The Shift
Scorching heat and wildfires gave way to a sudden snowstorm this month. The nights slowly grew cooler as the sun appeared slightly later each morning and sunk behind the mountains earlier each evening.
September 1st
This morning I pulled out the Cape Gooseberry plants. I decided it was just too much this year to harvest, prepare, and cook gooseberry jam. I had mislabeled a plant that then grew and impinged on the hydrangea in the back bed. When I yanked the plant in the container, there were three other healthy plants there as well.
I collected more zinnia seeds. One of the hanging baskets has dried up and died and the Bells of Ireland are looking a bit ragged. I hope to collect their seeds soon.
September 6th
In anticipation of a snowstorm on Tuesday (after weeks of 90+ degree heat), I spent some time in the smoky air yesterday collecting Cosmos, Black Eyed Susan, SnapDragon, and Calendula seeds. I pulled about a third of the plants and plan to do the same today. The air is a strange orange hue and the moon last night was bright orange.
September 8th
Yesterday I pulled the remaining Cosmos, and harvested the tomatillos, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, and gourds. I pulled out all but two of the zucchini and dismantled the trellises in the backyard. It is sad to see everything being winterized so soon, and strange, especially as the blackberries begin to ripen.
Frost blankets adorn the backyard like a family of ghosts on a haunting. Although snow is falling, the intense heat from the prior months is keeping everything wet and very green for now.
I pulled up some densely growing sand mat in the front yard yesterday morning, my fingers covered in soot from the Colorado and California fires still burning strongly throughout both states.
The dahlias and other sensitive plants have been relocated to the sun room.
September 14, 2020
The snow came and went within a couple of days. We only received an inch and a half. Nothing appears to have perished from the cold.
Today, after returning home from a road trip, I supported the two Hollyhock plants with bamboo stakes. One is beginning to bloom double pink flowers.
I harvested four more zucchini and a white patty pan. I cleaned up the raised beds, trimming boughs of tomatoes which crept outside the raised beds. I also removed a bough from the Love Lies Bleeding.
September 27th
The blue Love-in-a-Mist is in bloom. Fall weather descended without much warning this morning. The pink and yellow hollyhock are in bloom.