Tuesday, August 29, 2006

I can't hear you...



Why is everyone claiming summer is over? I feel like I'm just getting it together. Every year I need to be pulled, kicking and screaming, from summer into fall. It's not that I don't enjoy things about the fall and I've even found myself enjoying winter "gardening", which for me is mostly wandering the yard doing bits of cleanup. For many years I felt done once I had cleaned up the veggies and done a good perennial deadheading/annual removal. And then I tried growing lettuces, onions and broccoli only to have them eaten, I believed, by snails. Well, last year I discovered that the culprits were sparrows, eating any greens down to the ground as they sprouted or were transplanted into the garden. So I built a reverse bird cage out of PVC and screening and, lo and behold, I had a lettuce crop! So I guess I will get to do a bit more actual gardening this winter...which, however, doesn't mean I'm happy about all this end-of-summer talk.

4 comments:

lisa said...

I can't hear them, either! Heck, I live in extreme northeastern Wisconsin, and I don't even feel like "summer is over"! To me, summer's over only after the first frost kills everything off...til' then, I'm basking in the sun!

Carol Michel said...

I'm with you, it ain't over 'til it's over!

Unknown said...

Does summer ever really end in Davis, though?!?! (Says the girl from Cleveland... *grin*)

growingagardenindavis said...

I grew up outside Cleveland (Bedford) so I know what you mean! And yes I feel really lucky...although a lot of the good garden essay books are written by people who have the winter "off" from gardening...my guess is it gives them time to write. Winter here is often cold and foggy or rainy but I sometimes am picking zucchini by the time my aunt in Independence is planting her garden!