Blackberry moon garden

“I celebrate myself, and what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.”

—Walt Whitman

The strong sunlight of summer blesses the garden with vigor. It is exuberant with floral color and tasty crops. Native juicy blackberries are ripening, replacing bumper crops of blueberries. August is a month to take care of grooming and weeding. With the warmer weather and increased watering, weeds will germinate and grow faster, and mature to the point of producing more seeds.

Deadheading annuals enhances a garden’s appearance, and they are likely to flower longer into the season. Weeds have an edge in coping with weather variability. Strangely, their adaptability to change makes them our likely allies for discovering viable food crops in the face of rapid climate shift. They may help feed a growing humanity, as the planet adjusts to increasing stress. When I’m nibbling at tangy tips of purslane, I imagine their giant cousins growing in mid-century rows of greens.

In order to relieve water demands in some areas, I’ve planted Artemesias, Dusty Millers, Rose and White Campions and Lamb’s Ears. Any hairy-leaved or gray foliage plants tend to require less watering. I planted a wonderful silver-white Centaurea cineraria “Colchester White” that I found at a green fair in Connecticut. Newer cultivars of Rudbeckia and Echinacea are brightening colors of the dry landscapes of August. Less maintenance is ideal, and it can get easier each year, mostly with compost improving the soil’s ability to hold moisture.

Many drought-hardy plants act as host plants to feed our beautiful butterfly friends. “Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne). Asters and butterfly weeds are visited regularly. Petunias, joe-pye-weed, marigolds and goldenrod all appeal to swallowtails. Common milkweed provides food and habitat for monarchs. “The caterpillar does all the work but the butterfly gets all the publicity.“ (Attributed to George Carlin).

It is heartening that a low-tech solution to the bee colony collapse is finally here. In India, researchers have been spraying the eggs with cow urine, which not only manages microbial disease during the rearing processes but also makes the colony work more efficiently by removing the unhealthy larva.

Bees are responsible for about 30 percent of the food supply in the U.S. They do the real work of bringing fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds forth by pollinating flowers. I have been concerned for a number of years, watching the precipitous decline of these essential gardening partners. Bees bring us a late crop of watermelon, containing an ingredient called citrulline. This substance can trigger minor production of a compound which helps relax the body’s blood vessels, similar to what happens when a man takes Viagra.

If Nature were to whisper in your ear, what would she say? Her usual silence speaks to any gardener, yet for most, it is her quietude that attracts attention. Pervasively silent, Nature offers us enlightenment, as we align ourselves at her feet, and listen to her oracle. By observing her with patience we may learn what she is trying to tell us.

“In summer, the song sings itself.” (William Carlos Williams).