Autumn Morning Sun

 

Even Funny-Bunny was enjoying it

And So It Begins

 We have several large London Plane trees that we planted in 2012, and they are now 30 feet tall.  They have a quirk that around the second week of August, half of their leaves from the inside out, yellow and drop almost over night.  Then they are done for awhile until cold temperatures begin turning all of the leaves.  They did not do this the past two years, but this year the middle one did.  It was very quick.  We noticed the color change one day, and then about two days later, overnight, all of the yellowed leaves dropped all at once.

That's eight leaf sucker bags full of leaves.  In the fall we will blow leaves into the woods, but there is still too much tall grass blocking that route, so sucking them up was the only way to go.  We put a ring of wire fencing in the corner of the compost deck to keep them.  They make great compost.

It will still be a few weeks before other trees begin to drop their leaves in any serious volume and smaller quantities can still be mulched into the lawn with the lawn mower.  Our weather is now changing to unseasonably cool so maybe we will have another bright, colorful fall full of blue skies, yellow leaves and afternoon camp fires.  

Another thing I am looking forward to this fall is decorating with my pumpkins.  I have two more good sized ones for a total of five and another working on it.

August

 The middle of August is generally the time when things begin to burn out and look awful.  That's not really the case this year.  We have had a rather cool summer with enough rain but not too much.  We are a little below average for precipitation.

The two beds of buckwheat cover crop came out two days ago.  I cut one and pulled the other.  There were too many weeds to ignore in the bare bed but I put the cut stalks in the compost bin.

The cucumber vines are tired but not dead.  They are not a all diseased.  Sometimes they get wilt and die over night. Sometimes they just sort of fade away.  I have left them because there are still a few good cucumbers in there that will be appreciated all the more at the end of the season.

The cantaloupe vines are also fading but if they didn't it would be impossible to find the fruit.

...more than two dozen melons.

I lift the oldest ones each day waiting for them to slip off the stem.

The Clarimore zucchini plant is looking as fresh as it did in June and producing a squash every couple of days.

The fall lettuce bed is growing well.

And now for some pretty flowers

My baby Sahara Rudbeckia that I started from seed this spring

Not bad for August

Winding Down - August on the Way Out

 It is beginning to feel a bit fall-like out there.  The nights are cool again.  The daytime skies are full of high, cumulous clouds.  The garden is winding down.  I am starting to mulch the empty beds with compost in preparation for winter.

The tomato plants are getting a good pruning.  At this point I am not looking for any new set fruit.  I just want the large tomatoes to ripen on the vine.

Things are starting to look a little tired.  

The cantaloupes continue to be outstanding.  Each one is sweeter than the last.

This is the time of year when the Marigolds really shine.

They keep me from wanting to buy Mums.

Strawberry Blonde

Disco Mix

Vanilla

At this point I have three beds completely put to bed.  Two beds half done half producing.  Four beds in Buckwheat ready to trim.  I have the pole beans that could be pulled but I am picking a meal from them now and then.  One corn bed is drying in preparation for the chipper shredder and one bed of corn is ready to start picking.

The Rain Makes a Mess of Things

 Rain is wonderful stuff, I've had to water a lot less, and my water tank is full.  But with rain you get rain related maintenance that has to be done.  

Can you see the two Bumble Bees embedded in this flower?
They are sheltering from the all night rain.

The ornamental grasses are just now "flowering" and any rain can lay them out flat in every direction.

A quick tie with some twine will straighten things up until they dry.

This big grass below (five feet tall) was over flat on its side yesterday.  I hurried to get a pitchfork and shook all of the water out.  Then I bear-hugged it into a piece of twine.

I wish I had trimmed the Buckwheat before this happened but I was waiting on the next bed to come into full bloom.

I went ahead and trimmed it today.  The pollinators simply moved on but they weren't as happy with the little flowers as they had been with the mature ones.

The monster tomato plant is now a weeping tomato plant.  It won't hurt it much.  There wasn't much to be done.  I could have put a tie around it at seven feet, but the support isn't that tall and if the top started to lean it could have pulled the whole thing over.

Harvest time again.  Just in time for the next rainstorm.

This corn is absolutely gorgeous.  We have picked 28 ears so far.  I'm expecting to get four dozen from this one bed.  These went straight to the freezer.

Perfect pollination!

Random Trip Thru the Garden

It's beginning to be that time of year again when you can move things around and correct location problems that are developing.  Usually, by August I am totally burned out and waiting for fall so the pace will change.  But this year I had my overload meltdown in back July with the dry weather and spraying deer repellent almost every night and all the food coming out of the garden.  With the daylilies being over and some rain now and then I've recovered and gotten back on top of the pile.  The whole garden is very well ordered and I am enjoying the process every day.

So now I am working on things that need to be changed for next year.  In this row of Linden trees that defines the end of our backyard I originally had all daylilies.  As the trees mature and the shade closes in, the lilies have slowly stopped blooming.  So it is time to transition them out and replace them with Hostas that are getting too much sun elsewhere.  And I have plenty of those.

Earlier this week I removed and transplanted the daylilies and yesterday I started moving the Hostas.  Hostas that are not happy will practically jump out of the ground for me and they are very easy to divide up.  They usually take right off in their new spots.  I put some grids over them to stop inquisitive deer who will be drawn to the area of upheaval and will not be able to resist mowing them to the ground.  Even with repellent.  Bumping their face on a grid deters them every time.

In fact, when I get tired of continually spraying, I relocate any grids I can spare to the Hostas.  Yesterday when my husband got done mowing the lawn he said "you know you left a big crater behind those Hosta you moved."  Yes, I know.  I am going to fill it with more Hosta.  Just not today.  These projects need to be taken in small bites so they don't overwhelm.

August is the time when you get to enjoy all those things you planned for and worked on all spring.

This Karley Rose grass below was mail order last fall.  It was tiny!  This spring there was only one little green spear that came up.  I almost replaced it.  But sometimes you just gotta let it ride.

I am also enjoying this Black Eyed Susan below.  In years past I had so darn many BES.  I got sick of them.  I pulled them out.  I relocated them.  I got tired of supporting and spraying and deadheading them.  Two years ago I ripped out the last big area of them.  For some reason, I must have had a really nice green clump and I stuck them into a fiber pot and put them along the compost pile with other refugees and forgot about it.  This spring when I was looking for things to fill in bare spots in the dry creek I stuck that little clump in.  I'm really enjoying it as a stand alone plant.  It can't spread there.  It can be just a tame little bright spot.

Another mail order plant that is thriving.  Echinacea Cheyenne Spirit.  I got a dozen of these in these spring and planted them in trios in several spots.

Do you have any plants that you love but Can Not Grow?  Here that's ground sedums.  I've tried various varieties a dozen times and no matter where I put them they fizzle pretty quick.  This sedum has decided to buck the trend.  It is super happy in its spot.  I just try to ignore it and pretend I don't see it so I don't mess it up.

The replacement strawberries are looking awesome.  Why didn't I just ditch the old ones weeks earlier and plant these where they belong?

I have been transplanting them in batches of 2 or 4 back into the strawberry bed and they are doing fine.  The four to the right are the most recent.  In a few days I will trim the older leaves that start to get stressed and the new leaves will take hold and flourish.

This week has been a mad flurry of butterflies.  We enjoy sitting back at the fire pit watching them in the dry creek bed with all of the pollinator friendly flowers, especially the two butterfly bushes.  Its tough to get good pictures of butterflies.  But Bumblebees are easy.  The Vanilla Marigolds have been full of dozens of bumblebees every day.

The Dahlia bed is flourishing.  The whole center row is Cafe Au Lait which is a super prolific dinner plate size.

Here is a back view of the pepper pot.  The front view showed some of the Sweet Bananas.  These are a hotter variety that are just now starting to turn orange and develop some taste.  The plants are loaded!

The second planting of sweet corn is maturing fast.  We are still eating out of the first planting and I am starting to freeze the excess.  But I have my eye on this big ear in the direct south sun of the second bed.

The second planting is in the first bed next to the fence.  Squeezing in here every day to water is like legit walking thru a big cornfield. 

And the harvest keeps on going.