. . . you stay indoors, glued to your computer, busy writing a book and ignoring your garden? Well. Disaster, if you love a beautiful garden as much as I do. Oh, my! Beggar’s ticks as high as my head, roses with only 6 leaves left on the plant, coleus that look like they’ve been crawling across the burning sands of the Sahara for weeks. Just a hot mess, in general. My poor, poor back yard!
The good news is, it was too hot to work outside anyway, so staying inside and working on my book was probably a smarter choice. (And by the way, for those who enjoy romantic suspense, Wake-Robin Ridge will be available to download FREE all day tomorrow, 9/6, thanks to Kindle Select!) The bad news is, I’m going to have to spend weeks weeding, cutting back, digging up, tossing out, and starting over. With the wicked, wicked heat we’ve had this summer, scenes like this are a thing of the past.
But have no fear. Even though it is still in the mid-to-high 90’s every day around here, the evenings are cooling down, finally, and that means temps overall will start becoming more bearable. Which, in turn, means I can start working outside, at least in the mornings, and get things cleaned up a good bit.
Afternoons will be spent marketing my new book and working on my book of poetry, Summer Magic. But I can do a LOT in the morning, if I get going early enough. If I prune and feed, the roses will spring back to life again, and moving the coleus into the shade and watering more regularly will probably have them looking good soon, as well.
One interesting tidbit. Like most Florida yards, we have a plethora of lizards in ours. Tons of the invasive Cuban brown anole, and a few determined green Carolina anoles are racing around everywhere. But this week, I spotted an Indo-Pacific gecko on my back porch. He’s very sweet looking, with smoother skin than the regular lizards and huge, googly night-vision eyes. I’ll try to get a picture of him to post here. Of course, geckos are not native to Florida, but as far as I know, they are not that common, especially in central Florida. Unlike the hideously invasive Cuban tree frogs, I’ve only ever seen one or two anywhere in the area. (This doesn’t mean that they will never become a problem, of course, but I don’t think they are right now. And so far, I like mine.)
I’m really looking forward to getting some work done outside this weekend, and to getting caught up again on all of my blogs. Writing a book is fantastic, but it is an enormous time-suck that pretty much swallows everything else in your life in one huge gulp. I’m going to plan my hours better when I start my next one! 😀
So tell me, what’s blooming in your garden this late in the year?
Who's Your Granny? 
Your garden is so beautiful! I just have pots on my patio. At the moment ….. mums. What a cool morning we have today! It is delightful and reminds me that Fall is almost here and I LOVE the Fall. My favorite season, by far. Colorful mums, colorful leaves, and crisp cool mornings. Next year I’d like to try to plant some roses. I wonder who I can turn to for advice…. hmmmmmm?
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Oh, if only my garden still looked like that, SC! I’m truly horrified when I see all the dead and dying and overgrown stuff out there. And the weeds! Oh, the horror!!! Ditto on the fall! Best time of year of all, up where you actually have one. As I say, we are still in the mid-90’s here. 😦 But I can feel the intensity of the heat backing off a wee little bit. I know some relief is coming, and I’ll be able to work out there all winter (when I’m not writing, of course.) Mums are great! Fall leaves, even better!!! Good to see you here today. And I’ll be ready with that rose info when you are!
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Four o’ clock white yellow and fuchsia. Rudbeckia several kind. I’ve been fighting the weeds also. Having to run in the cool house or the cool pool or sometimes just the cool hose does the trick. That picture is gorgeous my friend. I love fall also, so I’m waiting for more of the fall plants to flower.
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Hi, Felix. Funny, I have fuchsia and yellow four o’clocks still blooming, too. I wonder who gave me those seeds? 🙂 Mine got over 4 feet tall this year, and the fragrance at night is overwhelming. Funny, I never see any butterflies or bees on them. Do you? Most everything else in the yard is choked out.
Oh, and I cool off with the hose, too, but in this weather, it’s not enough I worked outside last weekend for 15 minutes and came in clammy, nauseous, and shaking. No more for me until it drops another 5 degrees or so.
Roll on, fall!!! Can’t wait for some COOLNESS . . . and I mean that in every sense of the word! 🙂
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