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Tomato woe
Posted: 11 Oct 2008
Mt. Ellinor
Posted: 29 Sep 2008
bike ride, ipod, and 2 kinds of wildlife
Posted: 08 Sep 2008
ran away from my garden
Posted: 07 Aug 2008
August- no month for this gardener
Posted: 04 Aug 2008
the rest of my weekend, garden update.
Posted: 28 Jul 2008
Ran away from home 7/25
Posted: 28 Jul 2008
taking a minute to breathe...
Posted: 24 Jul 2008
Bike conversion pics
Posted: 04 Jul 2008
not time to miss my boy... yet
Posted: 16 Jun 2008
The Great Chipmunk Adventure
Posted: 09 Jun 2008
quick followup to these bike posts
Posted: 05 Jun 2008
Scenes from a bikeride
Posted: 04 Jun 2008
Bicycling
Posted: 20 May 2008
The sun paid a visit...
Posted: 06 May 2008
Rain, an exercise in blank verse...
Posted: 02 May 2008
My spring break, weather record
Posted: 19 Apr 2008
My garden wedding 20-odd years ago
Posted: 11 Mar 2008
My dream house
Posted: 07 Mar 2008
Rural Washington Lives!!!
Posted: 13 Dec 2007
 


August- no month for this gardener




Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 6:28 pm

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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Comments

 

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.




 

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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