Another happy Saturday to all! A big thanks to Natalie of Natalie the Explorer for hosting WeekendCoffeeShare each weekend.

As the days continue to get shorter and shorter, I am reminded that it’s time to clean up the garden and get ready for winter. I have been gradually taking off the shade clothes that’s been protecting the plants from the sun. The ones over the tomatoes came off first. I took it down the first day of September, then I swapped out the large 16-by-16 feet shade cloth in the front garden for one of the shade clothes that covered the tomatoes so the fall vegetables can get more sun. Even though the percentage of the shade clothes are all the same, somehow, they are not equal.

The disadvantage of buying from Amazon, I guess. You never know what you’ll get in terms of quality.

With less time to work in the garden each day, I am constantly being reminded to not dawdle and that there are tasks to get done. For example, compost. I found out my second batch of compost was done near the end of August. I have been telling myself I must push it through the sieve and put it in a bin or something.

Guess what?

This week, I discover I had another bin of compost also ready to be sieve.

I tried to combine the compost into a 20-gallon bin but had to dump some into the blue 7-gallon bucket. After 3 years, this is first time I’ve ever succeeded in making compost. I started composting at the end of 2022. Composting turned out to be one of those things that you just have to do it to find out as most of the YouTube tutorials are pretty vague.

Here’s how I compost: I originally started composting in a 20-gallon garbage bin. I later added another one before later getting two tumblers. After a year, I found out the compost stunk, meaning it turned anaerobic. It turned out I was supposed to drill holes. I drilled lots of holes but it still stunk.

Last year, I invested in a $60 compost aerator. It’s a tool that looks like a giant cork screw that allows you to drill to the bottom of the bin to pull the bottom compost to the top. Best $60 I’ve ever spent because this year, so far, I have 3 bins of compost. I’ve already sifted and used up my first batch of compost in my fall vegetables seed-starting. It’s an amazing product and all I do is aerate the compost every few weeks.

The chunky bits will just be put back to another bin to continue composting.

A few days ago, a picture I took from a year ago caught my eyes. It was a picture of the purple aster in my garden. It suddenly dawned on me that it’s aster season in the garden and I haven’t gone to check on the perennial aster, which is now hidden behind the hyssop. I don’t know what I was thinking planting back-to-back purple flowers. I must really be crazy for the color purple.

Meanwhile, this year’s front garden has been dominated by pink, which happens to be one of my least favorite colors.

Anyway, I finally went out to the back garden on Friday and lo and behold, the aster is blooming with its radiant purple and yellow center. I’m glad I didn’t miss this because the aster only blooms for about 2 weeks per year.

The other flower is a mystery to me. It’s also a perennial I planted in 2021. I can’t recall the name though. It’s been suffering from the heat this year but I was surprised to see it blooming. I think this is the second year that’s bloomed after last year. There’s a large salvia bush next to it, so it’s probably feeling the competition.

Anyway, I appreciate you stopping by. I hope you will have a wonderful week ahead.