
All set? Need a cold drink before we start? Here we go...
I confess that I have been just a tiny bit lax on some of my gardening chores this summer.
In particular, I confess I’ve been somewhat lackadaisical about mulching.
So how much mulching did I do? Well, I had three or four bags of hardwood mulch left over from when I quit mulching last fall, so earlier this spring, I dumped that mulch in a few key areas.
After that, I sort of, kind of, actually never had a good WOO (window of opportunity) for mulching. And when it got all dry in August, some of the plants suffered for lack of mulch.
So this fall, it’s time to mulch, mulch, mulch in a big way. Otherwise, some of the perennials will heave themselves out of the ground in protest when we have all that freezing and thawing over this winter. It won’t be a pretty sight.
I confess I also haven’t gotten around to harvesting very many grapes.
So how many grapes have I picked? Well, I picked two or three bunches the other day to take to a co-worker who had a hankering for some good ‘Concord’ grapes. He said he ate them seeds and all.
Not me! When I eat them, I spit the seeds out in a very lady-like fashion, of course, and only outside.
So this weekend, I’ve got to pick some grapes and make some jam. Otherwise, all those grapes will just “go to the birds”. But again, I need a pretty good WOO to get this done.
I confess I didn’t embrace weeding sometimes for weeks on end.
So how weedy did it get? It was embarrassing at times how many weeds I had growing. I think I’ve gotten caught up on most of the weeding, with just a few areas to attend to, like the back yard garden.
So before anyone goes around to the back garden, I need to get serious about weeding and make sure there are none of those great big weeds that like to announce to everyone, “the gardener around here is lazy and left us weeds to grow big like this”.
Instead, if there are just a few tiny weeds in the garden, you would hopefully only here a whisper of, “she’s a good weeder, so us little weeds have to stay tiny and quiet or she’ll find us and pull us”. Yes, that’s what you want your weeds to say.
I think that’s enough confessing for one session. I feel much better about all this now, having brought it out into the open. Now I best get up off the bench and start getting at some of this “gardening” around here and just be thankful that I didn’t have a SOGI, Someone of Garden Importance, come visit me while I was letting things go in the garden.
Oh wait, I just thought of one other confession! I confess I’ve done all the talking in our little porch chat. Forgive me! Do you have anything about your gardening to confess?
Comments
I got the mulching done pretty well, but oh my the weeding, lets just say that some folks might wonder if I am growing a perennial border or a wildflower, aka weed, garden, there are more queen anne's lace and goldenrod than perennials.
Do you truly like grape jelly? Or are you making it from a sense of duty? Although I wouldn't mind spitting seeds sideways with you off the porch, when it comes to putting something on toast, I confess to wanting cherry preserves from France so I'd let the birds have the grapes!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Thank you for inviting me to the porch for this visit, I have to confess...that I left my tools outside in the rain last night. Who knew it was going to rain; we are so used to dry weather that I left them in the wheel barrow. Then the wheel barrow filled up with rain water and the tools were swimming in the weeds that I didn't cart to the compost pile!
I frequently forget my garden tools in the garden!
Gail
I'm looking forward to cooler weather and perhaps, feeling better.
I'm afraid that my confessions would fill a book--although it all revolves around, "Failed to water sufficiently". I have the grim realization while looking out at the brown garden, "Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault."
How's that? I feel better.
Carol, I love it when you admit to being a little lackadaisical about some gardening chores; it makes me feel like I'm not such a slouch. I confess to not mulching enough and not weeding enough--the vegetable garden is not fit to be seen by company!
And now that Gail has owned up to it, I have been known to leave a tool or two out in the rain before, accidentally of course. Any recommendations for new pruners?
I didn't get around to mulching my new border and have been fighting weeds all summer. I think they are winning.
I so enjoyed this fabulous cool day.
But now that I have read everyone's confessions I feel so much better. Life happens and we get busy, tired and well....lazy. And that is okay! We should not feel guilty. We are only human. The garden should not make us feel guilty. That is not the point.
Okay...I feel better now! Thanks.
Glad you got all of that off your chest. LOL.~~Dee
If I dared confess I'd be doing penance from now till Christmas.
Every time I go out there's another plant looking at me accusingly.
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
The only mulching I do is with cocoa bean mulch, and I am no big mulcher myself.
I love that the birds get to enjoy your grapes. They enjoy the mulberries and lots of blackberries at my house.
Sensational ferns in your photo.
Thanks for the congrats on my Christmas book.
Terra
But yesterday my guilt got the best of me and I transplanted them elsewhere. Hopefully, they will recoup.
I don't think our gardens look neglected though. At least we do something when most do nothing. I think our nothingness is still productive.