2026 Garden report for August

It's been a funny sort of garden year. Very wet and quite chilly to start, and now it's finally warming up. Thinking I'd be home for most of the summer, I had dreams of staying on top of weeding, but the rain and mosquitoes nixed that. Still, we've put away enough beans till next summer, the carrots are outdoing themselves (as long as the mice/voles don't eat them all top down) and Lee has been a huge help with keeping the weeds to a dull roar, mostly. Turns out there are five pumpkins in the pumpkin patch (thankfully all fairly small) and though I won't have enough tomatoes to put away much sauce this year, we're enjoying them on our sandwiches and I should have some to take to my homeless folks.

The front yard is a jungle, like always, and it's been an incredible year for roses. Other than that, it was nice to not have to water every other day, and I'm grateful to Creator for what produce there is. The video below gives you an idea of what things are like. Email subscribers can click here.

Hope you've enjoyed your summer and the things that grow where you are!

The pampered weed

When I started my herbs in the greenhouse earlier this spring, one of my little cilantro pots didn't grow cilantro. It grew something else that looked a lot like the Sweet William I planted last year. So I let it grow, watered it faithfully,  spoke words of encouragement to it, and waited to see what it might be.

Just before I planted my annuals two weeks ago, it sent up a shoot that suggested that it might be thinking about flowering. So when I put out my lavatera, marigolds, snapdragons and pansies, I found a special spot for my little anonymous plant and carefully planted and watered it, too.

Today, it bloomed, and I realized that it's not a Sweet William. It's something I've always considered to be a weed, but I finally looked it up and found out it is called willow-herb, which is related to fireweed. It spreads itself freely and loves the loose soil in gardens. Used medicinally, it's supposed to be helpful with acne treatment. Who knew?

The little pink flowers are so tiny that it's hard to get a clear picture of them, and I can't imagine what kind of insect might pollinate them. Having spent so much time looking after my weedy little friend, I'm rather loathe to pull it up. But I've let other pretty weeds go because I thought they were attractive, and they've taken over! I'm still working on ridding my yard of vetch, creeping charlie, and yellow wood sorrel. So do I really want to have to work on willow-herb eradication too?

Maybe I will pick the stalk after it's flowered a little more, put it in a vase, and set it on my desk. After all, my little weed and I go back a long way.