I’m leaping for joy. Ordinarily this would be the last day of summer! Normally, on this day I would begin to bemoan the demise of the fair weathered season and get ready for all things all things autumn. However, this year thanks to the calendar and its leap year, we get one more day of summer! Hooray! I have to say, I’m quite happy with this arrangement – if a season has to extended by one day, then summer is probably the best one to do it to! We shall spend it out upon the water, doing a bit of fishing, maybe some swimming – well the kids will probably swim. It needs to be a bazillion degrees before I get in the water and that temperature for the most part has passed us by for the season. We’ll probably fire up the BBQ and just enjoy the last summer day. It just so happens to be on a Saturday – which makes things so much easier.
But as far as summers go this was a hard one in the garden. I tried my best, but there were several times I really wanted to pull the plug on the whole thing. But at this point of the season I am actually happy with the garden. It is looking good and there is change a foot. Well not dramatically life changing change, just making life easier in the garden change.
The first thing is I have decided to be proactive with removing the dead and dying. Historically I would leave the brown and crispy until the very last moment in a defiant attempt to cling to the summer. While there are tomatoes in the garden it is still the growing season – they don’t necessarily have to be alive… But I have decided this approach is not helpful as it makes the garden look messy and less than lush and flourishing. So now if its fading, its gone!
The downside of this is the bare patches are appearing faster than normal. I’m not a fan of bare patches, but it is inevitable at this time of year and should encourage me to get on with my winter sowing so I can have a productive garden in good time over the winter. Fortunately we don’t get frost in the new garden, so I am still exploring just what can be grown here in the middle of winter. Normally my summer ending denial means I’m a little late to the seed sowing party. Not this time – I have gaps to fill and to be honest I just want to put this whole sorry season behind me.
The other change is I have a new tool shed, which still needs a bit of work on it to finish a few bits and bobs, but I’ll save the details for this for another time as I really want to do a bit of a ‘Did-Dah’ thing with it. So, watch this space.
I am also looking forward to what autumn has to offer – rain! We have had one significant rainfall (last weekend) since the last significant rainfall just before Christmas. It hasn’t been easy to keep everyone well-watered, let alone clean!
So, as we depart this growing season and pass the baton on to the Northern Hemisphere, I have to say, all the best – I hope it will be better for you than it was for me.
Come again soon – it is almost autumn… almost, but not quite!
Sarah the Gardener : o)
I am looking forward to autumn. Not that I’m not enjoying the tomatoes, the basil, the coriander… but I’ve had about enough of it being too hot to get out in the garden for most of the day.
I hear ya. I do enjoy autumn, at the start you have all the benefits of summer – like still being warm and having tomatoes in the garden – but then it slowly eases you into the cold weather and by the time you get there you are ready to be wrapped up all cosy. : o)
You are ever the optimist, Sarah. I’m glad you’ve had some family time away as well as an extra day of the season. Your watermelon looks wonderfully inviting. Like you, we’ve had virtually no rain, but we’re in the middle of winter. We’re ending the driest February in 150 years. Your garden always looks amazing, albeit daunting. I can’t imagine such a tremendous undertaking but you make it all look doable. Happy autumn.
I can’t wait for the watermelon to be ready, I’m checking it daily! We got some more rain on the weekend – it didn’t last long but it was quite heavy. Apparently we have had the longest dry spell on record for our area – 47 days without rain, but I suspect as autumn gets going we will get used to the rain again – there is some forecast for next week.
I can understand late summer being dry but I really can’t get my head around your dry winters, that is such a harsh environment to live in. So many people take water for granted, you only need to run out once or twice to realise it is a precious resource. : o)
Water is a precious resource. It’s hard for me to watch people waste it. We converted our lawn to native landscaping four years ago and we also installed a rain catchment system. Our appliances are water-efficient, too. Even with all that, our water usage seems high. I know we need to do more. 47 days is a long time without rain, winter or summer. I miss it so much.
Dismal season in North Canterbury everything shrivelled and dry. All I’ve had from my garden is onions, tomatoes (still to ripen), 3 apples! And of course zucchini (how does this triffid keep producing!) potatoes were pitiful no strawberries, broccoli shot to seed, birds got the ten raspberries 🙄. I could go on…. never mind there is always next season like you I am clearing away the evidence…..
I didn’t get any strawberries either and everything else has been a bit of a struggle. Hears to a better next season! : o)