Hello gardeners!

This summer, I took real time off — to travel, to rest, and to simply be in the garden. After a tough year, it felt like such a gift to slow down and savour each day, especially with our adult children home for long visits. There’s something special about sharing the garden with them now that they’re grown and enjoying the birds and flowers as we visit. Once again I was reminded the garden is not just a project to complete; it’s a living part of our family home.

And yet, I’ll admit the old-school gardener in me still had her moments. Despite my best intentions to stay present, thoughts about what wasn’t “done” crept in like invasive morning glory (bindweed for my Eastern readers). I had days where it was difficult to just rest instead of thinking about all the work needing to be done to get the garden “in shape”.

But for everything I thought the garden lacked, it made up for in birdsong. It was a record year for goldfinches. We all enjoyed the bright flashes of yellow darting through the shrubs across the back garden. I’m convinced our small water fountain makes all the difference. It serves as both a gentle soundtrack and a gathering place, turning the space into a miniature sanctuary for our feathered friends. It’s a reminder that even small gestures — a bit of water, a patch of shelter — ripple out into the larger web of life.

Lessons learned

This summer also revealed a few lessons beneath the surface. I had assumed, after years of mulching, that my soil was in excellent shape. But the long, dry spells of summer depicted another story, highlighting areas too wet and others too dry. I’ll need to add more organic matter come spring, when it will actually stay in place and not wash away with the heavy winter rains. Improving soil health is never a finished task, just a relationship we keep tending.

expanding the tree canopy

I’ve also started adding more trees and shrubs to the front garden. If there’s space, why not use it to build more canopy and resilience? I even rescued a lovely Japanese snowbell from the UBC Botanical Garden nursery and plan to grow it in a container for a few years. My first foray into growing trees in containers. Meanwhile, the front lawn — twenty years old now — is showing its age, with tree roots surfacing through the thinning grass. Even though I am enlarging beds and reducing lawn area, the soil in the lawn needs help. I suspect the increasingly heavy rains of recent winters have compacted and eroded the surface more than I realized. Yes, I was mulching garden beds but I had ignored the lawn.

As I ease into fall, I’m holding gratitude for an imperfect but deeply nourishing summer — full of family, finches, and the honest lessons of a living landscape.

What about you? What changes did you notice in your garden this summer? Do you think any were connected to extreme weather or shifting climate patterns?

I’d love to hear your reflections.