In this month’s blog:

Bounty and Beauty in the Late Summer Garden

Climate Log: Fighting the Good Fight–Ponies, Storms, and Living Shorelines

The August 2025 Photo/Video Gallery: Wildflowers around Our Lake and More from the Eastern Shore

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Beauty and Bounty in the Late Summer Garden

In August, our garden this year reached its apex in productivity, with some plants starting to decline, a few exhausted, and others still going strong–or even making a comeback. On August 22, the Community held its annual Garden Potluck, where gardeners from the five collections of plots across town came together to share stories about what worked and what didn’t, ask each other for advice, and bring dishes made from our produce and other goodies.

So how have the diverse plants done this August?

1. Still going strong: Plants still producing with no let-up in our plot are the profuse marigolds (yellow and orange), white and pink vinca, the spreading zinnias, one amazing green pepper plant,  hot burrito pepper, herbs (rosemary and oregano), and the late blooming and very tall cosmos.

2. Starting to decline: our three varieties of tomatoes: Husky Cherry Red, Juliet, and Sweet Millions–the most productive tomatoes we’ve ever grown and still putting out 2 dozen or more per day.

3. Exhausted after production since April: Zucchini (May to mid July), Mint (May to mid August), Strawberries (April to end of July), Blueberries (April to June), Yellow Squash (May to mid July), Coneflowers (May to end of July), Swiss Chard (May to early August), Thyme (May to end of July)

4. Making a comeback after early success: the royally-hued Dahlias

As we look over the five months so far of this new garden venture for us, three features stand out. The first is the large amount of rain we’ve had this half year (about 12 inches) compared to the deep drought our fellow gardeners went through last year. The second is how this prolific small plot has surprised us each time we visit (about every other day) with the uniqueness of the growing and fruiting patterns of each plant. Each one indeed has its own personality.

And the third feature is the absolute splendor of the creativity and dedication of the many friendly gardeners we’ve encountered and gotten to know. This collection of garden plots is an entreprenurial place, where the living soil, air, water, seeds, pollinators, microbes, and loving humans cooperate to make many, many small miracles from day to day. With more miracles yet to come in the rest of the year!

An American Goldfinch calls from across the garden plots on the early morning of August 12

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Climate Log: Fighting the Good Fight–Ponies, Storms, and Living Shorelines

Female Osprey preens on her nest in the marshes of Tilghman Island on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, August 17

As the Trump administration keeps

• denying a changed climate of ever more dangerous heat, drought, and floods
• defunding protections for animals, plants, and human beings, and
• intensifying the burning of poisonous fossil fuels,

groups and localities around the US are fighting back through local and regional actions that try to sustain healthy living for all creatures. What can we as Americans do to promote health and counteract these dangerous anti-life actions by the new regime? The New York Times series “Fifty States, Fifty Fixes” https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/climate/50-states-fixes.html is one effort. It asks readers to contribute their own examples of life-saving actions in their own communities–and thousands of readers throughout the nation have answered the call.

One such coordinated action–now being replicated in other states–is the “living shorelines” project in Delaware. “Living shorelines” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/climate/delaware-living-shorelines.html uses natural materials, including the power of plants and soil, to recreate the marshy wetlands destroyed by sea level rise along US coasts. These living shorelines are far more effective than the concrete and rocky barriers often used to delay coastal erosion. Not only are the living shorelines of deep-rooted plants stronger and more lasting than artificial barriers–but they provide homes for water creatures and in fact grow steadily more diverse and broader as time goes on.

Protecting the Marshes, Coastline, and Precious Ponies of Chincoteague, Virginia.

Misty and Stormy. If you’ve been to the Atlantic Coast’s Chincoteague Island, Virginia, just across the Maryland state line, you probably know the story of Misty, the pony made famous by writer Marguerite Henry in the 1950s and 60s. Her 1963 sequel, Stormy, Misty’s Foal, describes in sad detail the tidal storm that took the lives of so many of the islands’ legendary ponies–which the states and the National Park Service have protected for over 100 years.

We visited Chincoteague and Assateague islands on August 18-20, just as Hurricane Erin was moving up the Atlantic and beginning to build a storm surge on the coast. The whipping winds and intermittent rain made for a lively time for us and the birds, but the ponies and waterfowl were easily up to the task, as were the park personnel. The protection of shorelines and marshes in the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge is a model of what federal, state, and local cooperation can accomplish.

A Lauguing Gull fights the wind on Assateague Beach, early AM, August 19

The pony herds draw many thousands of tourists each year–and the grazing ponies were on magnificent display in the saltgrass marshes visible to drivers for hundreds of yards beyond the roads of the refuge. We were able to get beautiful views of one herd and of their symbiotic relationship with the egrets and gulls who flock among them. In this video, Jean reads from Stormy, Misty’s Foal as I scan the herd and the birds. This excerpt is Marguerite Henry’s recounting of the legendary history of how a Spanish shipwreck in the 16th century brought the ponies to Assateague:

As we scan about a dozen members of the pony herd and their accompanying birds in the Assateague marshes, Jean reads from Marguerite Henry’s Stormy, Misty’s Foal (August 19, early morning in the rain)

Here are a few more of the photos and videos from our visit to Chincoteague and to the Wildlife Refuge (see a few more pics and clips of our visit to the Eastern Shore in this month’s Gallery, too).

Three Lesser Yellowlegs run in the wind and rain of Assateague Beach, early morning, August 19

Large flock of egrets and four ponies active in the early morning wind and rain, Assateague Island, August 19

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The August 2025 Photo/Video Gallery: Wildflowers around Our Lake and More from the Eastern Shore

Whereas our garden plot features what we’ve planted, our little lake provides a changing feast of wildflowers. The display changes as the months do, and new leaves, stems, and flowers appear, while others fade back or disappear until next year.  As citizens of our local refuge (even if not so named), these new flowers highlight the good work we humans do when we don’t do too much–and we let the plants and animals do what they are experts at doing.

In much the same way, our visit to the Eastern Shore on August 16-20 let us witness ways, such as the St. Michael’s Maritime Museum and the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, by which humans can assist nature by deliberately limiting commercial development and preserving native habitats. But beyond preservation, in exhibits like “Sailing to Freedom,” curating groups such as the Maritime  Museum go beyond preservation to call out past injustices, which are starting to reappear in the current political climate of censorship of diversity and the censors’ rewriting of history .

In the Tilghman Island marsh beside the Inn, a male Osprey devours his catch, August 17

At the Tilghman Island Inn, a Black Swallowtail flits within Purple Top Vervain

Grey Catbird flits amid Woodbine along the west bank of our lake, morning, August 3

Bumblebee in Swamp Milkweed on the east bank of our lake, on a breezy August 3

Bonus 2: At Seneca Park, a side channel of the Potomac River flows swiftly through the forest, August 8

And so on toward September, with continued courage to protect and celebrate the great diversity of life…