Garden Diary: September 2023

With each passing day Summer is slips into Fall. Sunflowers are in full yellow glory while cottonwood trees glow with golden highlights. My Instagram feed is filled with anxious pumpkin spice fanatics, eager to change seasons, and redecorate their homes.

I love fall, but I savor summer.

Days of sunshine are followed by cool evenings and rainstorms, a delicious transition of seasons. The garden is in harvest mode. Abundance. A time of plenty.

Cherry tomatoes are going wild right now. This year’s varieties are Sweet 100’s and Sun Golds. Golden and ruby red fruit hang like pearls on the vine. Sweet. Juicy. Delicious. The cherry tomatoes were a success this year. An improvement I would like to make next year is my trellising method. These plants have run wild.

Unfortunately, my Purple Cherokee heirloom beefsteak variety did not survive the season. I harvested one tomato, and then the plant just quit growing. I’m not sure what happened.

My other beefsteak tomato is a variety called Striped German, a large, low acid, yellow tomato. It has been a very happy plant this year. I have harvested a dozen large fruit.

The three zucchini are thriving. Need I say more? 😆 Next year, I will only plant one or two. Three is a bit too much, to say the least.

The soil here along the creek is so rich and fertile that the sunflowers are tiptoeing and almost touching the roof of our little house. The zinnias are going mad with color and are gluttons for sunshine. I have enjoyed fresh cut flowers in every room of the house for months now. Another reason I’m dragging my feet to be excited for fall.

However blessed I am with the rich soil here at our rental home, I learned this summer that not all green things reach their fullest potential in fertile conditions. Some living things crave an edgier existence, sand in their toes, and a hot sun baking the air around them.

I am referring to my Cosmos.

I grew Cosmos at my parents’ place with no problems. Healthy plants abundant with bright, cheery pink blooms.

This year, my Cosmos never reached its full potential. There was not a single bud all summer. Not even the hint of a try. Instead, the foliage has outgrown itself into a large bush by my front door, yielding no beautiful flowers. Only huge green trunks and feathery leaves. Next year, I will use this space for a different flower, something not so dramatic. 😅

This summer has been an enjoyable introduction to gardening. I am starting to make plans for next year. A little bit bigger with a few more varieties. Building my portfolio of experience a little more every year.

Follow along and join me for the journey!

Do you have any suggestions for what I should grow next year? Please comment below!