End of Summer Heat

Happy September! Or should I say, happy Fall, according to retailers and bloggers alike.

 It's still in the upper 90's around here, making it hard to feel like Fall. Or that Fall is even approaching, despite the surplus of pumpkins, witches, and black and orange stocking every shelf within sight. Halloween candy is hard enough to resist, why do they need to stock it more than two months in advance?

We spent the long holiday weekend at the beach (Edisto, SC) soaking up the last of the lazy summer days.

And hot summer nights.

Speaking of hot, this heat has been wreaking havoc on our garden. We lost quite a few plants over the 3 day weekend. 

This (below) is probably the most successful harvest we have had since the heat really kicked in. One of my tomato plants produced nothing but rotten tomatoes, prompting us to pull the whole plant and harvest the green tomatoes before they went bad. 

Being in the South now, we are adapting by enjoying many a fried green tomato. Fried green tomato benedict is unsurprisingly good. Yes, it's a tough life. 

We did have success with our onions and beans, but it was a sad state of affairs with all our squash. All four squash plants were taken down by a white fungus, killing them off before they produced more than one fruit per plant. Our cucumber mysterious died with several quickly growing cucumbers clinging to their shriveling vines. Weird.

I've always been told that gardening is a process of trial and error. Now I can officially confirm that statement. We'll be doing more trial next year with, hopefully, less error. Starting with soil amendment.

John and I agree, we should have spent less time making a beautiful garden space and more time focusing on cultivating a successful garden. Yeah, right. That's so not my style. You know it's gotta look good, too. 

For now, it's too hot to be outside. I'm turning my attention inside with some fun projects that I can't wait to share with you. 

Happy September, y'all.

until next time,