My garden was looking rather disastrous. The tall cosmos were falling over; the lettuce had gone to seed. But when I bent over to pull out the zucchini plants that had produced nothing so far, I was taken by surprise. There were two squash on the vines.
When I return to work as a school librarian, I shamefully neglect my garden. I have little time to keep up, and the beginning of the school year coincides with the gradual decline of the growing season.
My husband, Paul, and I had mixed results with our plantings this year. We had good crops of garlic, potatoes, kale, lettuce and tomatoes. The bean plants grew, but just didn’t produce much. The broccoli came to nothing. Some critter ate the cucumbers.
It was a rough season because of the lack of rain, but Paul faithfully watered everything. It was disheartening to go out on one of those blistering hot days to see the kale flopping over from heat exhaustion. Still, the plants always revived themselves. We don’t have much lawn (thanks to many garden beds) so wide swaths of brown grass were not a problem for us. I’m counting my blessings here.
Our city lot does not get an abundance of sun. We have a large bed where the garlic, potatoes and basil flourish, and that’s probably the brightest spot. My other food crops are in raised beds, which used to be in the area I think of as “the little yard.” This is a sort of dooryard enclosed by the house, the garage, and the retaining wall and fence of the property next door. I knew exactly where to plant things in that yard.
But when we had our old garage torn down, and a bigger one built in its place, we had to move the beds to the other side of the garage. I’m still not clear on where to plant in this new space, although I think I found the right spot for the tomatoes.
Paul did put in one narrow raised bed in the little yard this year, along the side of the garage. I created an herb and flower garden with lavender, the cosmos and nasturtiums. I liked the fact that it was small and manageable, and it did very well.
Another bright spot was a red gerbera daisy that I bought at Trader Joe’s in June. It produced two rounds of cheerful blooms. When they were gone, the leaves remained bright green, so I hated to throw it away. Then one day Paul noticed that two buds were forming deep in the foliage. It has been so exciting to await yet another blossoming.
I am so busy these first weeks of school that I am always surprised when I realize the garden is a mess and the end-of-season cleanup must begin. The raspberry canes are barren. The bee balm, which was so beautiful, has lost most of its petals and color. But then, I see stalks of goldenrod popping up here and there, and Joe Pye Weed waves his purple head at me. There’s no way to put off fall. I might as well embrace it.
It occurred to me that I was never going to clean up my garden unless I set times to do it. Half an hour here and there would get the job done. So I went out after dinner one night. I started by cutting back the expired bleeding hearts, which had fallen on top of the poor hostas. The bygone broccoli and lettuce were the next to go. I knew the cosmos was never going to straighten up unless I deadheaded it. I got so enthusiastic that I threw my pruning shears right into the compost pile along with the garden detritus.
Of course, every time I got one job done, I noticed a new one that needed to be tackled. Meanwhile, I was trying to stay out of sight of our backyard chickens. They think they’re going to get fed every time Paul and I go out into the yard, so they start clucking ferociously when they see us. We usually appease them by offering them a dandelion or two, but it was too close to their bedtime for any type of snack.
Avoiding the chickens did help me focus my attention. They couldn’t see me weeding the little bed next to the garage, after all.
The cleanup continues. Paul will deal with the leaves, but I’m in charge of the plants. We have a rogue tree that grew where I had once planted a shrub. It took us a while to realize the shrub must have died and this tree had grown in its place. An arborist will come to cut it down.
Pumpkins and squash have replaced tomatoes and peppers in the local section of the supermarket. The harvest moon has risen. I am facing reality. I must go to the garden center and buy some mums. Their time has come.
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