Garden 'Before'

I have been dying to get out into my garden and clean it up so I can plant my fall-time stuff... but life is soooo getting in the way right now! I started on Monday and worked until it was almost too late to get cleaned up to go pick the kids up from school, and even after working right down to the wire I still just plain didn't get enough done. I haven't been able to get back out there since, and it's driving me nuts!

I did plant two heads of elephant garlic, though, so assuming my soil troubles aren't as bad as they were this spring, at least there's that.

I had no idea so many weeds had taken advantage of my August neglect! And oh, how my zinnias were overgrown! But I did manage to harvest several gigantic zucchini, a handful of green beans, and a watermelon while I was at it... and seven tomato hornworms... and lots of grasshoppers...

I still have a huge laundry list of outstanding garden chores (including pulling down all the dead cucumber vines, planting some more flowers for a fall bloom, pruning my reviving tomato plants, staking my monster eggplants, and getting all my fall seeds into the ground, among other things), and when I'm standing at the gate to the garden letting All That Is Undone sink in, man is it easy to feel overwhelmed by it all! But then a giant swallowtail or a real monarch flutters by, I spot a couple fist-sized beets I had no idea made it through the summer, and I realize I have a new round of baby tomatoes on my scraggly over-summered vines, and I take heart- this space is worth working for! I'll get back every bit of my labor and then some in a harvest I sometimes feel undeserving of, and I'll always be mindful and thankful for it.

Gratitude is quite a motivator, y'all... and so as I remember all that this space has given me so far, I'll recharge, pause in this space to share a few pictures of my garden's wild and overgrown splendor, rearrange my day tomorrow to open up a few hours, and get back on out there!

Garden 'after' pics to share, coming soon!