Putter Time

July 16th, 2024

   It might be hot and dry, but we’re now nestled in that easy-going time frame of the gardening year that I like to call “putter time.”

   It’s a period of relative calm wedged between the two seasons of soil-jockey fury – spring (when it seems like everything needs to be done all at once), and fall (when picking up after this season and setting the stage for next join forces).

   I like putter time because there’s no pressure to work through a lengthy to-do list before bad weather hits, ideal timing runs out, or the whole thing threatens to cross the line from “busy” to “overwhelming.”

   Summer is a time when the pace is more meander than sprint and when there’s leeway to stop, sniff, ponder, enjoy the blooms, and basically put off until tomorrow any noticed jobs… if you feel like it.

   Summer’s jobs are a lot lighter than spring or fall, too.

   Especially in May, the work includes heavy-duty mulching, exhaustive trimming and pruning of bushes and hedges, and the back-bending jobs of cutting spring-bulb foliage followed by planting and transplanting annuals, perennials, and shrubs.

   Come fall, it’s time to yank and haul the season’s spent plants, move those falling leaves where they’re piling up, and whip the lawn back into shape (which one year for me meant replacing the whole drought-killed front yard).

   But in summer, the jobs are mostly lighter, easier things like watering, snipping a few wayward branches here and there, yelling at the deer and rabbits, and cutting the grass (or not, when it’s so dry that the grass is turning brown).

   My summertime putter days largely consist of patrolling the yard with a five-gallon bucket in hand, ready to pluck out any weeds just getting started. I look at it as “harvesting compost.”

   With this kind of regular, slow-paced policing, I have virtually no weed trouble. Colonies never have a chance to develop, and I deny all weeds the chance to flower, set seed, and create tomorrow’s outbreaks.

   My weeding “tools” are mainly my index finger and thumb rather than hoes or a tank sprayer of Roundup.

   It’s only when ground is left bare and ignored that weeds have a chance to turn into the botanical monsters that they can be. I’ve had to tackle that, too (after inheriting others’ yards), and I can tell you that leisurely but regular putter patrols are a whole lot better way to go.

   My summer putter days also sometimes involve a little fertilizing of the veggies and potted flowers, some dead-heading and neatening of flowers, and occasionally some action to head off a particularly damaging scenario involving bugs or disease.

   But the thing I like most about summer putter days is that they give me an excuse to get out there and really enjoy the gardens up close and personal. They give the illusion that I’m out there “working” when I’m really just soaking up the setting.

   One of the joys of gardening is the constantly unfolding beauty, color, and fragrance – and in the case of the vegetable garden, tasty meals.

   This changes day by day in summer. You never know what little gift nature has waiting for you.

   One day it might be the buds starting to open on that new super-showy panicle hydrangea. Another day it’s finding that last year’s ageratums have self-seeded, giving free new annuals to fill in for the petunias that the rabbit ate. Another day the season’s first ‘Big Beef’ tomatoes are ripe and ready to eat.

   Putter sessions are a way of ensuring you don’t miss any of the fun. After all, this is the time to cash in on all of the work you put in earlier.

   Yeah, it can be hot out there. But early morning and later in the evening are usually tolerable on all but our hottest July and August days.

   I’ll take that tradeoff. Better to putter in July’s heat than cultivate a hernia in May’s mulch pile, I figure.