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Greetings, and welcome to the new subscribers!
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August is the month to start thinking about the end of the season. It's a paradox as peak harvest happens, too. But the days get shorter, and the first frost can be in early September. Now is the time to get ready for fall.
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Pest Updates
The grasshoppers did considerable damage this year. Deterrents weren't working, because on the other side of the fence is the Hopper Hilton. It's a weedy, untended corner of the property full of dead tumbleweeds and grasses, the perfect habitat for the little buggers to thrive. The grasshoppers scatter when I approach, and that's where they go. So it felt futile to fight them. I finally said, Have at it!
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But their numbers are decreasing. They've been mating. The females die off after depositing their eggs into the soil. I've been finding their bodies around the yard. There are still plenty of hoppers, but most are babies not doing much damage.
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Weirdly, they ate all the aromatic plants - basil, Hyssop, Monarda, yarrow, and marigolds. They also stripped leaves off the Bachelor Buttons leaving little blue buttons at the top of naked stalks. They munched lettuce plants down to stumps.They ate the new growth on trees and shrubs as well. My yard looks dead, but thankfully, anything that's not an annual will come back next year.
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I think they ate the first bean flowers and baby beans close to the ground. The plants have been flowering for a couple of weeks, but I'm just now seeing beans, and they're higher up on the trellis.
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A couple of weeks ago, I planted a small patch of lettuce mix and covered it with lightweight row cover to keep the hoppers and quail away from it. Success! It germinated and is growing!
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Early in the season, green stink bugs appeared. I didn't think much of it until they chewed on my broccoli plants, killing two of them. Once they moved on, harlequin bugs moved in to finish off the patch of struggling plants. I googled remedies, because you know how much I love my broccoli! Nothing was as effective as hand-picking, so I did my usual squishing-between-two-leaves routine. When there were too many, I resorted to drowning them. I put a few inches of water in a 5-gallon bucket, and knocked them off the leaves into the water. Half of them climbed out! Being determined to save my broccoli, I got a 2-gallon bucket, put in a few inches of water, knocked them off the plants into the water, and flushed them down the toilet! I did this twice, probably killing about 50. I wondered if this would literally come back to bite me in the ass, but it didn't.
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The cabbage loopers were bad on the broccoli in the beginning of the season, but they're easy to hand-squish as they lounge on the central leaf vein. The broccoli is way behind. I've harvested maybe a serving or two and had to cave and buy some at the supermarket last week. How embarrassing! I hope nobody saw me.
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Other than those disasters, I can say the flowers look great! I was planting so late this year, I put whatever wherever, but now I have some beautiful surprises! I always wanted to be a flower farmer. Maybe it's time to ramp it up.
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Rudbeckia hirta. I got the seed from my late friend, Patty, in 2020. She didn't like these, because they reseeded all over her flagstone patio - just my kinda plant! Last year, the grasshoppers ate the five I'd planted. I was happy to see I had seed left, so I added it to my planting schedule. The hoppers started on this patch when the plants were small, but the Rudbeckia won that battle! I now have a lush stand that will yield more seed and hopefully reseed everywhere.
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I usually plant Cardinal Climber vines to cover this trellis, but I needed a change, so I stuck in a half dozen morning glory seeds. They're flowering much earlier than I expected! They complement the pink and salmon zinnias, which were a surprise.
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Echinacea angustifolia. Last year, the mother plant got aster yellows, a virus spread by leafhoppers, which were plentiful. I pulled her up and put her in the trash. I was delighted to see she had thrown some seed before she left. There are three beautiful and healthy plants in her place now!
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This is the main zinnia bed. I wasn't sure of the sizes in the different 6-pakcs, so there are shorter varieties in the center and Benary's Giant on the edges. It still looks fine, but I have a mental note to be more conscientious next year. I'll definitely be less stressed and hopefully can plant on time! In the upper left are the pole beans that are belatedly coming on. Thanks, hoppers.
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August Tasks
Most important this month is to stop feeding your trees and shrubs. Give them one more dose right now, then quit. You don't want them putting on new growth as they slow down and get ready to go dormant for winter.
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See? Even though harvests are at peak and our gardens look their best, the earth is preparing for winter already. Such a pardox, like I said.
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You can get in one or two more plantings of spring greens. The latest I ever seeded lettuce mix was early September. The last harvest was November 11, only because a heavy wet snow smashed all the plants. If I'd had better protection, or even grown in a coldframe, we could have had a fresh salad into December.
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Later in the month, dig up herbs and annuals you want to bring inside.
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When you harvest tomatoes, save seeds from the best ones. Be sure to label each variety so you don't end up with cherry tomatoes when you wanted sauce tomatoes! (Been there, done that!)
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Keep weeding, although mature plants may cover enough area to act as mulch and shade out weeds.
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Take advantage of end-of-year sales at nurseries and garden centers. Late summer and fall is the best time to plant perennials, trees, and shrubs. They spread their roots and get anchored, and will spend the spring flowering instead of getting established. Late August is a good time to start transplanting. This month is off to a hot start, so wait until the days cool down at the end of the month and on into September. Be generous with compost in the planting hole, and water in new plantings every day until you see they're settled in.
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Dry some flowers. A few years ago I read about a woman who dried everything - things you wouldn't normally think of as good for drying. I figured I'd experiment, of course. I now have larkspur, marigolds, and ageratum hanging in the kitchen. Cut them early in the morning and hang to dry out of direct sunlight.
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At the end of the month, get prepared for frost. Keep row covers and frost cloth handy, so you're not scrambling at the last minute to find them when frost is in the forecast.
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Butterfly bush pruning update
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I pruned my butterfly bush (Buddleia alternifolia) in late June, because it was taking over the walkway and shading out my Moonshine Yarrow, penstemons, and hollyhocks. Now it has a lot of new growth, which is where next year's flowers will appear.
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Butterfly bush before pruning
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June 25th butchering. Not so pretty.
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July 31 with tons of new growth. I had to cut it back a little more, because it was threatening to block the walkway again!
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CSA Shares, Retiring, Writing, Art
In case you missed the memo last month, there won't be CSA Shares next year. I'm 'retiring.' I may grow something, but I'm taking CSAs off the menu. It's too stressful, and I want to do more recreational gardening for myself.
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I'm getting back to writing. I started a Substack called Backstories and Brain Chatter. It will be essays, not garden how-to, although that might get thrown in since it's such a big part of me. Subscribe to find out where it goes!
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I'm also turning my collage ladies into greeting cards. This is a huge learning curve and is going slowly. Maybe next month I'll have an update.
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One design almost ready for printing.
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Sponsored content from a trusted local resource. I use these products myself!
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Sale Items!
Clear my inventory for me!
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There is a limited supply of Renee's Garden Scatter Cans at Earthgoods for $10!
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T-shirts are $12, available from me. All cotton, L and XL in men's and women's sizes.
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THE NEW BOOK!
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The 2nd edition of The Book is available from UNM Press! You can also get a copy at Moxie, Earthgoods, Gutiz, Petree's, op.cit. Books, and always from me. If you see it somewhere else, let me know!
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If you're a retailer and would like to carry The New Book, please call Longleaf Services to open a tax-exempt account at 1-800-848-6224, then press 1 for customer service. They'll set you right up! Thanks!
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Events
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What a quiet year for plant sales! We did one in April, and I didn't do one on Memorial Day weekend, like I usually do. There are a couple at the Taos Land Trust each summer, but there was only one so far. I don't see anything else scheduled.
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Merch
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The Write Shit Down Garden Journal at 4" x 5.5" is a handy size to take out to the garden. I've used one for note-taking for a specific kitchen project, and a friend uses hers for her passwords. Notebooks are for writing in, whether that's gardening or not! Journals are also available at Earthgoods and Moxie, and Moxie has bumper stickers and my paper weavings and greeting cards.
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Ranchitos Keychains were made by my older daughter and inspired by the turquoise truck full of sunflowers on Lower Ranchitos. I use mine as a zipper pull on my bag.
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