We stood on the deck and looked out over the rambling tomatoes refusing to be contained by metal cages, the drying butternut squash vines with squash hanging like ornaments from the fence, the corn no longer green, but golden, and green beans pulling the experimental string trellis towards the ground.
We know it’s time to harvest what we have left and start the clean up of the garden. It’s time to pull out dead and dying plants, piling them into the green waste. It’s time to uproot green, non-producing plants and feed them to the chickens. It’s time to pick green tomatoes and pickle them. It’s time admit defeat and realize we didn’t have a successful cucumber crop. It’s time to empty the garden beds and release the chickens to dig and scratch and feast on bugs.
Except, the sun that set an hour earlier than it did last month was still hot on our heads and the inflatable pool was still beckoning, the beach balls bobbing on sun sparkled water. And the neighbors were BBQ-ing tritip which made us think we should throw burgers on our own grill.
I shifted and looked at the kids in their garden gloves and holding their kneeling pads.
“Let’s put on our swimsuits.”
They grinned at me and raced into the house. It may be the Harvest Moon, but we’re holding on to summer just a little longer.
Are you ready for autumn?
