Since I started this blog to keep track of my garden, I’m going to write occasional posts about what I’ve actually done in the garden (what a concept!). I’m sure this is of interest only to me, but I hope that it will help me to plan and keep up with garden tasks, which was one of the original points of the exercise.
It’s early August, so it has been mostly hot and humid, though recent rain and a few lower-humidity days earlier in the week encouraged me to get out and look around.
- weeded around the sunny border, getting rid of about half the witch grass that infests that bed, especially in and around the yucca
- weeded the edge of that border along the driveway side, doing my best to cut back the verbena and butterfly bush that wave tendrils around to the annoyance (I’m sure) of my meticulous neighbors
- speaking of which, the neighbors are parking one of their cars several feet away from the end of their driveway and are draping the hood with a sheet. Could the crepe myrtle blossoms possibly be the reason??
- decided that next week I’ll cut down the beans and cucumber. The beans were Anellino Verde from Seeds from Italy, a source recommended by Barbara Damrosch. Well, the vines have overtopped my new bean solution. Here it is in the early days,
and here it is now, 
leaning dangerously and not tall enough for the vines. Worse, despite a few blossoms, I’ve harvested only one – yes 1! – bean so far. Off with its head. The cucumbers are bitter even when tiny and worse when they get as big as this. 
I can’t remember the variety but it was a six-pack I picked up at Earl’s. Yuck. Can’t wait to pull these out and start sowing some fall crops. At least the basil and parsley are thriving. - hosta trimming time is here, so I methodically went through all of them under the oak tree and decapitated the seedheads. Here are the before and after.
- planning to plant fall crops next week (second week in August), including these newly purchased from Renee’s Seeds
I must be more fond of radishes than I realized…
Caroline's Garden and Travel Record 