Canadian Cottage Garden on 3 September 2025

Fall is not far away, the days are shorter, the sunshine is not as hot, the nights are cooler, there is the smell of fall in the air, birds are flying south, bears prepare to hibernate, and the garden is closing down. While flowers are dying back we know that they will return in eight months, that’s eight long cold months. Cruel months. Monochromatic months of sense deprivation. No wonder we celebrate summer, tolerate winter, see winter as something to survive and put behind us, and in November we already count the months to spring.

The garden on 3 September 2025

A Canadian cottage garden in August

 A Canadian cottage garden; photographs taken on 22 August 2023.

You can feel August in the air, it's cooler, the days are shorter, the sun is not as intense as it was in July.

A garden is like an extra room in your house, but it's outside. With enough plants, flowers, a bird bath, a bench to sit on, it is comfortable and inviting. Sit down over here, have a cup of tea, behind you a sparrow just visited the bird bath, all is well in the world.