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Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 7:28 pm

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It's August, when this woman's fancy turns to thoughts of moving to a more garden-friendly locale. In August, I find out that the noxious dormant spray that I spread around in the fall has done nothing. August reveals blight on my lilacs, disease on my plum, weird red lumps covering my maples. Huge areas of blank, unwelcoming bareness stare at me from where the optimistic blooms of Spring have faded, gone to seed, and retreated into slumber. Instead of reveling in new things blooming, I spend my time in the garden deadheading old, withered blooms. The cheery birds are sticking to friendlier terraine, replaced by cranky, incessant yellowjackets, with their all-too-ready poison-filled stingers try to take up residence anywhere there is bare wood; the even more vicious bald hornets have build their underground vaults, a base from which to swarm over anyone who tries to mow near them. Biting red ants try to fill my painting studio.
All the wildflowers are done blooming, and the fields must be mowed or they will be overrun by invasive, persistent Scotch Broom. It's all about patching now. Trying to keep things alive in an environment unfriendly to life; the prairie wants to rest and be dormant. I insist on my small patches of greenness and life-the things that want to be green are invasive weeds.
At least this year I'm not too worried about drought. DH and some buddies went hiking up in the Olympics on Saturday, and there was a pretty good snow pack even at their relatively low elevation. Here's where he went http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/olympic/recreation-nu/trails/MtEllinor.pdf
and here's a website that will show why there are so many hikers (and artists, photographers & bicyclists) in Washington http://www.summitpost.org/area/range/171068/olympic-range-wa.html



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toni wrote on Mon Aug 04, 2008 6:45 pm:

I know what you mean about the problems in the garden that pop up at this time of the year and how depressing being a gardener can be in August.

Those mountains are gorgeous and I am having a wonderful time picturing myself sitting beside that stream under the tall pines. Great meditation place.

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gardengater wrote on Mon Aug 04, 2008 7:51 pm:

I know what you mean about the "dog days blues". The mountains are beautiful and think of the coming colorful tree season coming up for you northerners. My hubby and I will head for the NC mountains about then too.
Gardengater

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