The August Slump

 My life is like hearing the song Sunshine Lollipops and Rainbows as it slowly grinds down to a halt and the world goes dark.  Well, that might be an exaggeration...but it sure feels bleak.  It's the time of the year when heat sets in, water runs low, my energy wanes, and a tiny bit of depression settles in.

The heat has spurred the weeds to grow at an accelerated rate and keeping up with them is exhausting.  How is it the weeds grow so well, yet my beautiful plants begin a slow, painful death?  My mission this winter is to pour through plant books and websites to find plants that thrive in dry conditions and bloom during the July through September heat.  Sounds like I need more echinacea.  Twist my arm.

But not all is doom and gloom; late July into early August is when the daylilies shine in all their glory.

 

 

 

 

Breathtaking.  I need to start begging my mother for some of her specimens, since she has easily ten times more varieties than I do.

Meanwhile, I've decided my energies need to be focused on the hillside garden.  I spent portions of two days on the right side, deadheading and pulling errant weeds and grasses.  I've managed to wrangle it into some semblance of order, and took away two and a half 72 gallon garden bags full of debris.

 For my next trick, I'll work on the other side.

 What a mess.  

 Speaking of messes, I've been picking away at the bank in the backyard.  Although I love the Green Mountain mulch that I was buying by the bag, it soon proved to be a costly venture.  I ended up going to our local landscape supplier and was able to get a truckload of mulch at a much better price.  

 It's coming along nicely, and the squash plants have really taken off.  I've had to cut the surrounding grass a few times; if only it grew where I wanted it as lush and thick!

July 18th

 

August 4th

July 18th

August 4th

A few more truckloads should finish this project, and once the squash are all tucked safely into their mulch beds, I should be able to spread the rest with Li'l Red and save my back.  Won't that be nice?  

Although it's still bloody hot out there, the nighttime temperatures are - when it's not a heatwave - dipping into the mid fifties.  There is a distinct feel of autumn in those nights, and it's a signal to sow cool temperature crops for a fall harvest.  Once I've tackled the left hand mess of the hillside garden, I'll try again for peas, radish, and salad crops, all of which did horribly this spring.  I'll do a second sowing of carrots and beans, as well.  I regret not growing corn again this year; I have so much to learn about that particular crop.  And hopefully if the bank area is completed, next year I can grow a wider variety of squashes and pumpkins.  I guess gardening, whether vegetables or ornamental plants, is an exercise in always looking forward. 

May showers bring June flowers

 And still, it rains. The most astonishing part about this incredibly wet spring has been how dry the ground remains.  The wet weather has certainly pushed certain plants to show off in the most spectacular way, especially the iris.

 

I'm so happy to discover I can photograph some of my garden during the Golden Hour; my previous house was positioned perfectly to capture the beauty of my gardens as the sun waned, and I had thought I lost that magic light here.

Other perennials in bloom at the moment:

bleeding heart

columbine

catmint

ragged robin

clematis

I forget...

 

 

I'm astonished by how quickly the peony I planted by my little fence in front of the house established itself.  I really didn't expect it to bloom this year, or be quite this full!  I'm debating whether to plant another cream colored one on the other side of the gate, or a pale pink.

pale pink in the hillside garden

 Vegetables are doing well, too.  The lettuce is small, but it's growing.  The cabbage seeds have begun to push through the dirt.  Peas are growing well, and the potatoes have begun to send leaves through the soil.  My leeks are doing very well and the carrots are coming along.  I'm still moving perennials out of the hillside beds and to locations here and there.  

Finally, Nugget Watch 2025 has begun.  The old hen and an auntie hen have been hanging around the pasture for about a month now, and the other day I spotted the old hen with two nuggets!

 No sign of auntie hen, so I'm not sure if she was able to hatch any chicks yet.  Fingers crossed these two little ones are able to make it through the summer.

And once again, I'm holding my breath and allowing the boys to go on pasture.  Flea's insulin was within normal range, the lower end of normal, in fact.  I was so happy I cried.  I cried again watching him and Fargo race around the grass track yesterday.  It finally feels like I have my boys back. I can't wait to get the rest of the track done now!

Spring Fever

 

 Blink!

 

I'm always surprised by how quickly things green up; all it takes is a few warm spells and a lot of sun.  I've been keeping busy raking, cutting back, and planting cool weather crops. Sugar snap peas, lettuce, mesclun, arugula, and radish have been sown in the hillside garden.  The cinder block bed has been filled with sweet onions, cipollini onions, and shallots.  I tried using a planting aid I've seen on Gardeners' World; Monty Don uses long planks to walk on when he plants in raised beds.  The planks help distribute his weight, so the soil doesn't get as compacted as if he were walking on it.  I think my planks were a little too short, but I noticed when my mother's dog walked through the bed (!!), she sank about an inch deeper into the soil than what the boards had compressed holding my enormous bulk.  I guess it works!  

They don't look like much now, but by the end of summer we should be swimming in oniony stuff.  I'm excited to see how the cipollinis do, this is a new crop for me.

In the big planter by the house I've transplanted the leeks I grew from seed. 

I'm pretty happy with this experiment; I used seeds collected from my leek plants that I let flower, not sure if they would germinate.  Well, they definitely did!  I still have about 20 or so older leek plants in the hillside garden and I'm thinking of letting a few go to seed again this year.  The flowers are so pretty, and the bonus of having fresh seed for next year's plants is too good to pass up.

2024 leeks in flower

 

Between the newly planted rows of leeks I've sown some carrot seeds.  Normally I wait until August to sow them so I get a harvest around Thanksgiving, but I'm thinking two sowings this season might be a good idea considering how expensive groceries are getting.

Inside the house my seedlings are doing ok.  I've had some damping off issues on top of the aphid attacks, but I think what survived is nearly ready for the polytunnel - time to start hardening off these puppies.  The dahlias are doing great, so I'm really excited about those.

 

I'm thinking of putting them in the empty pots around the wildflower meadow.  Speaking of which, I'm really frustrated with that project.  It looked really great the first year, but it's so hard to keep the weeds out.  Just about every icky plant that thrives in "recently excavated areas" has set down roots.  I spend more time pulling up weedy invasives than planting my beloved perennials.  I am going to try to work on that area a little more this year.  It's on the list, but there's an order to everything.  First I need to get that downed pine tree cut up and moved off the mule track, then I can get a truckload of material in to make another dry lot that actually has shade.  Then I can move the mules so I can get the second half of the French drain in around the barn.  While the equipment is here, I can get the composted manure moved to the mound to prepare for the corn, and have a bed dug and boulders set to start the alpine garden.  Once that's done, I can start the cat fencing and Calypso will finally get to go outside again.  Then I will have plenty of time to work on configuring the meadow.  Yes, there's a plan, it's just taking longer and fraught with more obstacles than I ever planned for.  Oh well, no rest for the wicked.  Happy spring!

Mooshie in the daffodils