And now it's September...

When I first started blogging I thought I would post everyday, after awhile I realized that was being over ambitious.  Then I figured a few times a week would work.  Slowly but surely it's gotten longer and longer between posts.  Now I've realized it's been around 2 months since I last posted. I was going to try to post sometime in August, but to say August ended up busy is an understatement.  Between soccer and art camp, soccer practices starting up, our dog having to get her last 4 teeth pulled, working on a house project, redoing our oldest daughter's bedroom, a ruptured disc in my neck, a visit from my in-laws, getting ready for school and taking soccer coaching clinics it seems that gardening and blogging have been almost non existent.
The Littlest Gardener started kindergarten and turned 6!  Sweet Pea is in 9th grade and is taking a very early class (French) up at the high school (9th grade is junior high here).  Our day is starting much earlier and ending late by the time sports and homework are done.  Looking forward to getting out in the garden more often soon though!
August was very dry and warm, and while I'm not complaining at all, it took a lot of watering to keep the garden going.  And as always happens about this time of year I'm tired of dragging the hoses around and have a pretty withered looking yard, especially the back.

Early August

Butterfly garden early August.

Since I've last posted some of our chickens have started laying eggs.  It has been so much fun going out and finding the eggs.  We've been using them and they sure are better than the store bought kind.

We've had a really good crop of figs and pears this year.  Lots of figs are in the freezer waiting until we can make fig jam and can it.  There weren't as many blueberries or apples as last year, but enough blueberries at least to have some in the freezer for some fresh muffins or pie over the winter.  Sweet Pea and I have been blanching and freezing lots of spinach, and there's lots more growing that we need to pick still.  When my in-laws were here my father in law made spanakopita with our spinach.  It was even better than it usually is.

This is the front porch that we redid right before I hurt my neck.  I'm not blaming it on this job since it was my idea ☺, not to mention that my husband did 99% of the work.  The builder of this house, back in the 60's only finished one side of the porch.  This side was just pea gravel and was difficult to use.  It was always very dusty and impossible to clean.  We my husband measured and figured out the pattern of the pavers.  I love how it turned out and that we can really use it now.

 Now that I'm able to do a little bit more I decided I would redo some pots on our back deck to freshen things up.  There's so much I want to do, but it's going to have to wait another month or so.  Last thing I want to do is re injure my neck. 

 I try to let the chickens out everyday, depending on the day they are out from an hour to most of the day.  Our dog has been really good with them.  The white chicken (in the upper part of the picture) chases poor Gracie around.  That chicken is always trying to figure out how to work her way up the pecking order, unfortunately Gracie isn't going to be able to help her with that.

 I think there have been more waterlilies blooming than ever this summer.  The raccoons were here in late July and really tore it apart.  I plants ripped to shreds and dumped all over, although I'd rather they do that than bother the chickens.

 The shed garden is doing pretty well still.  This part of the yard is very hot and hard to keep watered well.

Plants in this back corner behind the pond have really started to fill in.  I was generous with the compost this past spring and it definitely paid off.  I'm not sure if you can see how tall the Bugbane has gotten in this picture.  It's got to be close to 8 feet tall!!  The bees love it.

September has been absolutely gorgeous here.  I wish our schools would use July, August and September for summer vacation since those seem to be our nicest months

I hope that now I will be able to start visiting everyone's blogs again.  I really miss seeing what is going on in your gardens. 

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.