, and not a moment too soon.  As much as I love the gardens and new projects every year, summer has turned into something I just need to get through.  The heat, the droughts, the unbearable humidity levels...the older I get and the more our weather patterns change, the more I dislike being outside.  Luckily, the past few weeks have been beautiful, though dry save for one rainy day.  Sleep isn't so challenging and "hot" is upper 70sF.  

Taking stock of my efforts this season, I have some valuable lessons be mindful of next year.  

*Don't wait so long to plant cucumbers; waiting for the peas to die off takes too long.  Plant them in late June instead of late July or August.  I think I'll give up trying to grow them up the hay ring, and use homemade trellises like I used to.  The perennial sweet pea is probably better grown up the arch.

*Don't plant vegetables that need to be hilled up with ones that don't.  Trying to keep my leeks buried but not the carrots was a futile effort at best.  

*Get the sumac removed from the hillside as soon as possible in spring.  They shade out too much of the vegetable garden and result in poorer yields.  

*Amend, amend, amend!  The beds all need a good shot of compost.  Not adding manure to the cinder block bed is partially why my onions did so poorly.  Of course, lack of water didn't help.  

*Which brings me to water collection.  I really need to get that 275 gallon tote set up for next year, but with the amount of water we hauled in over the last few months, I'd go through that much in a week or less.  I think next year I'll try ollas in the raised beds, and maybe that will be a better watering method. 

*Finally...stop biting off more than you can possibly chew.  I need to concentrate on one project from start to finish, otherwise I end up with something like my track fencing that's still not done after how many years?  

There is still time to get a lot of my unfinished projects done.  I've already begun transplanting perennials - once again - out of the hillside garden beds and into the cottage garden and wildflower meadow.  My neighbor is going to try digging an area for the alpine garden, and moving large boulders into it.  I still have the forest garden area to clear, and the summer's manure pile to move to that area.  I don't have the luxury of boredom, thankfully.  And it really was a beautiful summer...

 

life in a dry, brown place

 Still no rain.  Well...a five minute spattering of water doesn't count, does it?  The ground is so dry that it may take a month of rain at this point to saturate it again, and most of New Hampshire is now in a moderate drought per the US Drought Monitor.  The cottage gardens are horrid to look at.  Other plants around the property are beginning a slow death, as well.  The little water feature is going dry, and even the bog garden is starved for moisture. Now that the weather has at least taken a turn for the cooler, I need to get out there and deadhead and cut back as much as possible, which will stop the plants from trying to grow or flower, and send more energy to the roots, where it's needed. 

I've been forced to harvest the onions, shallots, garlic, and some of the potatoes.  It's a mixed bag of NICE! and ....what the heck happened here?  (Imagine my surprise when I dumped out a bag of potatoes and found...yellowjackets.  Will the hornet invasion never end?!?!)  But there's still enough of a harvest to share and some to store for winter.  I won't be doing any fall sowing, except maybe carrots.

garlic, cherry tomatoes, Hungarian Hot Wax and Shishito peppers

And it's not just the gardens that are suffering.  Our lawns are crispy crunchy, leaves have begun to drop from trees, and even non-garden spieces of plants are showing signs of distress.  Well, except for weeds, that is.  Grrrrr!

All is not lost, though.  Our generous neighbors have given us access to their water, so we've been putting tubs and tanks on our trucks and hauling water in to save what we can.  I've been concentrating on the beans, cucumbers, what's left of the tomatoes and peppers, and the squash.  Some plants continue to flourish, so I've begun to note which still thrive despite the heat and drought.  Coreopsis, gaillardia, tall garden phlox, black eyed Susans, and yellow toadflax are glorious.  The tall prairie coneflowers are drooping, but I can't tell if that's from being top heavy in an area without support, or from thirst.

 In the hot beds, the blackberry lily that survived bloomed, and it's so beautiful!  I definitely need more of these, because like daylilies, the bloom only lasts one day, then shrivels up.

 Even in the toughest of times, there is beauty if you look for it.