After more than three months of growing and blooming, my garden has finally succumbed to the heat. Flowers have bloomed and started to wither, vegetable seedlings have sprouted and produced an amazing crop. A few stragglers continue to hang on, but the process of letting go must start now. Such is the cycle of life, green must eventually turn brown and return to the earth.
A page in Wreck This Journal has given me a place to memorialize my garden, while also giving me an excuse to play in the dirt. As per instructions, I grabbed a clod of dirt and rubbed it into the center of the page. This is the same dirt where my zucchini took root! I added some sketches of little leaves and flowers that remain in my yard, despite a steady stream of 100+ degree weather.
Playing in the dirt is still fun!
I may be a grown woman, but I will never grow tired of digging around the dirt. A little dirt under my fingernails reminds me of being a little girl in the woods!
In the couple of weeks, we plan on pulling all the summer plants out (which will be super crispy very soon) and begin tilling the ground for a fall garden. We’ve got a compost pile started and a menu of seeds sorted. Pumpkins, melons, onions, and perhaps another batch of sunflowers will hopefully brighten our back yard.
– – –
c.b.w. 2012
C.B. Wentworth 
I, too, love digging in the dirt. I cleaned out a dirt bed the other day and was ecstatic to find big, giant, healthy earthworms wiggling about. They are great for soil. I wish I’d taken a picture of them. Good luck with your fall garden. I might grow something, too, like a pumpkin. I’ve never grown a pumpkin.
LikeLike
I’ve never grown pumpkins, either, but I’m going to give it a shot! 🙂 If either one of us has any luck, we’ll have to post the pics.
We don’t have any worms, but the presence of geckos tells me we have a good thing going!
LikeLike
Cool way to memorialize your garden. A good thing about AZ is two long growing seasons.
LikeLike
I can’t wait for fall. We haven’t had a fall/winter garden since we moved into the house. 🙂
LikeLike
I’m the same way. I love to fix my yard up in the spring. Besides watering it all in, standing there and admiring it, the shower afterwards and getting clean again is the best part. 🙂
LikeLike
Absolutely! Because I don’t work during the summer, I took the morning watering shift. It’s usually 100 degrees before 8 a.m. so needless to say, I can’t wait for that shower!
LikeLike
I remember when you planted the garden and how much enjoyment you found in eating all the goodies that you grew! All good things must end so they can start again!
LikeLike
We’ve still got a few cucumbers out there to pick. They’ll probably be the last harvest and I plan on enjoying them in a big salad. 🙂
LikeLike
I love digging around in the soil too, getting it under my fingernails! I love to feel it’s texture between my fingers and it’s earthy smell – down to earth nature at it’s best! The earth gives us so much if we care for it – beautiful flowers, tasty, healthy vegetables, trees and shrubs. It’s satisfying to look at a well cared for garden – knowing you have had a hand in making it look that way.
Good luck with your fall plantings!
LikeLike
It may sound weird, but I love the smell of dirt, too. That earthy aroma reminds me of where life begins and ends. It’s beautiful. 🙂
LikeLike
there’s something wonderful about gardening with bare hands, feeling the soil between your fingers, putting those tiny seeds into the ground. Sometimes I feel the vibration of the earth beneath my feet and I know I am blessed by Mother Nature to take part in creation.
LikeLike
I’m still in awe of what came to life in my garden. To know the Earth and I came together to make that happen is an amazing feeling. 🙂
LikeLike
How wonderful to have a second growing season! My garden has gone belly-up in the heat as well. And the 3+ inches of rain in an hour last Friday made a mess of the paths. With luck I will get a kale and collard crop planted for the winter. After all, I don’t want the bunnies to go hungry. 😊
LikeLike
Lol! 🙂 I see my bunny is spreading his mischief.
This summer was a rough one for garden everywhere. Next year, we start again with a new wave of optimism.
Mmmmm, kale sounds good!
LikeLike
I’m not sure, having no kids, but gardening must be similar to childbirth…….by next spring we will have forgotten all the pain of the heat, the bugs, the rabbit-munched okra, the deer-flattened tomatoes, the cucumbers that melted away in the 105 degree heat, and we will do it all again, filled with our insane gardener hope and optimism.
LikeLike
That sounds about right! 😀
LikeLike
Dirt never looked better!
LikeLike
🙂
LikeLike
I used to garden, with little success. I did not inherit the green thumb of Mom & my grandmothers. However, I went to the farm once in my early teens with a close friend. She asked, “have you ever wiggled your toes in the mud?” I admit, I never had, so she soaked a patch of the garden with a hose and we mucked about in it with our bare feet. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I actually enjoyed the gooey pleasure of soggy mud oozing between my toes. Have you ever done this?
LikeLike
I do like that you used dirt on your page and added the greenery around the edges. Very nice! 🙂
LikeLike
Many times! As a kid, my sister and I had a sand pile and my favorite time to play in it was right after it rained. I have a picture of us standing in it barefoot – its my favorite picture of my sister and I. 🙂
LikeLike
Playing in the dirt is the one and only thing I miss now that I live on my Pirate ship. I love the earth, and enjoy slipping my hands under its covers.
LikeLike