Spare time and how to fill it

I guess we have all talked enough about the cold and rainy summer. I mention it only as a foundation on which to build.

Normally, August would be filled with the harvest. However, except for a few early specimens, the berries have not ripened and the vegetables are producing only enough for an occasional meal. Many of we gardeners are faced with an unusual situation: spare time.

This is a wonderful chance to sit on our garden benches and enjoy our surroundings, the respite in inclement weather and the lack of mosquitoes. Notice here, a bit of leisure time is not the only unusual product of this strange season. The mosquitoes, even on my unusually mosquito-infested premises, are, for the moment, as scarce as the workload. But getting back to the benches, although we are likely to bask in our first hour of rest, most of us will soon require something more productive to occupy our time.

The building of a garden structure is one project that might be undertaken. A plant support such as a trellis or teepee can be made with virtually no monetary outlay and no carpentry skills.

Willow, alder and cottonwood succors are readily available, and the structure can be tied together with twine or even long supple grass stems.

A low wattle fence can be woven with the same materials. The use of lumber and/or screws or nails would produce a more sophisticated support or a sturdy moose barrier. Other garden structures could be as simple as a bird bath, birdhouse or bat house. A mid-sized project might be a garden arch or bench. Or one can undertake a more ambitious project, such as an arbor, a foot bridge, a pergola or a greenhouse.

Another pleasant way to pass the time is to visit the Alaska State Fair as the entire fairgrounds is imbued with a garden-esque atmosphere.

Besides partaking of the fair’s gardens one can enter exhibits. Competition is going to be slight if one is lucky enough to possess an actually zucchini fruit, instead of only a runty plant, so prizes might be easily won. In the floral department, a lot can be done, as this summer provides the chance to enter perennial blossoms that would ordinarily have been spent weeks ago. Or, harking back 30 years, when the fair commenced nearly two weeks later and hard frost came at the end of August, blossoms that would have been lost to the freezes. Leafy herbs, also, are prime for exhibiting, as they will not earn demerits for being in bloom, since they are not.

So much for idle time. Perhaps, after all, it is a luxury that is more attractive to savor in dreams than in reality.

Have fun filling it.

Hally Truelove is a Master Gardener and Plants Woman who lives and gardens in Wasilla with her two daughters, a handful of cats, a bunch of bunnies, some guinea pigs, a dog and a frog. Contact her at 376-0909.