It’s not my intention with this post to brag but we’ve still got a lot of color in the gardens. So many visitors seem surprised by that – and as shocked as if we were caught wearing white right about now. I’ve that heard the rules of fashion have changed and Gail and I are all for setting a new trend in post Labor Day garden fashion too. But as a home gardener on a budget tight on time and finances I know full well why my own garden looks sort of abandoned and pale right now. It’s hard, even for me, to justify spending real money on annuals and tender perennials even though I have daily proof here at work that they’re worth every shiny penny. The other difference for us in the Blithewold gardens, aside from having space to propagate a lot of the plants we want, is that the beat goes on – all year. This is what we do. At home, like so many other gardeners, I’m a little bit over it by now and taking a breather before fall clean-up.

Yesterday we got one of our favorite FAQs. Standing in the middle of the Display Garden in full bloom, a visitor asked, “When is the best time to see the gardens?”

Gail replied, “Every garden peaks at different times but — actually, right now!”  September is her favorite month in the gardens. I love it too because the colors are so intense, the angle of light is easier on the eyes, the pollinators are going nuts and the temperature is divine.

From the moment we start going through seed catalogs in January, we shoot to have color in the gardens into October. It all comes down to now and I don’t think the Display Garden has ever looked prettier than it does this minute. I know I say that every year – but it’s true! And again I don’t mean to brag – I’m just desperate for you to visit – Blithewold or your local public garden – and see for yourself what’s possible when a steady stream of energy is poured into this moment and beyond.

I hate to admit that I haven’t had time lately to virtually visit all of my favorite gardens on the interwebs but would love to know that we don’t have the only gardens in full bloom right now. Can any of you brag a little and pass along a link to your latest garden pics?

Some plants provide entertainment for the whole season and others just don’t and I sometimes have to try very hard to remember why we give clunkers space in the gardens. Campanula lactiflora or Milky bellflower is one of those plants – winner of the Most Likely to Leave the Party Early superlative. We have a sizable clump in a prominent spot right at the corner of the North Garden horseshoe and there’s no doubt that its reaching french-blue blooms get plenty of comments and compliments at the end of June and a little bit into July. But as soon as the flowers shrivel and turn brown from the top down, the foliage starts to go south too and that’s why I think it’s a clunker – and a party pooper.

Last week Gail and I shared our annual indecision over whether it’s better to leave the dried and skrunky sticks so at least it looks like there was a there there versus cutting it back, leaving a giant hole. We always opt to cut it back. What would you do? Right next to that clump, in party-on contrast, is another enormous clump of a plant that also only blooms for a nanosecond in June but hangs out in the garden telling jokes all season long. Is there anything better than Baptisia australis (False indigo) with its sturdy ever-blue foliage and dramatic black seed pods? Actually, I’m seriously asking because I would love to take out the campanula and replace it with something else that will stay to the end in bloom and out. What can you recommend that’s around 3-4′ tall with a blue or yellow flower that blooms in late June and has good looking foliage from May to at least October — besides amsonia?

I think there must be a place for the introverted campanula. I don’t want to rule it out entirely because the blooms are such a sublime color. But it’s the sort of plant that requires careful placement to ensure that it’s completely hidden by something else by the middle of July. (Unfortunately ours is not only not hidden but fronted by an equally disastrous and hole producing blighted peony…) But if there’s another plant in the world with extrovert virtues that include a long season of interest like baptisia (and amsonia), I’d trade the campanula (and the peony) for it in a nanosecond.

Who’s the life of the party in your garden? Do you have any poopers?

I have come to the realization – as I think I do every year – that there is nothing better in this world than feasting on the garden’s harvest. But I think the critters have it right – there are some things that taste infinitely better in the garden than out of it. I don’t love cherry tomatoes nearly as much if I take them home first and put them in a salad. Call me a wingnut but the closest I can get to enjoying them to the same degree as I do in the garden is if I eat them standing up at the kitchen counter. The same goes for the ground cherries (a sweet relative of the tomatillo) which I prefer to pick just as they’re about to drop to the ground and I have been known to take serious grazing breaks at our clump. Bring them inside for a sit-down break though and I tend to lose interest.

Maybe it’s like picking flowers to bring inside – some people love to do that while others really only enjoy their flowers in the garden. Granted, with veggies there are some things that are much better brought home – I might not be inclined to graze the beets, for instance, since I really prefer them roasted, chilled and slathered in homemade blue cheese dressing. And isn’t basil best drizzled in olive oil and draped over a slice of heirloom tomato?

It seems like it’s been a funny year for the vegetable garden – slow to start for us with all of that rain in June and July and it seems like everyone’s tomatoes took a bit of a blighted beating. We are enjoying a good onion and leek crop though; the lettuce went on for ages and the artichokes were awfully good (dipped in melted butter, of course). Plus we’ve had more than our share of thievery in the gardens this year. The deer dined on the pole beans, somebody is chewing on the sweet potato foliage and whoever wiped us out of nearly ripe and still green tomatoes this weekend, shame on you. (I think Gail and I had the right idea planting the agave with the cherry tomatoes – though even those people with permission to pick have scars now from grazing…)

Gail and Cathy and I have been wondering about all of the people who were inspired this year to start a vegetable garden – are they feeling discouraged? We all already know that every year brings some kind of strange extreme and because of that I think we veteran gardeners have a duty to try to pass along our garden-variety optimism to any newbies we meet so they’ll keep on keeping on too.

How is your harvest so far this year? Do prefer to eat it standing up in the garden too?