Today is September 1st. How is that possible? I can’t believe this summer has flown by so quickly! My kids start school on Wednesday so we’re very busy running around, buying the last minute supplies and shoes. We’re going kind of light on the clothing shopping this year but everyone needs a few new things. I am about to head out to the mall with my teenage girls so I may be recalling that last statement in a few hours! 🙂 It’s fun to get ready and anticipate new teachers, new friends and the return to predictable routine. In our case the routine will be intense this fall with soccer, dance and golf, something for each of my kids, along with church, scouts and lots of other community commitments.
Since I just posted an update a week or so ago things have not changed too too much out in the garden. Here are a few quick photos from the past few days:
The cabbage looks beautiful! I’m excited about this because usually I’m at war with the slugs. Maybe we won the battle last year and the victory is still fresh.
The carrots are also coming along beautifully! This type of carrot (scarlet nantes) does well without being thinned too much so I did it a few times early on and then let them go. There’s also a few rows of a rainbow blend variety. Their white, yellow, red and purple. I’ll post a few photos of them soon. 
The pumpkins are turning color.. 
Here’s a sad and rather stressful part of our week. We had to cover every herb and vegetable because the Mosquito Control people sprayed throughout our part of the city. I put us on the “no spray” list but, really, we live in a dense neighborhood and I know that that was an exercise in futility. I still had to make my point and feel that we were doing our best to keep the pesticide away as much as we could. If I decide to venture into more opinionated, political topics I’ll be writing more about this. I would like to focus on the benefits of organic gardening sometime soon. It’s hard to write those types of focused posts during school vacation with my kids bouncing around.
And finally, a step out of the garden to a pretty shot of the moon over the harbor. Michael took this last night with his new little camera. It seems to take great photos and he’s having lots of fun playing with it. I’d share what model of camera it is but he went out and took it with him. He really likes it! That makes me happy!
so, Happy September and Happy Labor Day weekend! Hope you all enjoy these last few days of summer and find some time to get outside. It’s a gorgeous New England day here…as soon as I can get those girls out of the mall, I’ll be in the garden!
Love to you all,
Michele
The Salem Garden 
I was thinking of your chickens during the spraying. Are they ok?? I hope so! It was very very poorly planned.
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they were okay Karen, thanks for asking! They go into the chicken house as soon as it gets dark so we were able to close them in there.
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I can’t believe its September either! I was interested to read about the mosquito spraying… i wouldn’t be happy with all those chemicals wafting about killing all the beneficial bugs too and covering food! You did well to cover the crops if they were in the area x
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we tried our best PJ! I think we covered well.. and I realize that this is just a shot in the dark.. there’s plenty of chemicals hitting everything every day, whether we know it or not 😦
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Sorry to hear about them spraying! YUCK. Aren’t they worried about all the additional insects they will kill?
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HI Amy! No, their worried about West Nile Virus. That’s a very long and difficult debate 😦 A mosquito with the virus was found in the next city over. I don’t think spraying neighborhoods is going to come close to addressing that problem. The true breeding grounds)miles of woods are right behind our property.
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