When I start tiring of watering the garden each morning (and praying for rain twice a week), I know I am at the end of August.

I have a kitchen island filled with peaches, tomatoes, oregano and zucchini. I just filled the freezer with bags of raspberries, strawberries, apricots, peaches and rhubarb.

The garden is streaming in, but I’m thinking about next year’s garden plans!

1. I want to find another bed for the trailing strawberries. And grow more calendula.
2. I have raspberries falling over the edge of the walkway…and they were only planted last year. I need to find another location for more too.
3. I have to figure out what these long spirey flowers are…onions? (classic overzealous gardener, I don’t know what I planted last fall).
4. I need to buy tomato cages already! I don’t like the look of wire cages or paying for overpriced wire hangers. But I also have a lot of tomatoes growing on the ground because twine and bamboo poles aren’t strong enough.
5. Toddler dogs are very very sweet. And very very much work. (Yes, I did know that before I signed up). Anthropomorphizing my pet led to chicken homicide and learning to axe a chicken’s neck (also human PTSD and overconsumption of gin). More on that next homestead blog. “Say whaaa? You talking about lil ole me?”
6. Nasturtiums underplanting squash and green beans are beautiful! I’ll do that again.
7. I love the Van Gogh Sunflowers. I’ll more heavily plant those in front of the garden (add shade to the lettuce garden, and I just like them).
8. I don’t ever need to plant borage again.
9. I’d like to find sorrel, so I can add it to my grandma’s recipe for summa borscht.
10. I don’t think my cucumbers grew as robustly alongside the strawberry patch. Next year, they grow alone.
11. I need to add more soil to my greens patch. There just wasn’t enough soil. (I blasted rock to get my house foundation, my driveway and my garden.)
12. I will grow broccoli and more Brussel sprouts, but no one actually likes cabbage in this house (except me), so I should not grow anymore. Why grow what no one will eat?
13. Beans grew robustly from only 2 and a half poles, though I planted and replanted 8 tripods. I have no idea why.

I love love love gardening. And I don’t want the season to end.