Gardening with Nature
by Dorothy Borders
genre:
Home & Garden
description:
An entry for my blog, "Gardening with Nature"
chapters
chapter 1:
C'mon Autumn!
C'mon Autumn!
chapter 1
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updated 08/22/08
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2189 characters
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This week has given us a glimpse of autumn. The rainy days and temperatures in the 70s or low 80s are hints that the seasons are about to change. For the better, we hope.
It's been a difficult summer, but then summer always is. Although we've suffered from the usual heat, humidity, and drought, we haven't had it as bad as many places that have had to contend with weeks where daytime temperatures seldom moderated out of the triple digits. Now that the "autumn" rains seem to have started early, we can easily forget our complaints of a month ago.
It rained again, off and on, all day today at my house, making it impossible for me to go outside and play. Late this afternoon, when the rains finally seemed to stop, I took a turn around the yard to check things out and to refill all the bird feeders that were suddenly empty.
The yard is very, very soggy. We've now had more than six inches of rain in two weeks and much of it has come slowly and soakingly. My lawn service hasn't been able to do its thing this week, so the grass in my yard is ankle high. Higher in some places.
All the plants in the beds look lively and some plants that had dropped several leaves already, such as my fig trees, are now putting on new green leaves. It looks like we will have a flush of new growth here at the end of summer.
The wet conditions this week have meant that I have not yet been able to finish planting my fall vegetable garden, but when the rain lets up for a couple of days, the raised beds will quickly dry out and I can get the seeds into the ground. We have one more week in August, so my window of opportunity for doing that is still open.
But very soon now, September will be upon us with its cooler mornings and brisker days. We will bound out of bed in the mornings, anxious to get outside and start our gardening day. After being outside all day, we will resent the shortening daylight hours that no longer stretch out to almost nine in the evening.
For me, the days of September and October are really the best time of the year in the garden. It is the most pleasant time of year to be a gardener in Southeast Texas. C'mon autumn!
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It's been a difficult summer, but then summer always is. Although we've suffered from the usual heat, humidity, and drought, we haven't had it as bad as many places that have had to contend with weeks where daytime temperatures seldom moderated out of the triple digits. Now that the "autumn" rains seem to have started early, we can easily forget our complaints of a month ago.
It rained again, off and on, all day today at my house, making it impossible for me to go outside and play. Late this afternoon, when the rains finally seemed to stop, I took a turn around the yard to check things out and to refill all the bird feeders that were suddenly empty.
The yard is very, very soggy. We've now had more than six inches of rain in two weeks and much of it has come slowly and soakingly. My lawn service hasn't been able to do its thing this week, so the grass in my yard is ankle high. Higher in some places.
All the plants in the beds look lively and some plants that had dropped several leaves already, such as my fig trees, are now putting on new green leaves. It looks like we will have a flush of new growth here at the end of summer.
The wet conditions this week have meant that I have not yet been able to finish planting my fall vegetable garden, but when the rain lets up for a couple of days, the raised beds will quickly dry out and I can get the seeds into the ground. We have one more week in August, so my window of opportunity for doing that is still open.
But very soon now, September will be upon us with its cooler mornings and brisker days. We will bound out of bed in the mornings, anxious to get outside and start our gardening day. After being outside all day, we will resent the shortening daylight hours that no longer stretch out to almost nine in the evening.
For me, the days of September and October are really the best time of the year in the garden. It is the most pleasant time of year to be a gardener in Southeast Texas. C'mon autumn!
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