Good morning, gardeners, and welcome to the Saturday Morning Garden Blog!
For a variety of reasons, Summer, the little scamp, was a particularly difficult house guest this year. With one foot out the door, she spun on her heels, looked us straight in the eye, and tossed us a parting gift of back-to-back heat waves, followed by a series of wildfires that shook the Pacific Northwest to its core. For nearly two weeks, the smoke-filled air transformed the entire landscape into something resembling a storyboard for dystopian cinema. And we were among the lucky ones! At this point (knock wood), the worst of it is behind us. Air quality is out of the danger zone, temperatures have cooled, and we're finally getting a mixture of sunshine and rain, occasionally on the very same day.
Although the main garden areas on our property are fussy and demanding, the backyard trails have proven to be remarkably self-sustaining and resilient. With no rain at all during the summer drought, the back woods remained green and growing. Now, beneath the shaded canopy, ferns abound in seemingly pre-historic proportions, blackberry vines are still offering the last of their sun-ripened fruit, and the deciduous foliage is gradually transitioning to an autumn color pallet. Without further ado, let's grab a water bottle, slip into our comfiest Crocks, and take a little stroll along the backyard trails ...
