Having two large gardens is a trial run to see if my body can handle it. So far, I haven’t missed a deadline. I adapt the techniques and tools to what my body can handle, but the most important lessons were on patience, pacing, and perfectionism.
I usually try to tell a cohesive story. Not this time. The GoPro didn’t record, so most of the footage is missing. I still wanted to share, so expect some chaos in this one.
Weather extremes have been the default this year. From wet, chilly conditions with little sunshine to heat waves and drought… extremes have become the new normal. And yet, humanity is not getting their collective act together because individuals benefit from the social and climate crises. So, while I prune the tomatoes, let me talk about weather extremes in the garden and normalizing political extremes everywhere. After a modern-day hippie rant about politics and climate change, I show you how much I’ve gotten done.
With summer slowly fading away, it was time to start thinking about winter–no matter how much I don’t want to. At least, it meant more planting. It was time to turn the potato beds into brassica beds with kale, broccoli, and cauliflower for winter and through the hunger gap in spring.
August meant most task were maintenance tasks, as spring planting was over, and fall not quite here. So, I cleaned up the greenhouse and dealt with water storage.
Planting potatoes in August is very late where we live. Our daylight will fade quickly over the next months. I’m pretty sure we have enough potatoes in the beds I planted in spring. But I still decided to grow more as an experiment, well, two as it would turn out.
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?