Fall's Second Wind

It is amazing how the heat of summer seems to take the steam out of one's desire to garden. Now that fall has sent cooler nights, lower humidity and a decrease in daylight, the sudden urge to work in the garden has stirred the gardening bug in me. Perhaps it is knowing that it will soon be time to put the garden to bed or the fact that I will be shut in during those cold days ahead and wishing I could be outside. Either way, I feel like I have been given a second wind to garden.

Now is the time to plant all those items that have been sitting in pots patiently waiting for a new place in the garden. This past spring, I promised myself that I was not going to impulse buy and then rush to get them planted before frost. I did not impulse buy, but I am rushing to get things planted.

I am also trying to get those fall tasks done. I put down the milky spores and limed the lawn. Now I am trying to get a layer of compost on my sad looking lawn. The lawn is the one part of gardening that does not appeal to me and I am trying to make what lawn I have, resemble something vaguely similar to those of my neighbors. I have always tried to practice a more organic approach to gardening. If my plants did not survive, then they had no business in my garden. And if my lawn looked bad, it was because I did not want to dump harmful chemicals on it just to make it look green and weed free. Besides, grass is just a ground cover.....right? But now I live in a new neighborhood and lawns are a coveted commodity. One neighbor cuts the lawn as soon as it grows a quarter of an inch. That could mean three cuttings a week. Another removes every leaf or twig that lands in the grass. And here I am with dandelions, violas and ground ivy. I can only hope that all my efforts will show an improved lawn come spring. I can hope, but I am not going to hold my breath.