A Time to Plant, and a Time to Pluck Up that Which is Planted

Yes, those are changing leaves.

The weather forecasters told us to expect “an early taste of autumn” last week. They made it sound like such a lovely thing. I suppose it would be if I was in a part of the country suffering from extreme heat. But I’m not. So when the early taste of autumn arrived as predicted, I cringed. Yes, the foggy sunrises are pretty in a melancholy sort of way. And yes, the cool days make working in the garden less sweaty. But I still want to sweat a bit. And when the temperature dropped into the mid 30's on Friday night, any inkling of loveliness got shivered out of me. I’m not ready to say good-bye to summer. But, ready or not, it’s coming fast.

Foggy morning.

Foggy sunrise.

On Tuesday Miriam left on a Big Adventure. She went down to Washington, D.C., to attend a family history conference. A lady who is a patron at our Family History Center at the church invited Miriam to go with her. Miriam attended classes on photography, on doing research in Ireland, and on Scots-Irish immigrants in South Carolina. She went to a class on how to use Family Search and a class on the Library of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She had a great time and learned a lot that I hope she’ll pass on to me and Stacey. The conference ended on Friday and on Saturday Miriam embarked on the second leg of her adventure. She made her way via the Metro and Amtrak to the Baltimore Airport and flew to Dallas and then rode to McKinney, Texas, where she will be for the next few weeks helping Grandma Carolyn who is recovering from a broken leg. At this point it looks like Miriam won’t be home again until the beginning of October. I really miss having her at home, but she’s out doing good things.

School started last week on Wednesday. I was not called in. I didn’t expect to be. But I was ready and will be every morning from now on – just in case. It’s been several years since we had a child in school here, but hearing the school bus go up the road at 7:10 still makes me feel like I need to get everyone moving faster. It’s still dark now when I get up in the morning. That combined with school and cooler weather has changed the atmosphere here. Time seems to have accelerated. We are tumbling toward winter.

Although we have not had child in school here for a while, we do have grandchildren who started school last week, albeit in far flung places. Out in Utah, Ellie, Geoffrey and Joni’s oldest, began second grade and her sister Gwen began first grade. Down in Jeannette, Pennsylvania, Hazel, Rachel and Tabor’s oldest, began first grade. The thought of a new generation of family headed off to school makes me feel old.

Ellie's first day of school.

Gwen's first day of school.

Hazel's first day of school.

That’s not the only thing that’s making me feel old these days. As the season wanes, I’ve been working hard at getting the gardens ready for fall planting, for harvesting, and for winter. I’ve been pulling up spent plants, setting out new spaces in the flowerbeds, trimming away excessive summer growth, shifting plants to new spots, and weeding, weeding, weeding. There was a time when all that work would not have affected me much, but my muscles and bones are not so young anymore. Back in the day I would have worked nonstop all day and not minded it at all. Now I have to work for few hours and then take a break before going on.

A squash blossom.

I did actually start some fall planting. While cleaning out flowerbeds over the last few weeks, I’ve unearthed a variety of bulbs – daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, and tulips – that I put in a basket on the porch. Last week I sorted them all out and replanted them in various places. I will also order some new bulbs soon and plant them later in September. There’s always room in my garden for more spring flowers.

I trimmed garlic last week.

This is the time of year when I like to cut flowers to bring into the house. The best bouquet flowers are in bloom now – dahlias, phlox, and especially gladiolus. They bring some of the bright exterior garden color into the interior spaces we inhabit.

Bouquets from the garden.

The township has been working on our road putting in a drainage system. They began up the road at the township line and have now come down as far as our house, the last house (really the first house) on the road. As they go along, they dig a trench with a backhoe, put perforated plastic pipe in it and then fill the trench with gravel. On Monday they were just above Shillig’s house and by Friday they’d made it part way along our property. The drainage is needed. When we have heavy rain, our road turns into a creek sometimes. Unfortunately, they did some damage to the row of daylilies I have planted along the road edge of the yard. They got trampled pretty badly in some places. I’m sure they’ll recover next year, but they look sad now. I’m not sure how this drainage system will affect our driveway. In past years the township has added gravel to the road and built it up so that our driveway is lower than the road. When it rains, a big puddle forms at the end of the driveway. I’ll be interested to see how things look – better or worse – when all this work is done.

Working on the road.

My trampled daylilies.

On Saturday Josiah and I worked on one of my Big Projects. The weather was beautiful and Josiah was anxious to cross some big items off the Project List before he has to go back to school. So we undertook to make The Garden Path. There was a grass path five feet wide that divided the long border in two. I wanted to replace the grass with a stone path. Josiah and I drove up the road to Raymond where there is a tall bank of exposed rock behind the cemetery. We selected some big flat stones and brought them home. Then we peeled up the turf, tilled the soil, and arranged the stones. After the path was in place, I transplanted some irises to the other side of it for balance. It turned out great. There are plenty of other items on the Project List and time is running out – Josiah will return to school in two weeks and his muscle won’t be available anymore. I’m hoping we’ll get a lot more done this week.

The old grass path.

Laying the new stone path.

The finished path.

The weather is still cool and it looks like it will be all week. I felt a pang when I dug a sweater out this morning to wear to church. It doesn’t seem right to wear a sweater in August. I’m glad I did though, the air conditioner was on in the chapel despite the cool weather outdoors and I would have been even colder than I was had I not had my sweater.

So a new week lies ahead and the Project List is there waiting, always waiting for me to complete a task. I will do what I can. I’ll have Josiah in the afternoons to help. There isn’t much rain in the forecast. We’ll see what happens if they call me into school. And by the end of the week August will be over.