The Garden in August
With the unexpected after effects of Hurricane Isaias a lot of damage has happened to the garden. Multiple sunflowers that were growing to the sky came tumbling over, cosmos have twined and twingled in with each other and leaves have blown in and around the bases of all the plants which once was all nice and visible of dirt and compost.
Any and all plants sown and planted closed together have over grown and intercepted each others spaces and intertwined with each other.
Many of the plants are starting to go to seed this time of year, which I have started to collect an abundance of multiple glass mason jars full. These include Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Zinnias, Cosmos, Basil, and Mexian Sunflowers. The other sunflowers have peaked and birds have started to pick out all the good mature dark seeds before I’ve even had a chance to collect them.
The Mexican Sunflowers are starting to grow taller and taller each week, with invitations to butterflies, monarchs, bumble and boarer bees to come gather nectar and pollen.
Pests like sneaky slugs and annoying aphids have returned. Seeds that have been spread by the wind have found a new home in the dirt and have started to germinated and poking their little heads out of the ground hoping not to get pulled.
Plants that were doing very well have started to seen their better days in the past and are starting to become depleted.
Too keep a full year of plants available for the honey bees, I managed to buy two beautiful deep red and golden yellow black eyed susan plants I found for sale on the side of the road at a local nursery.
I’ve started to clean up here and there in and around the garden beds, pulling out plants I know have already peaked this year and have given me what I needed from them, weather that was a harvest, pollen for the bees or mature seeds for the following year.
