Though there are still a few warm days left, when the time comes to turn the calendar to September, it means that the end is near for the garden.
Things are beginning to wind down in my garden. The flowers that remained in my cottage garden are becoming few and far between. Even the impatiens, which were thick and lush for most of the summer, are starting to thin out. In the vegetable garden, the tomato plants are still full of green tomatoes, but the pepper plants have stopped producing.
It's been an odd year for gardening. Nearly everyone I've talked to who has a garden has mentioned that things just haven't gone as expected. My uncle Bob Bollas told me the other day that he's never had so many green tomatoes this late in the summer, and I'm still baffled that my morning glories didn't bloom this year.
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After blooming at the beginning of the summer, my cosmos have made a reappearance and are blooming more prolifically than ever.
Still, I had some rousing success stories this summer. I successfully grew peas for the first time, which was fun. My cosmos bloomed at the start of the summer, took a break during the dry spell we had in July, and now they're blooming even more prolifically than before. My salvia did really well this year, and even if they are ripening later, it's been a great year for tomatoes for me. The violets and pansies I planted in the cottage garden did better than I expected and bloomed for much longer than I thought they would. And though my plan to transplant my Rozanne geranium didn't work out, I still got to enjoy those pretty purple flowers I love.
Even as the summer days grow shorter, I'm beginning to plan for next year's garden. Before we get our first snow this winter, I want to have a fence around the cottage garden to prevent weed whacker disasters next summer. I want to grow lupines next year to have a little reminder of this summer's vacation to Prince Edward Island in my garden. Hopefully, I will have better luck with my morning glories next year, and a kind reader gave me some moonflower seeds to try as well. I think it would be neat to plant them together, so I have the blue morning glories in the early part of the day and the white moonflowers in the evening.
I want to thank everyone who has called to comment on my columns or who has stopped me when I've been out and about to tell me that they've been reading. It's been a real pleasure sharing my garden with you this summer.