*culture is not optional

Gardening lessons

Part 8 of 10

by Carol Vande Kraats

September

Summer is ending and the gardens are starting to look tired; probably even more so because it was such a dry season.  With all the hours I spent watering, I really got to know my plants. The dahlias never bloomed which annoyed me, but the mum surprised me by blooming all summer.  The lilies at the end of the fence were an amazing red and the astilbe I planted several years ago finally bloomed in its new bed. But the overall, the lush look I imagined never came to be.  The ferns turned brown, the peonies had bugs and the yard just always seemed thirsty.  Sometimes that is how it is.

There was a hidden blessing in the garden this summer, though.  Usually the flowers and plants keep your attention but already in July they faded into the background and let a new show develop.

Butterflies fluttered through out the blossoms and the trees all summer and even though there seemed to be very few mosquitoes. The dragonflies and damselflies flitted through, too.  New and amazing spider webs appeared almost every morning. One covered an entire clump of ground cover while the wolf spider hid in the shade at the end.  Another was a funnel from the opening of an empty birdhouse to a nearby bush.  Our neighbor found a huge spider among what she thought was bird droppings. It’s called a bulbous spider and that is exactly how they attract and catch their prey—by pretending to be bird poop! 

The bird feeder, the Virginia creeper growing on the fence and our elm tree were full of birds each day until the neighbor's cat made its regular patrol.  A nuthatch yipped and scurried up and down the bark of the tree and took the time to show a young bird some of the tricks.  But it wasn't happy when the downy woodpecker appeared at the suet feeder.  It was even more upset when the larger hairy woodpecker started coming too. It went crazy the day a visiting black and white warbler joined it in looking for bugs in the bark.  And Hank and I laughed out loud at an ovenbird that tried to fly up from the ground and pull berries off of the creeper. It couldn't flap its wings fast enough and would tumble down again. And one night during our dinner, a little yellow throated warbler tried to fly through the window, caught its claws in screen and peered at us for a few seconds.  It was as surprised as we were.

And of course the squirrels always put on a show.  All summer the little chattering reds keep chasing away the slower and less appealing grays. The neighbors’ dogs kept them busy, and vocal as well. And as the acorns matured we watched the wires and poles in the lane become highways for them as they stashed the acorns away for the winter.

Next:  February