Monday morning finally, finally felt like autumn here in Zone 6. We’ve been enjoying an extension of the summer weather, mostly… although my garden has been looking like it’s just about done for a while now.
Honestly, I’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ when it comes to my garden this year. I remember that I’d decided this spring that, come fall, I wanted to plant some crocus sativus — the kind that produces saffron — but I never got around to ordering them, and I’m certainly not in the mood to plant them.
I need to take a day or three off work and do some serious weeding, on top of the usual fall cleanup. I haven’t been weeding regularly since midsummer, and it’s obvious. I just feel… overwhelmed.
My main goal has been to make my borders low-maintenance, and this is exactly why. I don’t need this stuff getting away from me for a couple weeks, and then me just giving up on it for the rest of the season.
There are a few bright spots amongst the Bermuda grass and the weeds and the overgrown ground cover, though.
For once, I’ve left a stand of Passion flower long enough for it to fruit. I’m not even sure if I have the yellow or the purple variety, but I’ll find out soon!
Of course, the white rose and the Dortmund climbing rose are both still going strong, as they do.
The tomatoes have been going gangbusters this month, finally all coming ripe at the tail end of the season. I’ve been bringing in a good dozen beefsteak tomatoes every week, and they’ve been developing bad spots before we can eat them all. I’ve taken to roasting the ones that are about to go south on us, and using them in various applications, like shakshouka. (But that’s another blog post.)
I also have a couple of dulce rojo paprika peppers fully grown but not ripening yet. (I had some growing earlier in the season, but the deer thought they were delicious.)
Also, when the catalog said Aromas strawberries are ever-bearing, they weren’t kidding.
I don’t have any proper late summer or autumn flowering plants in my borders — something I need to remedy — but I do have a few other late-summer stragglers, and some nice-looking foliage, too.
Even if I can’t seem to get my Bloom Day post out on the 15th of the month, many thanks go to Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day on the 15th of each month.