Doldrums

Comforting rituals, reliable markers of the wheel of the year, define a gardener’s month to month journey. The miracle of a seed, the first tender lettuce, the bounty of summer crops; all are a pleasure to experience anew as the months pass.

The late summer garden doldrums, while not particularly enjoyable, are as much a part of my gardening year and as reliable. My garden in the doldrums is getting blowsy, overrun with weeds and generally down at the heel. It is harder to continue weeding when all the signs of cooler, rainier weather and coming winter are there to read. The light is changing. Not only does the sun rise later and set earlier, but that almost imperceptible lengthening of shadows, which will give rise to that most glorious light of autumn, is beginning.

Humans are not immune to circadian rhythms. We have light receptors and respond physiologically to subtle changes in light. If we are wired to recognize changes of light in a 24-hour cycle why not in larger cycles? Is it surprising that we begin to slow our garden activities though the daytime temperatures tell us it is still summer? No more surprising than the late winter surge of energy and the compulsion to start seeds regardless of the inhospitable conditions outside the window.

Still, the listlessness that marks my summer garden doldrums is always a bit unnerving. I suppose that when I am able to accept this as part of that wonderful ebb and flow that draws gardeners to cultivate and nurture then I will have learned yet another of the many lessons that gardening has to teach.