Summer's Officially Over

Summer’s over and there are several things I won’t miss about it.

            Chiggers!

            Fruit flies

            Hair frizzed by humidity

            Blacksnakes in the chicken house

            Lawnmower roar

            Pollen

            Chiggers!

           

And speaking of blacksnakes, we had another raider. Yesterday my friend and helper, Pam, went to the chicken house to wash the windows. (This is an important task because hens’ egg production is tied to amount of light they get. Clean windows admit more light than dirty ones.) Pam’s task was interrupted when she saw a big blacksnake in a nest box, its jaws sprung apart holding an egg. Pam, who is intrepid, picked up an oak garden stake and whacked the vandal. The snake was longer than Pam is tall. And here I thought summer was over.

Summer sure isn’t over in the garden. Last week’s 7-inch rain gave all the plants a new surge of life. The sweet potato patch is impenetrable. Behind it is the gigantic pokeweed ,a native perennial we allow to live by the garden fence. To the right are the prolific pepper plants.

Our early August planting of green beans and turnips is thriving. The white stuff on the green bean leaves is an organic deterrent to the beetles that infested the plants. To the left of the beans are four parsley plants and beyond them are the Roma tomatoes. The Romas have set on lots of fruit, so I’ll have more tomato preservation to do.

What are those yellow things in the background? Flags. When Dennis plants potatoes or sweet potatoes, he sticks a flag beside each one so he will know where to dig when harvest time comes. The flags in the background mark the spots where he will dig potatoes. Without the flags he would have no idea where to dig because the potato vines have completely disappeared.

While other plants are mature and will soon decline, self-seeded cilantro is just getting started. It’s popping up everywhere.

Well, it was a lovely day, all in all. Some excitement, some laughs, some work done. It ended with a lingering sunset over the pasture.

Copyright 2013 by Shirley Domer