My Summer Growmance

I had a romance this summer with my garden. It started out full of hope. I got butterflies every time I went out there to see it. Then it bloomed into a beautiful garden where everyday it brought something new and I was constantly surprised and amazed at its surprises. Then it got hot, real hot. And everything yellowed (literally) and the romance began to fizzle right before my eyes. Now, I just have remnants of what was and a broken heart.

I spent a lot in the garden this week. It needed some tending to and I had been neglectful, mostly out of sadness. I finally bought some wellies so I can stop tracking dirt through the house on my sneakers so, I booted up and dug in. I ripped out a bunch of weeds (I thought that "special compost" that cost a ton of money was an instant weed deterrent...) and I also ripped out a bunch of dead plants. The yellow squash plants died after just one crop. The green peppers, eggplant and zucchini never even made it. The cucumber vines have grown into the tomatoes and the watermelon vines are all over the place.

I commiserated with a fellow gardener yesterday. While I was boasting about my tomato abundance, she said hers never made it, she said the heat has literally fried her plants. However, she did offer a bit of hope. She said she "thought" that South Carolina has a second growing season since our warm weather season is so long. Then she sounded defeated as she told me she joined a CSA for the Fall. Oh, my broken heart.