My solution this time of year? Invite my Mom to visit!

As a gardening professional, I’m finding less and less time to get my own gardening done during the “high season”, which would be summer — now! I’m so busy helping others with their gardens that I rarely have time to get out and work in my own. Yes, I do get out to do watering. But deadheading? Catching stray weeds poking their seedy little heads (or big heads) above my otherwise filled beds? There just isn’t enough time in the day it seems right now.

 So, enter Mom. She’s my first garden coach. She taught me much of what I know about gardening. She taught me things that have been priceless in developing my own garden style, and she taught me things that I’ve since learned aren’t actually good gardening practices. (And, she listens when I offer her new options & adjustments to her older practices.)

 Mom now lives on the East Coast (to my West Coast location). August is a great time to leave her area to escape the weather and enjoy Seattle. When she comes, I try to make as much time as possible available to her, but sometimes I have to work. When I’m working, she dives into my garden with zeal. She pulls weeds, deadheads, strips old leaves off late bloomers and works them into the soil. She harvests fruits & vegies. She sweeps my patio. Its wonderful! I wish I could hire her to work in my garden full time.

Mom has left from her visit, but I’m reminded of her visit when I sit on the patio after work and notice no weeds in the garden (or let’s be honest, very few), when I can see my carex because she cut back a straggly euphorbia, when I admire my re-blooming phlox that she deadheaded, when I lay down for some yoga poses on my somewhat clean patio. I can’t thank her enough.

Okay, so you don’t have a mom of your own to put to work in the garden? Well, take heart! Fall clean up is just around the corner. What I love about Fall clean up is the fury with which I can clean. There’s no deadheading (or very little); its time to cut back, mulch and get ready for winter! And, if you don’t get it all done in the fall, winter helps knock top growth back so its even easier to clean up in the Spring!