Aww, I've been there too. It's August, which is not a natural time of year to be killing yourself outdoors. It sounds like you need the rest, honestly. My advice would be to cut yourself some slack and wait until a chill in the air inspires action. Until then, just take a vacation from garden work too.

Hang in there!

probably left it at the cheese hut ... in tecumseh ...

lol

ken

It's all about guilt! One must be working in the garden as much as humanly possible. If you're not out there - well, you're a slug and you know what we do with slugs! Force yourself! Force yourself! You don't want to be a slug!

OK, back to reality...

August is kind of a weird month. The weeds have pretty much stopped growing and there really isn't a whole lot to do other than deadhead, think about what needs to be changed, pick the tomatoes.

We haven't had any hot weather to speak of this summer - I think 2 days of 90 - but I'm starting to look forward to winter. I can't say I'm tired of the garden, but snow just sounds good right now.

Kevin

Ken -- didn't you note the eat part of my post? That cheese is looong gone. I do have some cheeseCAKE in the fridge, though....

Your hosta is still out there waiting for a home. She's well watered from the sprinklers, so at least no worries there. It's me who's been Sleeping Beauty all week. UGH!

This is what biscuits (cookies) are for....but you may substitute cakes if you like. Anyway, my (ahem) mojo has gone somewhere awol too.....so I am spending a lot of time looking at recycling pallets and old tyres (as my money has gone the same way as my energy). We should forgive ourselves a bit of blobbing out though.....or even quite a lot if required. I do fair bit of whining but draw the line at nagging my own self to death (given the many friends and family who will go at it at the drop of a hat). Cheer up, its spring bulb ordering time any day now....and we are back on the hope and fantasy road again......much more palatable than actual digging and doing.

This is that time of year I make garden edit changes in my head since I can see what I've done wrong in such embarrassingly high relief. I tend to wander about in confused circles without aim doing this and that and end up all over the place doing some unrelated & some very unfocused waste of time things I'd just as soon not mention since I cannot jump in and start digging those things out right now like I want to do. Of course its hotter than hades so I keep coming inside to wash my face in cold water and clean my glasses from sweat so I can see. The guilt is that I know I am out there mostly piddling and there's all that work sitting undone on my desk but it does no good. Then I see a pristine tiger swallowtail butterfly and must get the camera so I take pictures for a while wishing those hummingbirds would come.

Today I suddenly decided to dig around the perimeter of some really nice blue switchgrass and got myself 3 new good sized rooted starts potted up which are sitting in the shade to replace that "awful thing" that is simply not working & which I keep staring at and trying to mentally fix until my head hurts. I had finally decided to order some switchgrass online this fall as a replacement. I'm just slow enough on the ball to only just today think of digging my own starts as a belated stroke of genius during my aimless wandering and piddling. Now I'm eyeballing that big clump of 3 'Northwind' switchgrasses & patting myself on the back for saving myself some money since I can replace that other "awful thing" with these in two nice groupings of three's. Problem solved.

This is the time of the season when I lose my enthusiasm to garden and get back to my other hobby, writing. I have to start pushing myself to get out there and pull those darn weeds when all I want to do is vegetate and write. I spend all of my gardening energies in the months of May through July, and by the time August comes around I'm getting burnt out. Which is why I like living in the north. I have several months of cold yuck to hibernate through and by the time spring comes around I'm ready to go.

Karen

Don't be too hard on yourself - after all, it is your VACATION. And while you sound like me, a person who takes vacation from "official" work/job to do yet more work at home (be it finishing a home improvement project, starting a home improvement project, or a sacred vow to finally get something done in the garden) that doesn't mean we have to stick to our vacation plans.

If you decide to be a slug and sit around and eat for a week, good for you; you probably need a break and quite frankly that sounds like an awesome vacation to me! The work will be there waiting for you later - and even if you had done it, there would be more work waiting for you anyway.

My mojo was and continues to be stolen by the clouds of flying gnats who just won't go away. That's why I'm being a slug (an indoor slug) today. Now I wish I had bought that ice cream while at the store yesterday...

:)
Dee