It has finally stopped raining here in North-East Germany, and the garden is loving the much-needed reprieve. There are no fewer tasks in the garden, though, and with the good weather, I get to take care of them.

Summer has finally reached North-East Germany. The neighbors have shifted from complaining about rain to complaining about heat. With the summer garden looking great, I turned my attention to winter greens–while trying not to think about winter. I also dug up some potatoes and mulched some more.

I promised your garden tour, so I guess let’s do an August garden tour. Today is August 5th and it’s looking really nice out today, so let’s do a garden tour in nice weather.

When all my garden neighbors lost their tomatoes to blight, I began to worry. I trimmed the tomatoes for better air flow but it was not enough. I did what I could to help the plants. It has been a wet year, wetter than even I feared. Let’s try and save my tomatoes, shall we?

Weeds are nature’s way of repairing the soil. So, why did I spend dozens of hours messing with the balance? Much of my time in the garden is spent weeding: weeding before making beds, weeding beds, weeding paths… I was starting to doubt this was the way to go.

Hiding from the rain outside, I turned our first berry harvest, mint and lavender we grew, and edible flower blossoms from the garden into syrups (or non-alcoholic cordial if you prefer). I don’t want to buy juice anymore and needed an alternative to elderflower syrup, as those are out of season.

Two days after I’d abandoned the mushroom beds in a bad mood, my husband joined me in the garden to help. He flew the drone while I did some weeding, and then we got to work. Three mushroom beds, more ripe white currants, and a potato harvest were waiting.

Mulch is a lazy gardeners best friend. I might not be lazy, but I sure like efficiency. Now that my friend and I had weeded the tomatoes, it was time to mulch them. I am a huge proponent of heavy mulching, so today we’ll talk about mulch. A lot.

A scorching hot break between heavy rain storms gave me a chance to finish the carrot bed. A friend came to visit for a few day. Her visit was jinxed with bad weather and my period being particularly painful. Nonetheless, we harvested and processed cherries, dug for potatoes, and weeded the tomato bed.

I’d promised my dog some carrots. It was time to finally follow through. I could have planted these a lot earlier. But they are even now going into an unfinished bed.