This time of year, I'm drooping. Just like my hydrangea when it gets that short blast of sun in the late afternoon. Just like that dang million bells (Calibrachoa) hanging on the fence that can never seem to get enough water (me: “What is wrong with you?! I thought you liked to dry out between waterings!”) I'm drooping and I'm irritable and I can't believe I was ever even remotely interested in gardening. I'm beaten down by the heat, the pests, the watering schedule, the non-blooming rose bushes, the guilt over not fertilizing the non-blooming rose bushes because I don't have the energy to find a magnifying glass in order to read the microscopic instructions on the fertilizer box. I am the Cranky Gardener. No, scratch that. I'm not even a gardener at this point in the summer; I'm just cranky.

It is tempting to think that I am the only one who feels this way. Even reading this very blog, it can seem like everyone else is fabulously engaged in their gardens or completely passionate about some very cool project they are participating in, and that they never lose one iota of interest in gardening. I'm sure those people exist, but a quick Google search reveals that gardening burnout is real, and that even the most passionate gardener can get ground down in the dog days of summer.

While pondering this, as well as the fact that I needed to produce a gardening blog post regardless of my feelings, I went into my garden to see if there was anything worthwhile to take a picture of. As I went from one plant to the next, thinking, “This coneflower is doing pretty well,” and “Oh! That new sage is blooming, I didn't realize,” and “These vincas are so perky,” my perspective changed. I realized I had been focusing only on the negative—what was being eaten, what wasn't thriving, what had died. The freshness of spring is a hard act to follow, but mid-summer is not without its beauty, and once I went looking for it, I realized I had beauty in abundance.

Coneflower (Echinacea). photos by Joy Humphrey

Sage (Salvia x jamensis 'Ignition Purple')

The perky vincas.

So, to all you Cranky Gardeners out there, I encourage you to consciously look for something beautiful in your garden and focus on it. Failing that, pour yourself a cold drink, put your feet up, and know that feelings change, just like the seasons.

And just to keep it real…