• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Home Garden Companion

Home Garden Companion

Ilona's Garden Journal

  • Plant Library On The Journal
    • All Season Garden Color
    • Sitemap
  • Garden chores
    • Essential Garden Tools For Beginners
    • Garden Tips and Advice
  • Ilona’s Garden Home
    • Old House Blog
    • Garden Librarian
  • Ilona’s Garden Flavor Shop
  • Privacy Policy

The “what did you do over summer” essay

24.08.10 | Ilona Erwin | No Comments

Remember the first days of school when you were a kid? There were always the obligatory “What I Did This Summer” essays that were supposed to sum up our activities- as a way to segue back into the halls of Academia. Leaving the fresh air and sunshine behind, we gazed through school windows and tried to concentrate on the “reading and writing” of class. This is something like that old essay assignment, cataloging the past months garden efforts and summer idylls.

Full of determination I started off the season strong with planting and getting the garden beds completed. I planted the cool season crops and then the warm season tomatoes, peppers, basil and some gourds, primarily, for the later season. Oh…. those gourds have a story. The ONLY story now in the older vegetable space, as they swamped and swallowed up the plantings and then the pathways…. so now they better produce plenty of birdhouse gourds for my planned fall crafts.

My tomatoes did well in the raised beds in the new/old vegetable patch (remember? I resurrected the original food garden area of my first efforts here on this rural place). Though the heat did take a toll around the last part of July.

I have had some eating enjoyment from those plants, but they came in full production during my out of town trips, which were numerous this summer. So I fed the critters hereabouts a bit more than I fed myself. And some simply “went by” quickly in the horrid heat waves. They are still producing, though, and I can have all the tomatoes I want until frost.

I plucked, and saved in the refrigerator, the peppers and basil that were covered by the gourd tsunami. All I can say is that my food gardening skills are getting some exercise. My planning can use a bit of refining for next year.

The larkspurs returned from last years planting and were a large patch of deep blue at the end of the food garden.

I have been changing around the flower gardens near the house, refining the side garden as it is replacing the front garden which was mown down. That section will be a shrub garden, having a background of Viburnum burkwoodi, Hydrangea paniculata, Contorted hazel, lilac, and peonies, already. I can’t think of any landscape activity sadder than mowing down a beloved garden space, however.

Recently, I have moved and increased some of my perennials. Shasta daisies went to a bed that holds the Beauty Bush. I think I will add in some other “meadow” plants to disguise the abrupt sight of plants in the lawn (they have a plan to “take over” in future yard domination of that part of the yard….shhhh!)

I’ve been very hodgepodge about taking photos- with most of them of my kids on trips to graduation and family reunions. I will slip some new photos in here…. but who knows what seasons and times they are from!

© 2010 Ilona’s Garden Journal. All rights reserved.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

← Previous Post
The Dilettante’s Lament
Next Post →
Easy Way to Journal Your Garden

About Ilona Erwin

I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

DISCLOSURE: I may be an affiliate for products that I recommend. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. Thank you, in advance for your support! Privacy Policy

Primary Sidebar

Oh, hi there!

I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

Newest Postings Here

  • Hawaiian Flower Arrangements
  • HELLLOOOO, From The Other Side
  • February Gardening, Last of Winter in the Flower Garden
  • Compilation of Past Mini-Posts of 2003
  • Wayback in Ilona Garden Time

Visit for a Spell

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Mission

Finding your way home via the garden path

Books, Tools, Tips

Read reviews from the GardenLibarian

Portrait of a Gardener

gardener musings
Musings

What’s Wrong With Today’s Gardening?

Modern gardening
What Is Wrong?

Garden Journal

fine garden journal
Journal, Planner and Log Book
buy quality plants

You might also like

seeds

National Seed Swap Day in January

Garden advice

What Makes a Low Maintenance Garden?

Create A Child’s Garden, Grow Love For Nature

Growing Indoor Flowers In December

I Found Out About “She Sheds” And Coincidentally, About Friends

Newest Postings Here

  • Hawaiian Flower Arrangements
  • HELLLOOOO, From The Other Side
  • February Gardening, Last of Winter in the Flower Garden
  • Compilation of Past Mini-Posts of 2003
  • Wayback in Ilona Garden Time

Books, Tools, Tips

Read reviews from the GardenLibarian

Standouts

10 Useful Gardening Tips For Spring

Do You Grow Herbs? 10 Reasons To Love Them

10 Cool Season Annual Flowers To Plant

Standouts

August Gardening: Ten Suggestions

What are your ten top choices for perennial plantings?

Follow on Instagram

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Join Me

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2023 · Your Site Name

Hazel Theme by Code + Coconut