Mostly Summer Now

It is mostly Summer now. I say “mostly” because we have more warm days than not, but most mornings and some days and nights are cool enough that I still wear a jacket. Actually, Summer seems to stay firmly fixed in place around the Summer Solstice. In other words, about the time it consistently feels like summer, the days are already beginning to shorten.

The cool mornings remind me of summer vacations my family took when I was a child. Sometimes we traveled out-of-state but I think that most of the time we went “Up North” in beautiful Michigan. Going “Up North” is like Heaven to Michiganders. When I was very young we stayed at campgrounds in tents; later we camped in a pickup camper. I remember waking up to my Mom fixing breakfast. Coffee, especially, always had a special aroma when camping that it didn’t have at other times. We were always reluctant to leave our warm sleeping bags in the cool mornings and we shivered as we quickly dressed in jeans, sweatshirts and jackets, changing into t-shirts and shorts a few hours later when it grew hot.

That is probably why, even as an adult, I’ve always packed two or three times the number of clothes I needed for a week’s trip: I’ve packed clothes for every possible type of weather, which sometimes occurred over the course of a single day. Even now I tend to dress in layers, shedding sweatshirts and jackets as the sun warms the day, and putting them back on in the evening when the coolness returns. Sometimes it is difficult to know what to wear because it’s hot in the sunlight but chilly in the shade. I always have a sweatshirt or jacket within reach so I can take it on or off as needed. Years ago, EJ, his friend, and I parked our car and walked a few blocks to attend an event in Lansing. It was a sweltering day with temperatures in the 90s when we left the car. Within 15 minutes the temperature had plunged into the 30s and it began to rain–a cold drizzly rain that chilled the bones. We turned back. EJ and his friend shivered but I was warm because I could put on the jacket I had left in the car. It pays to be prepared.

I actually prefer cooler days to hot, sweltering ones. I cannot comprehend how people can exist in the South in the summer. Years ago, we attended EJ’s nephew’s wedding in Kentucky (or was it Tennessee?). It was fine in the air-conditioned hotel but taking a step outside felt as if we had hit a wall of hellish heat. It sucked my breath away and drained my energy. I’ve asked Southerners “How do you survive the heat?” They tell me they have air-conditioned houses and cars. But what if they want to be outside? Are they prisoners of the heat in the summer, forced to remain in their air-conditioning to survive? I ponder it in puzzlement. In the North there is a quote: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only inadequate clothing.” If it gets cold in the North, we can always put on another layer of clothing and be comfortable, but there’s only so much a person can take off in sweltering heat–and even shedding layers doesn’t help.

I suppose people adapt to where they live. Some people have stamina and love for heat and others for cold. Me? I prefer the North, but I envy the South for its long growing seasons. I joke about the South (as they do about the North), but it’s meant to be light-hearted. I actually can appreciate the beauty of their states without wanting to live there. Fact is, some northerners complain about cold winters and flee to the South every year. Just not me.

There is a meme that describes the 12 seasons of Michigan:

Winter
Fool’s Spring
Second Winter
Spring of Deception
The Pollening
Actual Spring
Summer
Hell’s Front Porch
False Fall
Second Summer
Actual Fall

I would add “False Summer” and “Mostly Summer” to the list, positioning them between “Actual Spring” and “Summer.” But overall I think the list accurately describes the seasons in Northern states.

My herb garden is growing so-so. We are still trying to figure out how to garden here in the north where our soil is sand. We’d like to buy a whole dump-truck load of topsoil to spread in the garden but so far it hasn’t been in the budget. I grow my herbs in garden boxes filled with bags of store-bought dirt. EJ plants some of his veggies in boxes and some in the ground. This year I tried starting seeds in the house for the first time. (EJ has done it for several years.) I carefully labeled the name of the seeds on plastic silverware or thin strips of wood which I stuck in each container. When it grew warmer, I set my–and EJ’s–containers out on the patio table on the deck. When it grew warmer, I also direct sowed some seeds in the garden boxes, as a backup. Then we had a few frosts/freezes with temps in the low 30s. I carefully covered the garden boxes and brought some of the containers back into the house. Others I put on our little garden cart and wheeled into the garage. All the back-and-forth movement resulted in some of the labels falling out of the containers so I now am not sure what is planted in some of them. Some of my plants have done well, but some haven’t. The weather has been very dry so I have to water the containers every day. If I don’t keep the containers watered the baby plants dry up and die, but I have to be careful not to water it so much that they drown. Also, too-cold nights haven’t helped. With our short growing season, if I start the seeds too late–after all danger of frost/freezes– then they don’t mature until fall when it’s getting cooler. I actually do better when I can buy plants from the nursery but since 2020 we are trying to be, need to be, frugal.

Gardening in the North is challenging with our short growing season and sandy soil. But we aren’t giving up. Each year, we tweak and experiment, we learn what works and what doesn’t. Next year I will label my containers better. I will try to figure out how to get the right watering balance. Or maybe I will just direct sow in my garden boxes in mid-May and hope something grows. Gardening is, after all, an act of faith.