Dear neglectful gardener: a photo essay

As a companion piece to last year's post Confessions of  Lazy Gardener, I have allowed my garden to be our guest blogger today.  Bottom line, the garden is not happy with me.  And with that, here's the letter:

*****

Dear neglectful gardener,

You have disappointed us sorely this year.  You always come in all enthusiastic in May and June with your seeds and your plants and your fertilizer.  You visit us every day and give us all the water we need.  Sure, you usually get a bit less enthusiastic and maybe a little lazy in July and August.  But this year, it has gone beyond lazy.  This year, you have downright neglected us!  These past few weeks have been particuarly hard.  Where's the water?  You cannot just stop watering us because school started again and you are busy. We are thirsty.  

We need water.

Please don't leave us lying around like this.  It's undignified

And can we talk about weeding?  You have left us to fend for ourselves among the invasive enemies.

Poor kale is fighting for its life.

The daylilies are completely overcome by enemy forces.

We're not sure what's doing on with the tomatoes.  Some water and pruning could have helped, though.

Poor Roma has been hit by disease and drought.

Cherry seems to be holding on for the most part.

 And then you just let some of us get completely out of control!

Zinnias and cosmos gone wild.

The lettuce has, inevitably, gone to seed.

We know you like to keep things a little wild, but it's really gotten ridiculous this year.  We're fine with the milkweed taking over the strawberry patch every summer.  We know...you want to save the butterflies  But letting the wild morning glory vine completely cover the poor lilac bush...how could you???

lots of milkweed, as usual

Poor dear lilac is under there somewhere.

From a purely cosmetic standpoint, you could stand to do a bit more dead-heading.  We could give you a lot more blooms if you would.

 

We know you had a busy summer, but we really hope you'll step things up next summer.  Despite your neglect, we always give you a lot - flowers, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, herbs, etc.

pretty!

yummy!

Please, dear neglectful gardener, think things over.  Remember all we have given you, and come spend some time with us.

Signed,

Your always loyal garden