August is always a hot one, but this one … days upon days of “feels like” 100 degrees. A walk through the grass is like stepping on cornflakes; the blades of grass are drawn up slim as needles.
It’s a rare sighting to see deer in August but not this summer. There’s one young one we call “Spot.” We’ve not seen a twin or a doe with Spot. We’ve seen a single doe here or there. Once, we witnessed a fawn nursing. It’s an odd August for critter sightings.
A month ago it looked like a good year for pears. The tree was so heavy the limbs were breaking. Sam said, “The squirrels and the deer are going to eat every pear we’ve got.”
I thought it impossible, but last week I walked to the pear tree and there wasn’t a pear left, except one half-eaten pear balancing precariously on a limb. Sam was right. Besides being sweet, the pears provided some moisture for the critters.
The cosmos are stunted. Usually by August they are prolific and maybe 5 feet tall, but this year what we have left is just short of a foot. And the deer have nipped those. Deer have never eaten the cosmos. The top of the hydrangea is gone, a bite one night and the rest the next.
The mostly dependable Prairie petunias refuse to bloom. A smattering of dead leaves and broken tree limbs dot the yard and fields downed by the occasional dry gust of wind.
Felder Rushing’s “Gardening Southern Style” featuring “Felder’s Magnolia Almanac,” is a month-by-month account of what you should, or should not, or should have done to keep your yard and plants going.
For August, Felder advises not to prune shrubs just now for fear of causing winter damage later. Don’t pinch or prune mums because frost will catch the buds before they bloom. Azaleas form their flower buds for next spring in August and September, so don’t prune. Roses have stopped blooming but will pick up again when the temperatures moderate. You can cut back your bedding plants, if they are not already dead. I’ve been plucking mine out of the flower boxes and baskets and flinging them in the yard where the grass is dying.
If you have a shady area, it could be at its best if you can water and fertilize lightly. A little color can spark a shade garden with impatiens, coleus, caladiums and ferns; also hosta, aspidistra, fatsia, aucuba and mahonia. My hosta comes back year after year though some Augusts it looks “iffy.” I don’t know those last four plants, but it’s fun to try to pronounce them.
I love plant names and think if I ever get another kitten I would name it a plant name, something like loropetalum or abelia.
And that being said, I must confess that Jack, my beloved cat of 17 years, died peacefully in my arms last week. My heart is completely broken.
In memory of Jack Henry Bardwell, 1998-2015.
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