A Slow Summer Week
July 20, 2026 - July 26, 2026
Weekly journal of a Midwest gardener, which includes watering, reading, killing some weeds, and a little bit of harvesting.
Monday, July 20, 2026
I watered the Vegetable Garden Cathedral1 and the front lawn and all the containers early in the morning.2 Online, I saw photos people took of the sunrise, which had a reddish hue due to the smoky haze from the Canadian wildfires. Yes, that smoke finally reached central Indiana. This was definitely not a day to spend in the garden, but I had matters to attend to outside of the garden, so if there was going to be a hazy day with warnings not to be outside too much, this was, for me, a great day for that.3
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
The predicted morning thunderstorms were a no show, so I watered all the containers. I was going to have to water the containers on the porch anyway. Looking at the lawn, and all the rest of the garden, I realized it was suddenly quite dry.4 If only some of those storms from rain-soaked areas of southern Indiana and Kentucky would come up this way, that would be nice. In other news, last night, GardenComm announced the Silver Laurel Media Award winners for 2026 and I won four.5 Chuffed, as the Brits say. Chuffed.
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
I went out early in the morning—about 7:30 which is the same time I usually go out—and was delighted with how pleasantly cool it was. Humidity? What’s that? Accompanied by a cool breeze, I watered everything in containers, plucked a few weeds, deadheaded a few flowers and then headed out to the Vegetable Garden Cathedral. I expected to find some squash to pick, but was disappointed to not find a single one. However, the tomatoes made up for those slacker squash plants.6 Time for a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich for lunch!
Thursday, July 23, 2026
Where did that cool breeze come from? When I went out to water containers, it was a mere 55ºF. Lovely! The lawn in front was all wet and dewy, too, since I had set the irrigation system to come on in the wee hours of the morning. After watering, I mixed up some of the organic weed killer I bought a few weeks ago and sprayed some on a bunch of thistle coming up in a flower bed, then spot treated dandelions here and there in the lawn. I will report back on how effective it was!7 Out in the Vegetable Garden Cathedral, I picked a few more little tomatoes and then looked askance at those lazy squash and cucumber vines, which are still holding out on me.8
Friday, July 24, 2026
Repeat of the day before. Yawn. Watered, sprayed a few more weeds, then harvested a few tomatoes, peppers, and one little cucumber. I did notice that “they” have eaten bites out of a couple of tomatoes that are hanging pretty low to the ground. “They” might be squirrels, or “they” could be raccoons. But I’m not too worried about them. As the vines grow taller and the tomatoes form up higher on those vines, those tomatoes will be out of reach for them and I can again claim them all for myself! In other news-of-the-day, Dee and I recorded another podcast episode, and I went out for lunch and did a little book shopping/browsing.9
Saturday, July 25, 2026
When did it rain? While I was at the local greenhouse buying a bag of potting soil, of course.10 But that pathetic little rain shower didn’t even register on my rain gauge, so I’ll be recording it as a trace. Earlier before heading to the greenhouse, I watered containers and picked some tomatoes, a few small peppers, and a couple of cucumbers. I also did the basic inside cleaning I do most Saturdays.11 For most of the day, skies were overcast, but it didn’t rain again after that oh-so-brief-teasing of rain. Drats.
Sunday, July 26, 2026
I woke up to cloudy skies, a carryover from yesterday. Though it felt misty, it didn’t rain overnight and there was no rain anywhere close on the weather radar, so I watered containers and then got myself cleaned up to go to church. After church, while wandering around a bit in the back garden, I noticed the resurrection lilies (Lycoris squamigera) are starting to pop up, a sure sign that summer is waning. So soon!
That’s a Week!
Hello, and welcome to all the new subscribers and followers. Come in, mind your step, and close the garden gate behind you. While you look around, I’ll give you a brief introduction to me and my garden. I’m in the middle of the Midwest, in central Indiana, the Crossroads of America, Zone 6a. I’ve been gardening steadily since I was just a toddler and now I’m retired and in my 60s. I went to Purdue University in the late 70s/early 80s where I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Horticulture, but then I ended up working in healthcare IT before retiring early ten years ago. It’s a long story. Now I garden and write about it, but I’ve been online for over twenty years, starting as many of us did with a good ol’ fashioned garden blog. I still occasionally post on my blog, if you want to check it out. I’m also on Instagram, but am pretty boring over there, and I record a weekly award-winning podcast, The Gardenangelists, with Dee Nash. I’ve also written some books and have dabbled on YouTube. I hope you enjoy my garden and this diary during your brief stay each week when I post a new entry. If you have any questions, just holler, or if you prefer, politely email me or leave a comment. Have a great week!
Quotable
“Up at dawn, the dewy freshness of the hour, the morning rapture of the birds, the daily miracle of sunrise, set her heart in tune, and gave her nature’s most healing balm.” ~ Louisa May Alcott
Until next week,
With a shared love of gardening and reading,12
“Don’t give up. You never know what’s possible between a rock and a hard place.”
All my garden beds have names, including the vegetable garden, which I call the Vegetable Garden Cathedral. That’s because at one time it had a center aisle and then long rows coming off that aisle, like pews. It’s not configured like that today, but I still call it that.
While out and about in the garden this week, I listened to Muv: The Story of the Mitford Girls’ Mother by Rachel Tretheway (2026). I found out about the book from The Slightly Foxed Podcast, which always features interesting books.
The matter I attended to outside of the garden on Monday was to have a kidney stone removed. Will it slow me down for the rest of the week? Time will tell, but so far, yes. I am being forced to practice spinstercore gardening, for real.
Looking at the lawn also reminded me that there is a critter that is digging mostly in my neighbor’s lawn, but a little bit in mine. What’s he looking for? Grubs? We aren’t even sure what it is, but I have my suspicions. Of course my suspicions were wrong. It was a ground hog. I first guessed armadillo—don’t laugh, they have been spotted this far north—then skunk. But they got a picture of him. Ground hog!
My four GardenComm Silver Laurel Media Awards were for some posts on my blog, May Dreams Gardens, some posts on my other Substack, Lost Ladies of Garden Writing, a Live Presentation I recorded about the Lost Ladies of Garden Writing, which is on YouTube, and the podcast, The Gardenangelists, which I record each week with Dee Nash. Woot! Chuffed!
I could have probably done a bit more in the garden on Wednesday, cool as it was, but I decided not to push myself. Tomorrow…
The weed killer I’m trying is Bonide Captain Jack’s Deadweed Brew. After a few hours, the dandelions were definitely blackened and dead. Though it took a little longer, it appears the thistle was knocked down too. I could definitely see where I'd missed a thistle or two, so I sprayed those the following day, along with various dandelions in the lawn. The real test will be if the thistle comes back from the roots, though it is often recommended to dig out the dead tops to slow the roots down further. But one thing I don’t like about this particular weed killer is it is non-selective. Sure, it seems to have killed the dandelions, but it also killed the grass around each dandelion that I sprayed , leaving a little round brown spot in my lawn. I might only use this weed killer in places where there is no chance of over spraying anything else. I think it will be perfect for cracks in the sidewalk and driveway, which often end up with little weeds in them
Yes, we did play trivia on Thursday night. At the half we were in fourth place, and we finished in fourth place. But the questions we missed, we got wrong because we honestly had no idea of the answers. We’d much rather not know at all than second guess ourselves out of a correct answer, which we’ve done in the past. We did correctly answer some questions that seemed to stump other teams because I knew what a fascinator was and what musical instrument is associated with “pulling out all the stops.” Do you know?
I’ll admit when I shop in a bookshop for books, I usually look up fiction books to see if my library has them and then either check them out from the library or take a picture to remember them for later. But I tend to buy non-fiction books, and on Friday, I came home with four new non-fiction books, plus a blank journal that was marked down to $1. Who could resist for that price? It was a bit of a reward for myself because I did go over six months without buying any new blank journals or notebooks to add to the stacks of them I discovered I owned earlier this year while cleaning up around this place. The new one has an Agatha Christie mystery theme and did I mention it was only $1?
I went to the local greenhouse mainly because I was running low on potting soil. I always like to keep some potting soil on hand because you just never know when you might need to pot something up! I just might start cleaning up some of the houseplants next week, up-potting some of them and just refreshing the soil in some of them. Might. We’ll see.
While gardening and cleaning on Saturday, I finished listening to Muv: The Story of the Mitford Girls’ Mother by Rachel Tretheway (2026) and started reading/listening to If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura (2025). It’s one of the books I saw at the bookstore on Friday.
I’m just about finished reading Receipts from a Bookshop by Katie Clapham (2026), which I read mostly at night before going to sleep. On my Kindle, I finished reading Don’t Call It Art: 10 Ways to Create Like a Kid Again by Austin Kleon (2026) and went back to Miss Mole by E. H. Young (1930), but then I abandoned it, at least for now, and started reading Dear Hugo by Molly Claverling (1955). I do love an epistolary novel!
Sorry about the kidney stone.
Congratulations on your awards! Outstanding!!