I give up in August. Ever year I find heat a little harder to take, and having never been a morning person, I just don't get out there before the temperatures rise. This time of year, when it has cooled off, I'm back out there - planning, moving, building hardscaping.

I don't know that I would say give up, but I am a bit tired of some of it.

I wait for this time of year because I take it easy July and August on purpose (deadhead, fert, water only). But here it is 2:15 pm on a nice day and I didn't even get started til 11:00ish and I already took a lunch break, and now I'm ready to go for a dd iced coffee. and maybe buy some mums for the whiskey barrel.

My list of to-plant-and-transplant is long but it will have to wait. I'm getting tired. I really want 60's and partly cloudy to work hard. 70's and sunny means something else.

Yes, that is it. The heat takes over. For me, weddings take first priority. And then I am just as happy to look at my garden out the window as to be out in it. Maybe I am not a "tried and true" gardener after all?

Maybe the cooler weather and completing my last wedding will get me back into it again. It had better! About 800 bulbs will be arriving from VanEngelen!

I hear ya, WG! Thoughts of next spring and how much better I'll do with a fresh start are always in the back of my mind at this time of year.

But, when I feel like giving up, I go shopping. Nothing like a freshly over-stocked pot ghetto to get me motivated to tackle an area that's been badly neglected all summer ... or longer.

Also, I usually have extended travel (for work) in October, and knowing I have only one more weekend to get things done helps get me motivated.

Now, if I can just clear out my old New Dawn rose garden, and get these Huldine clematis, City Lights hydrangeas, Bowl of Beauty peony divisions and 10 or 20 other assorted plants into some soil, I'll be able to face the fact that gardening season is over for me in less than 2 weeks. (Sob!)

In a year like this when many plants are looking much the worse for drought, part of me does long for a clean slate. However, I need to keep going with what gardening work I can do. I have one more set of plants to get in the ground, items to transplant, etc. I end the season with a massive leaf project. I collect other people's curbside leaf bags, five at a time in my small car, until I get 50 bags and spend many hours grinding these up to spread on my beds, use for compost etc. So part of me still has big plans for the garden, but part of me almost looks forward to the killing frost that means I can put the season to bed.

Interestingly, I don't feel that way at this time of year. That's probably because I have several things that don't really begin to strut their stuff until late summer/fall. I look forward to their "show" and it sort of rejuvenates my zeal for gardening.

Personally, I tend to lose interest in mid-summer... that's the time when there is a notable lack of bloom here "on the compound"; although that is changeing with every year and my own understanding/appreciation for the changing light availability from sunup to sundown.

I DO tire of the containers, though!

I had totally given up on some gardens and refused to even look at them, then someone posted a thread with some photos from two years ago asking for an update. Well there is nothing like the knowledge that company is coming to motivate me to vacuum up the dog hair and put away the stacks of clean laundry sitting on the dinning room table,and I feel the same about my garden so now thanks to that post I am outside ripping out the clutter and the juices are beginning to flow about next years garden...I'm loving it.

well WG, you are obviously NOT alone! for me, the 2 things i experience now are:
1) the absolute man eating JUNGLE out there that once was our gardens, and
2)the absolute horror i feel when i see the amount of crisped leaves everywhere plus some plants that were lost to the drought and others that i don't know if i dare hope about.

Fortunately, I feel (as KT has so aptly explained)
'visitors' IS a synonym for 'motivation', as are the cooler days and lower light levels.

i guess we have lost so many plants over the years that I just can't get devastated by their loss; it won't do me any good except to compel me to be more responsible in the future. when i lose smaller things like perennials, i try to tell myself that they are a lot less expensive, even with their occasional loss, than a floral arrangement which only gives beauty for a week or so.

hey, we all have our ways of rationalizing, whatever the issue. A few hours of tidying, watering, yanking, whacking, staking, makes everything feel better.

and then of course there's the shopping!

best,
mindy

I'm so glad to see this thread. It's so good to know there are others to share my dark secret with. I garden like a madman til August when I definitely lose my motivation. Plus that's usually vacation time and the garden looks pretty rotten when I get back.

I keep up with my containers and annuals in the ground but thru the years I have weeded out most of the late-blooming perennials. Even tho they may look good themselves, the rest of the perennial garden looks tired, just like me. After Labor Day, I think it's Mother Nature's turn to put on the show with berries and fall foliage.

As for people wanting to come and see the garden, after Aug 1, it's Katie, bar the door.

You guys are great and I am glad that I am not alone! Now the bulbs showed up last week and it is time for me to beat the feeling and get out there!

WG

I wondered if I should post the same thing - then I saw your post.
I haven't done much in a while.
I wonder if its because it's been soooo dry here.

I will go out and buy some mums and put them around the house.

Then I will get some bulbs and plant those.
I usually get the grass cut short to make it easier to get the fall leaves up and mulch them for good soil.
Sometimes it snows before I get this done.

By late August nearly all my plants have peaked and although everything looks good; they get my benign neglect. There is really not much to do now.

By now I see how big all my perennials have become and consider where I may transplant them to in the fall. I also know the results of how various plants developed during the growing season and if I like them or where they are sited. And I consider improvements and winter protection, if any. Now, for me everything slows down and I know that winter is just around the corner.

I just wish we would get some rain! Richie

Though garden in general still looks good I feel like I lost motivation to do anything in it.
Ditto about rain.
Handwatering in October sounds ridiculous, but to run sprinklers at full capacity is outright stupid either.
Yesterday I finaly collected myself, decided to move fothergilla 'Mt.Airy' and start digging new hole for it. Oh my! Soil was dry as a bone down to 12-15". And that is despite mulch and twice a week watering for this location.
Need to move peony tree and hydrangea tree, but will wait for the rainy days.

You know, a little of it is that I am afraid of what I will find when I go out there. I know my Immortality iris did not rebloom this year. I am afraid to look at the state of those rhizomes! Then whatever the drought clobbered! I would rather wait till spring to find out, but those 800 bulbs have arrived and I have to get out there. I have a two week reprieve with other priorities, then it is out with the chicken wire and boxes of bulbs!

WG

You know, a little of it is that I am afraid of what I will find when I go out there. I know my Immortality iris did not rebloom this year. I am afraid to look at the state of those rhizomes! Then whatever the drought clobbered! I would rather wait till spring to find out, but those 800 bulbs have arrived and I have to get out there. I have a two week reprieve with other priorities, then it is out with the chicken wire and boxes of bulbs!

WG

On this topic, I recall a woman on another forum a few years back. She lived in Hawaii. Others were lamenting the end of summer and the year's gardening and she wrote, with clenched teeth, "Do you know what it's like to HAVE to garden 365 days a year? Count your winter blessings." I never forgot that. And I still chuckle.

That was a good thought ginny12, 5-6 months of gardens is just fine with me. All year would be too much. Usually by now I have had my first frost, but not this year and none in sight on the long weather forecast for the next 2 weeks. Possible my growing season has been extended somewhat?

Yes, Ginny, that's a good point. My DH keeps suggesting that I get a greenhouse so I can "garden all year" - and I keep saying No way!

My fall gardening season is coming to an abrupt halt after tomorrow, as I'm leaving for a 5-week trip on Saturday. There are lots of volunteer tomatoes about to ripen, the crape myrtle has just started to really bloom fully, the huge Salvia leucanthemum is peaking, and most of the old mums have not really started showing color but are full of buds. The Franklinia altamaha is looking perfect ... at least a couple of them (I have 5, I think) are loaded with flowers and buds.

My newly planted border still needs constant attention to keep ahead of the weeds and volunteers and to add mulch here and there and check the soil moisture, and the newer trees and shrubs need to be checked every few days to be sure they're getting their water etc needs met.

When I get home, it will all be frosty and brown. DH is not going to be able to keep track of anything, and I'm just hoping we start getting some regular rain, soon. It will be spring before I know what survives this kind of neglect.

So, if you can keep gardening this month, count your blessings, and enjoy these last few weeks of the season. It's going to be a long winter!

And here I was just thinking about setting up a cold frame for some fall lettuce.

dtd,
Safe Voyage.