Labor Day is upon us but summer’s exit here in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State is running about two weeks behind schedule. Our unusually dry summer has kept me busy watering the garden and my flowers. The reward has been that the hanging basket of flowers that I bought on Mother’s Day and my vegetable garden have done exceedingly well over the summer.
Flowers play a huge role in the lives of country folks who live near Canandaigua and the surrounding Finger Lakes. And so last Saturday I took a little drive in the morning to try to record some of the displays that caught my eye during August. The first display is near Gorham just over the hill from where I live. It was a private home so I asked the gentlemen’s permission to come onto his property and take a couple of pictures. He agreed but quickly said that he wished that I had stopped by a few weeks earlier when his display was in better shape. So colorful, so many flowers.
The farm markets and some of the businesses here in the Finger Lakes also have displays of flowers for the owner’s pleasure or to advertise their businesses. The Farm Market located on Routes 5&20 just east of Canandaigua knows that any bed of flowers must start with a good amount of organic compost? But he has a unique way of demonstrating this well-known gardening fact and I got a chuckle all summer as I drove by this business.
Over on State route 21 north towards Shortsville, NY, another business man who has an automotive repair business uses an old Volkswagen bus as a large flower planter. I’m guessing that the business probably belongs to some old gentlemen who remembers the seventies and all the flower children, but is too old to relive that time when he was younger.
Fall’s cool evenings are upon us and soon it will be harvest time in the Finger Lakes when the leaves will be turning. In the meantime, try searching for some remnants of summer’s flowers.