“Up from the meadows rich with corn,
Clear in the cool September morn.”
John Greenleaf Whittier
There are many things to celebrate in the late summer garden. My favourite Colour Fashion sunflowers are finally blooming in many shades of bronze and only one lone yellow. The brilliant fuchsia coloured nicotines and California poppies continue to brighten up the tomato patch.
Tomatoes taste particularly good this year or so it seems. So far we are free of any tomato affliction. And there are many of those. I appreciate this year’s harvest of still life worthy perfection. That definitely doesn’t happen every year.
I have grown my first ever eggplant. These need a long hot season and we have had that this year. Zucchini have not been particularly productive this year. It is possibly not so bad to not have one of those years when there are so many that they end up being given away by stealth. Zucchini if harvested small can be one of the treats of the late summer garden. I like it sautéed with garlic, a little fresh hot cayenne pepper and some sun-dried tomatoes and basil. Summer perfection on a plate.
A profusion of naturalised phlox make a huge splash of colour in the wild garden. I’m lucky to have two old varieties that are resistant to mold. I wouldn’t bother with the newer varieties that so often seem to go moldy.
I couldn’t resist buying a beautiful blue grey echeveria succulent this past spring. I put it in a clay pot on the front porch in full sun and it seems to be very happy. In August beautiful orangey red flowers appeared on two long stems. The resident hummingbirds visit it every day. I bought it because I liked the colour of the leaves and it reminded me of California. I remember seeing so many kinds of exotic (to me anyway) succulents in planters in Santa Barbara.
This has been a dry summer in spite of some heavy rain at the end of July. I have done a lot of watering this year as I did last year. The heat has not been quite as unrelenting as last year, though. The cool nights of late August were most welcome.
Fall is, of course, the real new year. Energy that flagged in the heat of July and August returns to us now. And we are once again full of plans and ideas for the coming fall days.
I have kept a garden journal for a few years now. It’s useful to remind myself of successes (those perfect tomatoes) and failures (too numerous to list here). I’m already thinking of what I’ll do differently next year.
Bulb planting and garlic planting are coming up but there’s no rush for either. Eventually there will be dried beans to shell. This is a pleasant fall job best done on the porch in the warm sun. The list of jobs now that I think of it is long…..
Happy fall everyone.
Common Ground by Jill Williams
