Does anyone else have a flower garden that is looking pretty sad about now?  I’m so disappointed in the way my back yard is looking.  Rationally, I know plants are stressed because of the drought we have experienced the last month or more, but I still feel badly that the stunning landscape that was my back yard just a few weeks ago seems to have disappeared.  The hostas’ leaves are turning yellow, the bacopa and geraniums in a couple of planters have quit blooming; even the impatiens in my window boxes look awful – all leggy and very few blossoms.  This is all happening in spite of faithful watering and fertilizing.   But, hey, the weeds certainly have prospered! I do expect the loveliness of the gardens (I have six separate flower beds – mostly perenniels) to wane as fall approaches, but this the third week of August, seems a bit early – even in Minnesota.  Fortunately, I am not planning to entertain anyone in my back yard any time soon, so I am the only one dismayed by the unsightliness.

I’m thinking I probably need to pull the impatiens out of the window boxes and replant them with the 3 for $9.99 mum plants that Cub is currently offering.  I don’t like giving in to fall until the calendar actually says it’s fall, but I may not have a choice this year.  Mums, to me, stand for fall.  In past years, I haven’t had to replace the impatiens until early October when I substitute cute little pumpkins for the flowers.

Meanwhile, I guess I should count my blessings that I did have many plants that did well, as always, this summer.  It’s just easier for me to worry and stress over the things that have not gone so well.  I found the following quote from May Sarton – author, poet, journal keeper, now deceased – that puts things in perspective, and maybe if I keep re-reading it, I can move past the disappointment of the messes in the yard right now –

A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself.

Isn’t that the truth?!

Gardening is my passion.  If I had been thinking more clearly, I would have written something about gardening earlier in the season when everything was looking lovely.  I could have included some nice pictures.  Now, I am hard-pressed to find anything to photograph that would impress you.  How about these marigolds, which actually have a funny story, I think, that goes with them.  I started them from seeds under a grow light in the early spring, thinking they were the common short, garden type marigold that lasts until hard frost in the fall.  I generally use the short variety for filler in one my flower beds.  Little did I know these would grow to be monsters.  (I know, I should have read the seed package more carefully!)  Had I known how tall they would get, I would never have planted them where I did, and among the shorter variety marigolds.  You can see, they are doing well.  The bees love them! (Look closely, and you can see the sad impatiens in the window boxes on the shed in the background.)

Ok, I feel better now that I have whined a bit.  I am grateful that for the present, anyway, I have nothing more important to worry or whine about than my garden.  I keep others in my prayers that are not so fortunate.  For me, life is good, and I am ignoring the wind!