Summers like these have to end sometime. May I present our forecast for the next five days: Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 99° F | 74° F 37° C | 23° C 99° F | 76° F 37° C | 24° C 97° F | 74° F 36° C | 23° C 95° F | 76° F 35° C | 24° C 99° F | 76° F 37° C | 24° C Clear Clear Clear Clear Clear Friends to the south, like Zanthan Gardens and My Corner Of Katy in Texas, have been battling bad temps for two months.  We now get to join them. People aren't the only ones feeling the heat. The Phlox paniculata on the left is one stressed out plant. (Please click on the photos to see them in a larger format.) See how the leaves are drooping? They are supposed to stand straight out like...

The comment on my sidebar about writing in the garden is true. I don't take my laptop outside, but while I'm working, cutting back, deadheading, and weeding, I think. It's a writer's truth that when we do the most mundane jobs like those in the Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and "Women's Work", our minds are free to ponder. Our main computer is in the kitchen; all the better to keep tabs on the kids. When I can't grab hold of a word, or a turn of phrase, I open the door to the broom closet next to my desk. Broom in hand, I sweep the floor, and usually, my dilemma solves itself. As I worked my way through the garden, trying to embrace the weeds, it being Sunday, my thoughts traveled to the bible and how many of the stories and parables were told with farmers, vinyard workers and gardeners...

In continuance of my pledge to keep it real, and influenced by Margaret at A Way to Garden and Kathy at Cold Climate Gardening, I'm showing you my garden's soft underbelly. It isn't all blooms and ripe tomatoes here. There's also compost, leaf mold and other rotting stuff. Not pretty, but essential. Sure, you can grow veggies and flowers without improving your soil. I recently watched a NewsOK.tv story about a woman who does. She grows her veggies in what looks like straight Oklahoma red sand, and if you listen closely, you'll hear the words "Miracle Gro." Now, I'm not going to fault her for using the blue crystals. It's just not my way.   Above is my compost area. I have three compost bins and a leaf pile. The leaf pile was once three piles, but I've used most of the leaves, and over the winter and summer, they've...

The pedigree of honey does not concern the bee, a clover, anytime, to him, is aristocracy. - Emily Dickinson All gardens are full of insects and other wildlife. Most of them go about their business with little thought to humans. Butterflies roam from flower to flower, and caterpillars feast upon host plants, like parsley, dill or tropical milkweed. In the middle of summer, depending on the time of day, I may see bumblebees, paper wasps, honeybees, carpenter bees, hornets and flower flies feasting upon nectar while spreading pollen on every flower they touch. At night, moths come out to play. Inevitably, when a bumblebee gets too close, visiting friends ask with an involuntary shiver, "What do you do about the bugs?" I give them a knowing smile and say, "Not much." I try to garden as organically as possible, and so a lot of wildlife other than insects also exists...