fading summer

It looks like summer is winding down. The seed heads are drying on my zinnias. Summer crops are fading. Even though the fall crops are perking up, the garden has a different feel to it now. Its time to gather the harvest and save seeds for next year.

"summer's lease hath all too short a date" Shakespeare

I haven't been doing much in the garden this week. I picked lots of tomatoes, cucumbers and chile peppers of course. And this weekend I planted some radish seeds in the sunniest spot in my garden - an heirloom variety called Black Round Spanish. I'm hoping I can get the roots to grow properly this time, even though my last two plantings failed. I'm carefully tending four varieties of lettuce seedlings that I planted indoors two weeks ago. Once it cools down, I'll transplant them into the garden. My fall pinto beans and peas are growing well without my help. But I've been spraying my pumpkin and squash leaves for powdery mildew with a Safers sulphate spray. The squashes continue to produce fruit, but the leaves are heavily mildewed. I've read that mildew is because of too much shade, a constant challenge in my yard. I also continue to water the garden, all the while checking the skies for signs of rain clouds. We are having very dry weather in the Boston area that is close to being a serious drought.