…. I have seen
Full many a chill September.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
I’m hoping that the weather gods bring us some cooler weather in September. The supposedly short northern summer seemed endless this year. Even the drought summer of 2016 didn’t feel like it went on for as long as this season of endless heat.
I’m glad I persevered with watering my vegetables through July and early August. There was no serious rain here in the valley until late in August. I was surprised to see that the first heavy rain in August was more than two inches. Then there were two more heavy rains after that.
The heavy rain and extreme heat have produced an amazing tomato and cucumber jungle. I have never had tomatoes get as huge and tropical looking as they have this year. The morning glories from one corner of the garden have made their way over to the tomatoes to complete the jungle effect.
Hot peppers were almost a complete failure this year. I don’t think they liked the cold nights we had in June. Maybe next year I will go back to planting the hot peppers in the flower bed next to the house. They always did well there and I liked the way they looked mixed in with the flowers.
It wasn’t a great garlic year because of the dryness early in the season. With 20:20 hindsight I realise now that I should have included the garlic in my watering rounds.
I planted two fruit trees in the spring in memory of my older sister Joanne who died in May. The pear was struggling a bit in July and it looked like it didn’t have enough leaves. The apricot fared a bit better. It was hardly an ideal summer for new trees to thrive. But the pear perked up with all the rain and sprouted new leaves. I hope both trees will do well.
In the flower garden the rains came just in time.
The original vegetable garden here east of the house is now mostly naturalised phlox. They suffer and look straggly in dry years. I was amazed to see them rally after the rains and now they are a beautiful mass of pink and purple. And one of my definitely frivolous purchases at a past garden show, a double Asiatic lily, managed only one flower this year. I think it got very discouraged by the heat and dryness in July. I am ashamed to say I bought the double lily because it reminded me of the double petunias of times past. I have not seen a double petunia for years as they seem to have been replaced by the much more tasteful million bells.
We are coming up to what I think of as the best part of the year. September rather than January feels like the real beginning of the new year. I’m looking forward to nights that are cool enough make a pot of soup on the woodstove and days that are warm but not hot. And all those projects that were put aside because it was just too hot to even look at them will now get done.
That’s the theory anyway.
Onward to garlic planting, wood cutting and all those other cooler weather pastimes. Happy fall everyone.
By Jill Williams
