What would Jane Austen Grow?

Warm days, crisp nights and the golden glow of autumn light. Fall is my favorite season. I have been enjoying the fine weather we have been having the past weeks. I’ve been driving with the top down on my VW Beetle convertible and grooving to America. Life has been grand. In the past week I finally got sick of the purple wave Petunias in the ground, the geraniums in a pot by the front door and the mexican marigolds in my raised garden beds. So I ripped them all out! Friday afternoon in the 85 degree weather I was out in the garden in shorts and a hawaiian shirt, sweating as I pulled all that stuff out. Then came replanting. Pansies and mums were added to existing pots with grasses in the center. I left the Margarita Sweet Potato Vine and Coralberry Punch Callibrachoa in the pots by the garage. They’ll die eventually but they still looked good. The Milionbells in the pots by our electric box, however, did not and they were swiftly removed. I had selected some bulbs and managed to get them in the pots, too. I didn’t work as long as I had hoped but I got all the plants I had brought home planted and the plants that were really bugging me removed. I added a Swiss Chard and some lettuce to my raised bed. It’s a little late but I’m counting on a little more warm weather before we get a frost. I may even try to cover the beds with remay or something. We’ll see. It felt so great to get it done! Never mind that the rest of the yard is a jungle and we never really enjoyed our back yard at all this summer. I was glad to get a start on decorating for fall/winter. I’m hoping to get the rest of the bulbs planted next weekend and change out a few more pots then. Right now, for me, it’s all about soaking up as much sun and autumn air as I can. And enjoying life.

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It’s September and we are in my favorite time of the year.  You can call it autumn, but it really starts in mid-summer.  My favorite months are July-October.  This year, I have not enjoyed my garden as much as I would have liked.  Mitch and I have spent hardly any time outside.  We seem to be working on the computer 3 nights a week, spending time with family or relaxing.  And the one or two weekends we had off together were 90 degrees.  I was pretty worn out by last Sunday.  Now we are into the football season and as season ticket holders, we will be spending a lot of time at Reser Stadium.  I am hoping for one day or a few nights to really soak up the atmosphere of the garden.  Then I am going to chop everything back!  It is getting very overgrown.  Perhaps we will have more time in November and we can go out in parkas to enjoy.

I am harvesting vegetables from the raised beds.  Lots of beans and Sun Gold tomatoes, a few zucchini and a first harvest of the new planting of lettuce.  The blueberries were very productive.  The strawberries so so.  I still have basil to turn into pesto, but not the drive to do so.  I am going to have a ripe Momotaru tomato soon and we can see if it really is the best tasting tomato.  From the kitchen window I can see the Goldsturm Rudbeckia.  They always give me joy.  They sweet golden heads with a black eye are very appealing.

I finally ripped out my Pretty Much Picasso Petunias.  They were quite exuberant.  I was ready to see the other plants around them.  I am actually feeling ready to plant pansies!  This is the earliest I have ever had that urge.  What’s going on?  I just feel like clear cutting the whole yard.  I must have overplanted it in preparation for “the tour”.  I’m over that and ready to go back to a more tame look.  And I am so over garlic.  It’s not worth the work and the space for me.  Oh and have I shared that I cannot successfully grow mint?  I keep getting these little green worms that totally destroy the leaves.  I am so bad about spraying.  Anyway, I am going to rip it out and replace it with an ornamental of some kind.  I am excited that there is now a granular form of cinnamon oil to deter slugs and snails.  The spray worked wonders for Karen and the one time I tried it for me.  A granule would be so much easier to apply.  I am looking forward to seeing that in the spring.

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