August 2026
August was a good month for getting a surprising number of smaller projects done, and for cleaning up after installing the new deck.
from cornfield to controlled(?) chaos
August was a good month for getting a surprising number of smaller projects done, and for cleaning up after installing the new deck.

July was a pretty typical summer month in the garden. Things are blooming, things are growing — including weeds, like, well, weeds — and it’s been occasionally too damn hot (or smoky) to do anything outdoors.

With the perennial garden replanted and annuals done for the year, June meant — as it usually does — catching up on weeding and pruning that didn’t get done while we were working on that.

May is always the busiest month, with annuals to pot and plant, plus regular spring maintenance. This year we added two major projects: resurfacing the deck and renovating the perennial garden.

It's been a very wet and chilly spring so far, so we've had to be selective with maintenance. Parts of the yard are too soggy to mow, and in some cases even to walk in. It's finally starting to dry out enough to transplant.

Every year I feel like May is a mad rush of too many things to do in too little time. Every year I feel like I could be making better use of my gardening time outside of May. But I never do. So this year I’m trying something different.

As is usually the case, I accomplished far less than I planned to. We were more consistent with maintenance this year, and continue to tweak things to make maintenance easier.