Scenes from Summer

September 12th, 2010

Here it is September 12. The air conditioner is off and the windows are open—at least when it’s not too chilly anyway. I spent the afternoon rotating out the summer clothes and bringing out the sweaters and long pants. Where did summer go?

My blog here at Bumblebee has been quiet. That’s not because I’m not growing food and flowers and herbs. It’s because at some point I have to make a choice between living my life or writing about it. With my consulting job, little dogs, chickens, cat, garden, house plants—not to say anything about the husband and son home from college—I felt pulled to so many directions. I have been falling into bed at night thinking of everything that didn’t get done.

So, consider this a little bit of a catch-up post with just a few photos that I neglected to share until now.

In one of the beds leading to the front door I planted a variety of coleus and nestled a birdbath planted with succulents. At first the coleus looked a bit sparse, with a lot of mulch showing. I pinched it back and before long it was so bushy and tall that the birdbath was lost in the dark burgundy, black and green foliage of the coleus.

The birdbath has these little orangish flowers that open in the sunlight, creating a beautiful display. I have to admit that I was inspired by Debra Lee Baldwin’s Succulent Container Gardens, which I received as a review copy and drooled over but neglected to write about until now. Buy the book. You will love it.

I have decided that succulents have a big future in my garden, since watering takes a great deal of time and the succulents can fend for themselves.

After two bad tomato years due to fusarium wilt and late blight, we have finally had a good tomato year. I had to dig new beds in a whole new area of the yard as well as plant some hybrids in an attempt to foil the fusarium wilt. I am considering solarizing a large area of the potager next year. I don’t look forward to the ugliness of plastic on the ground or having so much area out of production, but it may come to that.

In the meantime, we had a good year for strawberries, lettuces, cucumbers, the most adorable and sweet tigger melons and herbs. Herbs galore! Our needs here are fairly simple, so I continued to focus on ornamentation in the potager as well as production. But pots do need watering, don’t they. *sigh*

I have some fun news to share about the chickens, but that must wait for another day.

Posted In: Gardening, Gardening Life

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