August is usually the time when I begin to peter out. It's been a hot summer! I have used the sprinkler more days than not and I closed my eyes as I opened last month's water bill. This past week there were a few days where the humidity dropped and I jumped at the chance to regain my stamina and catch up on what I have let go in the garden. Some weeding, pruning, edging and pulling out to make room for new plants soon gave my garden a new cleaned up look. Let's go on a little tour shall we? We only have 3 Bartlet pears this year but they are large and beautiful. They look so pretty there hanging on the tree. Every day I keep my fingers crossed as I walk out into the garden that they will still be there. It's a dual between me and the squirrels. If Black Eyed Susans were edible we would have enough food for the winter. They seem to take over in my garden and I find myself digging up large clumps of them at this time of year to give away. We do enjoy the gold finches and chickadees that feast on them and I would love to experiment with using them to make dye. After digging up the Susans as well as a few other plants I made a list of new plants to fill in the gaps. This is the time of year that local nurseries are trying to clear out. Over the next few weeks I plan to try to find some good deals. The front garden is taking off. The full sun has given us huge stems of swiss chard and baskets of tomatoes. I still need to fill in with perennial herbs. I will be keeping my eye out for them at the nursery as well. The mint totally took over on top of the rabbit hutch. I pulled it out and dried a bunch to make tea. There is still plenty growing in other areas of my garden to use fresh. We canned San Marzano tomatoes this week (some from the farm and some from our front garden). It was just the beginning of our preserving. I am looking for a chest freezer. We can't keep up with all of the kale and swiss chard we have growing and I would love to chop it up and freeze for the winter months. What's happening in your garden this August?
