The August Garden

The zone 9 August garden is sparse but that doesn’t mean nothing is happening. We’ve been preparing the beds for the fall garden, harvesting a few things and mostly just enjoying the relaxed pace. 

Our citrus trees are doing great! We have lemons on both trees and our mature tree is covered. We’ll have enough lemons to preserve for the year, share and even do a little bartering. 

This is a pear tree, and yes, it is blooming in August! It dropped all it’s fruit and leaves in June after we had all that rain from a tropical storm. In fact, most of our fruit trees dropped their leaves and fruit. I’m happy it’s bouncing back. Fruit trees are a long term investment and so patience is required. 

One of our peach trees is bouncing back too, albeit much slower than the pear tree. It looks like we just lost three peach and one plum tree this wet, wet year. We’re working on a plan to build up the soil in the orchard area so it won’t do this in the future. 

Our okra plants look good but….

The fire ants are STILL bothering them. I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve tried coffee grounds, peppermint oil and orange oil. These ants must have super powers! 

We have peppers and basil in several of the beds we’ve cleaned out. You can never have too many peppers or basil in the garden. 

See, I do occasionally mow the garden, at least part of it. The back portion is now thigh high and one of our boys will probably need to mow it for me. Those are morning glories on the trellis in the back. Every year I try to pull them before they go to see….obviously, that never happens ;-). It looks better and feels less over whelming than it did last month. 

Our strawberry beds are looking pretty good! 

Look at all that pesto! I mean, basil. I think we’ll be able to freeze enough pesto to last a year (about 40 half pints) and enough to share with some relatives who love our pest. I just let the basil go to seed when we’re nearing the end of it’s growing season. The bees love it and I collect the seeds for next year. I also let some of them just self see the next year too. 

The asparagus bed looks like unruly but I guess that’s how it’s supposed to be. Everyone just tells me to leave it alone.

The moringa trees are doing great and have loved the heat. I’ve cut them down to the shed height several times and they just keep growing. We use the leaves in rice or alfredo or really anywhere I might use cooked spinach.

One of our pecan trees is producing this year and it has quite a few pecans on it. The outer part will all turn black, dry out and open up and then the pecans will fall out. 

So, that’s what is going on with our garden right now. We’ll be cleaning out more beds and getting them ready for planting the fall garden in a few weeks. 

What’s going on in your garden? Please share in the comments. 

Thanks for sharing with your friends!