Well, Fall is definitely in the air now after almost a week of cool, damp days that were SO needed after our summer drought.

I am always heartened to see how Mother Nature will tell certain plants to start shutting down in a drought, after a flood, and when a season changes.  These next few weeks will be a bit of all these weather conditions combined.

The drought we had this past summer is a stark reminder of how we, as gardeners, need to fill in where Nature sometimes leaves off.  After another wet May, plants were in hyper growth mode in June and early July. Then, as one could see if they were watching, there was a real halt in green growth and a real boom in fruit and flowering.  I have heard more than once that nature knows when to reproduce when the going gets tough.  Wonderful crops of tomatoes and dahlias were revealed this year in comparison to last summer when both crops were almost pathetic.  I guess it helps that this year I planted 19 tomato plants for Paul since “we’ve always never had enough of August tomatoes”. And this year… no complaints!  I slimmed down the selection of dahlias in our garden this year to include only the past performers:  ‘Thomas Edison’, ‘Bishop of Landaff’ and ‘Japanese Bishop’.  All have been spectacular and have supplied many flower arrangements for the house and for lots of worthy friends.