Cranky Garden

My garden is cranky.

It’s a lot like a family that went on a long summer vacation.

The family starts out with bags neatly packed, the car all cleaned up, and everyone is rested, excited and ready to go.

My garden started the summer that way, too, all cleaned up, freshly planted, and poised to grow.

Those first few days of the family vacation are so exciting. Every mile brings new sites, exciting adventures, ooohhh’s and aaahhh’s as everyone points excitedly at every change in scenery. Look at that! Wow, it’s prettier than I thought it would be! This sure isn’t like we remembered it!

Those first few months of the summer garden were exciting, too. Every week brought lovely rain, lots of rain, and every day it seemed there was something new flowering. Ooohhh, look at those June flowers. Aaahhh, July’s flowers were exciting too. Wow, all that rain, the garden was greener than I’ve ever seen it! It sure wasn’t like last year!

Then the family begins the journey back. Clothes are dirty, the car smells kinda funny, and everyone is tired and out of sorts and cranky.

Then the garden hit August, or August hit the garden. Smack down! The rain is gone, the garden is starting to have that funny “too dry” smell, the flowers look droopy and tired and can barely put on enough of a show to attract the bees.

My garden is cranky!

After a long shower, some home-cooked food and clean clothes, and a bit of alone time, the family comes back together and remembers the good times of their journey.

So to will my garden be remembered for the good times of 2008! With a little bit of ‘garden time’ this weekend, I can revive my garden and remember it as a good garden. I’m going to:

- Water. I always give Mother Nature a chance to deliver the rain, but that doesn’t look likely, so I’ll start watering this weekend.

- Weed. A weed pulled now is a dozen weeds I don’t have
to pull next year. I’ll pull out all the weeds I can find before they set seed. If any look like they’ve already set seed, I’ll throw them out in the trash, not in the compost bin.

- Remove. I need to pull out some of the annual flowers that are clearly well past their prime. I’ll look for fall annuals like pansies, mums, and asters to plant in their place for a nice long show into late fall.

- Deadhead. I can prevent a lot of problems next spring by deadheading those perennials that are rampant self-sowers, like Bee Balm (Monarda), and False Sunflower (Helianthus sp.), now. I’ll leave the black-eyed susan’s (Rudbeckia sp.) and coneflowers (Echinacea sp.) because the goldfinches love the seeds and I like to watch the goldfinches.

- Enjoy. I need to remember to rest and enjoy the garden. After all, it’s a holiday weekend in the U.S. so I have a whole extra day off from work. I'll use some of that time to enjoy my garden.
What will you do this weekend in your garden?