August in the garden

Today, Tuesday, I got up early.

I decided to take care of some of the boring garden tasks.

I needed to trim this overgrown shrub.

I was able to get part of it from the ground, so it had a Mohawk.

I needed a ladder to get the rest.

Over the weekend I replenished these flowers in this flower box:

It was nearly dark when I did it, so it was a nice surprise to see it in the daylight.

Another boring task I did was thinning out the pond plants.

It took only 2 weeks for it to become overgrown.

Here is an after picture:

Still not great, the reward is being able to see the flowers.

Some water lilies today:

I observed a Japanese beetle taking a nap in the water lettce.

These beetles love grapes, so I have to put a bag around them.

There have been fewer beetles this summer. Maybe because it has been so mild.

I picked these grapes a few days ago.

Red seedless, just like from the store.

There haven't been too many grapes this year, only just enough for me to eat.

This week, it occurred to me that my grape vine can be used to make wreaths.

Usually in the fall, the whole vine must be trimmed back.

It's too early for that, because it's still making little grapes.

I used some stray vines to start making a wreath.

I didn't follow any tutorials, just stuck it together with bag twist-ties.

The garden is also making more tomatoes than I can eat. As usual.

These are just from today. 

Only one Roma tomato.

These two squash plants were the only other thing to make it, out of my lockdown seedlings.

It looks like I will also have squash for at least another month.

I'm not a cook, but one thing I like to make is a Mexican recipe called Calabasitas.

It combines squash, corn, tomatoes, and hot peppers, and then you can top it with cheese.

That reminds me, it's almost lunch time! 

And hopefully time for a nap before going back to the office.