01

     As is true in every month of the growing season, the garden remains an ever-changing landscape. Though the current changes are a little less aesthetic. By August I am out of steam, and the weeds and grasses are living rent-free. BUT, there are some great changes happening too. Beds are being mowed down and turned over, compost and organic fertilizer being added, and soil tarped for the next planting. We will soon till larger areas to create the beds for next year's cool flowers, which will be planted next month! How did we get here?? I have spent the last 2 weeks starting hundreds of seeds in my dining room, again. And the cycle of the seasons and change continue to turn, and I for one am here for it.

 

02

     New things are often exciting--and I'm excited to share this new thing with you. I enrolled as a producer with the Huntsville Food and Farm Hub. If you haven't heard of it, it is a weekly online marketplace, open year-round, for local farmers and producers in or surrounding Huntsville. Their mission is to create a resilient food system in Hsv that benefits both the producers and the consumers. Shopping is so easy! I have purchased everything from homemade sourdough to pasture-raised meats to worm casting compost tea for the garden! Orders can be picked up or delivered on Tuesday of every week. There are several amazing local flower farmers, and I am honored to be joining them. You've gotta check them out!! Website link below. 

03

     Want to know something new that I've learned to do? Mow down a bed of Zinnias--with a push mower--even when there are still a few pretty blooms out there. Historically, it has been hard for me to get rid of a plant that I could still get a few more flowers from. I also have to do it when Carter isn't looking because it's even harder for him - “There are still some good flowers out there!” Between this type of “encouragement” and my own tendency to procrastinate turning a bed over, in the past I have left plants in the ground for way too long. But in order to keep succession planting going, adequate bed preparation for good soil health, and for the weeds to not get more out of control than they already are…I need to mow the flowers. I am learning that even as I cut them down, I can be thankful for their season and know that their ending is also a beginning. 

05

     The heat of August. It scorches, dries, and melts. In the south, it is so full of humidity we can barely breathe. There are many plants that simply can't withstand it. They wilt or bolt or stop producing once the heat cranks up. However, in the garden I have noticed that this is when some flowers thrive. The celosia blooms grow larger and fuller, the zinnias stretch stiff necks taller, and the gomphrena wave their little globes in the hot breeze without a care in the world.