It is August in the garden and we have more veggies than we can eat: tomatos, beans, lettuce, zucchine, kale, peppers, plums, apples and on and on. We begin this page with Day 121 of the Susan’s Garden Project.
Day 122 is the 8th of August. We have had some rain which has changed how the flowers look. The colors are deeper and the rain drops reflect the light. It is neat!
Day 121. At last the tomatoes are back. Lots of them. And that means pasta. Oil in the pan, garlic, tomatoes chopped, basil, parsley, pepper, a few chili flakes, cook lightly, add cooked and drained pasta, a bit of pasta water for the sauce, lots of cheese. I love being Italian!!!
Day 123 and here is another rose in the rain.
July 10th is Day 124 and we are still looking at flowers in the recent rain. This is a dahlia amongst the black eyed susans. I like the rain. The gardens need it but, more than that, I like the mood it brings. It makes the garden feel like a totally different place.
Day 125. More Dahlia’s in the rain. What a beautiful plant these are! They produce so many different blossom shapes and colors!
Day 126. August 12th and we have been eating zucchine both the fruit part and the flowers. The plants are not doing well this year. Same with the figs. I think the weather has not been to their liking although it has seemed fine to us.
Day 128 is the 14th of August and you may notice that I am behind. So much going on! So lets get caught up. Susan has window boxes on the tool shed and they are full of the most wonderful begonias. The sun shining behind them lights them up like neon.
August 13th is Day 127. Every year Susan has these mauve poppies return. They are usually red but we get these lovely blossoms instead.
Day 129. Even single begonia blossoms are a wonderful thing!
Day 130 is the 16th of August. I think these blossoms are dahlias which come back every year now. Susan has a friend who gave her several tubers a few years ago and they just keep spreading.
Day 131. We have in the yard a wooden bench that is at least thirty years old. I have repaired it many times and repainted it three times. This is its latest incarnation.
Day 132. How do you take an interesting picture of a lettuce? Have you ever looked closely at a lettuce? Not a Safeway lettuce but one growing strong and healthy in the garden. No? Well, you should.
The 19th of August is Day 133 of the Susan’s Garden Project. I wanted a picture of me in the garden so I got down in the flowers and took this one. It gives scale to how big Susan’s Garden is really is.
Day 134 is the 20th of August. The hummingbirds really love these fuscia blossoms. They go from one to the other until another hummingbird chases them away. These come back every year all by themselves. So do the hummingbirds!
Day 135 of the Susan’s Garden Project. The Irises are a beautiful flowers. Unfortunately, they really suffer in the rain.
Susan did not want me to post this picture because she felt she looked so awful. But if you are working in the garden how are you supposed to look? Anyway, today she and Caesar were up the plum tree picking plums. It is a good year for them. August 23rd is day 137.
Day 138. So what do you do with all those plums. We cook with some, we can some, we eat some. But there are still too many. So Susan dries them in a dehydrator, and me, I pack them in jars and fill up the jars with grappa. Over the years I have been given more grappa than ever I could drink and this is a delicious way to use it. The fruit tastes great on ice cream and the grappa can than be drunk with a wonderful fruit flavour.
Day 139 is the 25th of August. The garden is full of Black Eyed Susans and they are a great flower. The blossoms last a long time, they reseed themselves.
I keep coming back to the roses because they are so beautiful and they keep blooming all spring and summer. Day 136, 22nd of August.
If you look really close at the blossom on a Black Eyed Susan you see the most delicious yellow color. Just the color alone is beautiful. Day 140.
It is the 27th of August and our peppers are ready. Every year I harvest enough from the garden to make several jars of hot pepper relish. I make it really hot and we use it in everything. This year we have two bushes of habanero peppers as well as the usual assortment of other hot peppers. A few years ago I took this picture of my harvest.
Day 144. The statue on the side of the house, our Madonna dei Fiori, is the most often photographed thing around here, other than Susan herself.
Several years ago I took this picture of Susan in her garden. 28th August. Day 142.
August 29th is Day 143 of the Susan’s Garden Project. We have a stone wall at the front of the house that is stepped up in two sections with a little garden in between. And in Susan’s Garden, where there is dirt, there is something pretty. This is from this past spring.
August 31 is Day 145 of our project. Our apple tree is loaded and the apples are getting ripe. A few have already fallen to the ground. But they don’t go to waste. This is a picture of Susan under our apple tree.
So what does happen to all those apples that fall on the ground? Well, I said they don’t go to waste. I made this last week and used up a bunch of them. Day 146 is September 1st.
And while we are on the topic of using up fruit, what happens to the plums we have this year? It has been a great year for them. Well, I made this a few days ago and used up about 18 of them. And there’s lots more to go. Day 147.
September 3rd is Day 148 of the Susan’s Garden Project. Here we are in September! The summer is almost over and the plants are starting to look tired. Fall is almost here. What does the garden look like today? Well, I took my cell phone into the yard yesterday and took this picture. Veggies on the left and flowers on the right.
Day 149. Following up on yesterday, I also went to the other end of the garden and took a picture looking back. By the way, you will remember that I am also posting all of these pictures on the family website.
Day 150. For me, the prettiest color in Susan’s Garden is the orange of the poppies. Orange is not one of my favorite colors but this orange is different. It almost glows with an inner light. It is a magical color.
It is 8 September (I am running a bit behind) and we are on Day 153 of the Susan’s Garden Project. We are finished with birthdays for a while and back to flowers. The blossoms of the dahlia’s come in endless colors and variety.
9 September. Besides the Dahlias my favorite flower is the Black Eyed Susan. It comes by itself every year and spreads easily. Big blossoms and they seem to last all summer.
Day 151 is the 6th of September. Fall is here and it is almost time to pick the beans.
September 11th is Day 156 and we are still catching up on our project. This time of year I eat so many tomatoes my skin turns red! Susan saves seeds from year to year and always plants way too many. But instead of discarding the ones she doesn’t need she plants them everywhere in all the garden beds. Amongst the flowers there are tomatoes.
September 12th and I was picking peppers in the garden. There are so many I don’t know what we will do with all of them. Probably my hot pepper relish and some sweet pepper jelly.
Day 158 is the 13th of September. I am sitting in the family room looking out to the back yard and I realize that we have a view of the garden from there. I knew this, of course, but I never really thought about how beautiful it is.
In the summer when the weather is warm we move outdoors and basically live on the patio. Like in all things, Susan makes it beautiful and it is a joy to sit here. Day 152 is September 7th.
September 10th is Day 155. The statue of Our Lady of the Flowers is still looking after her children. The blossoms are beginning to look like fall is approaching but they are still beautiful.
Day 159 and I have been looking at Susan’s hanging baskets. Fall is approaching and the flowers are beginning to look a little worn. They have given everything they have to give and yet they are still beautifull for a few weeks yet.
We have lts of places to sit in the garden and back yard. This old bench has been rebuilt several times and painted more times than I can remember. It is under the plum tree and we often sit here to have our lunch. Day 161 is the 16th of September.
Day 162. We have a balcony off the kitchen with a small table and two chairs on it. And it has flowers. Susan has them everywhere! And there are grapes. We picked them all the other day and they are sweet as sugar. Just on the balcony alone we got about 20 pounds of them!
Day 160 is the 15th of September and we are almost caught up. We have many visitors to the garden; racoons, mice, all kinds of birds, we have even had bears passing by in the back alley this year. One of the least of our visitors but one of the most important is the honey bee. I know people are sometimes afraid of them but they are no problem. We have lots of them and they ignore us as they go about their business.
The other day I was standing in the garden by the swiss chard looking west past the house to the clouds in the distance. This is what I was watching. Day 164 is 19th of September.
Day 163 is September 18th. I don’t know the names of all of the flowers in Susan’s Garden. There are all kinds of little ones that come by themselves every year and they are lovely.
Day 165 of the Susan’s Garden Project falls on the 20th of September. I was in the garden today looking at it closely and the signs of Fall are everywhere. And it is sad. The flower stalks are breaking, the blossoms are wilting and dropping their petals, and the air is getting cold. It is sad, and yet, there is the promise of a new Spring.
And today is the 23rd of September and we are caught up on our pictures. And these pictures are a great reminder of how beautiful flowers are in their infinite variety.
Day 166 and I am thinking back to the Spring when the colors were so deep and crisp. The flowers were beautiful then.
Day 167 is the 22nd of September. I will miss the colors in Susan’s Garden over the Fall and Winter. But I will have the colors in my pictures to remind me of the Spring.
Day 169 is September 24th and it is apple time. We have one apple tree but it gives us lots of apples every year. They are hard, crisp and juicy and for a few weeks they are a waiting snack in the yard. Here Susan is trimming our apple tree.
Today is Day 170 of the Susan’s Garden project. We are talking about apples. About three years ago we had a really good crop of apples and we made pies, apple sauce and apple pan dowdy. But there were more than we could eat and we had to give lots away.
Susan does not use a lot of insecticide anywhere in the garden. The apples for instance get one application of an oil-sulpher spray in the winter and that is it. As a result the apples have blemishes and worms do get some of them. But they are sweet, crisp, and totally safe to eat. Day 171 is September 26th.
Day 173 falls on September 28th. Another thing we do with the bounty from the garden is pie. I have been making pies with the apples and I have finally figured out how to make a light flakey crust (not too much liquid!).
Day 172. The tomatoes are ripe and falling off the vines. The plums are done and we had more than we could eat. The basil is almost finished. So what to do? Well, this is what Susan does!
Day 174 is September 29th and we are on the back patio. Although the baskets are beginning to thin out and the blossoms are falling, it is still beautiful. And the autumn light is golden and the air is beginning to feel cool.
Day 175. The garden is full of more than we can possibly eat. Susan gives lots away but still we will not be able to eat it all.
October 1st is Day 176 and we are in the backyard again. The clear air of fall is so beautiful and the light makes everything look wonderful. The flowers are beginning to wilt but they are still wonderful. It is a good time of year.
2 October is Day 177 of the Susan’s Garden Project. We are looking at a picture from Susan’s garden, one picture a day for a year. Today we are forgetting the fall and the fading sun and looking back to sunnier times. For instance, this lavender from last spring.
Day 179 is 4 October. On the front wall of the yard Susan has pots on each corner and each year they start the spring with tulips.
Day 177 and we are looking again at the poppies. Susan has several varieties. We get a lot of this purple poppy. It is normally red but we get a lot of this color.
October 7th. In the garden Susan has a small birdbath with a boy and girl sitting in the middle of it. The flowers grow up around it and in the middle of the summer it disappears in the flowers.
Day 180 is October 5th. I am sorry but I keep coming back to the Calla Lilies. Their blossoms are so milky white with delicate texturing and an orange center. So wonderful!
Day 181. Susan has five swans on the wall beside the house that she plants every year with begonias. Here they are before they have been planted. It is spring and the tulips are in full blossom.