Guest post by Holly Collier

I’m typing this with a swollen finger, so all blame for typos falls on that.

Awhile back I posted about fighting yellow jackets in my house. And today, one struck back. Strangely, it struck back after I thought I had killed it and was sweeping it up with a cloth. Can yellow jackets sting you when they’re dead? Insect experts, please weigh in!

Since midsummer, I’ve been finding dead and dying yellow jackets in my south-facing dining room and in my basement. They’re usually on the windows, but I’ve seen enough on the window-shade pull cords and on the floor that I’ve become very cautious. My day usually starts with me taking a newspaper or shoe to the pests. Splat. Splat. Splat.

I’m not allergic, and I usually just let typical household bugs be. In fact, the spiders have been helping me out on this front, treating yellow jackets as a delicacy. (OK…I kill centipedes IN the house because they’re creepy, but boxelder bugs deserve nary a shrug from me.)

And if the yellow jackets were outside, I’d ignore them, too. But the problem is heating up as the weather cools down. I kill 10-12 a day, especially when the sun shines.

There appears to be a nest in the cedar eaves of my house, but I see very few of the nasty zappers entering or exiting. A diligent and very punctual exterminator has been out four times, dusting and spraying. He sees no sign of an indoor nest. (Always look for a company with a guarantee, by the way….)

Anyone have any advice, horror stories or solutions?

My house is stucco. The eaves are cedar, and the walls are plaster. I have a bad childhood memory of waspy bugs chewing through the wallboard of my bedroom and creating quite a household buzz. But I’m trying not to think about that.

Will they just die when it gets cold enough? Will they invade the house in a giant swarm? Will they return next year?

Share your stories. Or your sting remedies.

Our unusually cool weather may mark the end of our summer growing season, but there are some advantages to an early fall.

Sweet, sour and crisp — Apple season is here with promises of pies, cobblers and sauce. You can fire up the oven without overheating the house, fill the kitchen with the scents of cinnamon, nutmeg or cardamom — then devour the leftovers for breakfast. Yum!

The farmers markets already offer a good selection of early varieties. Favorites like Honeycrisps, Honeygolds and Haralsons aren’t too far behind!

So, how do you celebrate apple season? With delicious dumplings? Perfect pies? Are you into apple picking, cider pressing or just ol’ fashioned apple eating?

Are you ready for fall? Did you see it could frost tonight –  in the Metro. Fall was an abstract concept on my calendar just a week ago. This morning, I had to break out the polar fleece.

Maybe like me, you’re ready for apple crisp and planting bulbs and little fires on the patio. Then again, I’m just not ready to run out and cover tender plants, protect all my fruit trees from the deer and build those raised beds I’ve been putting off.  Suddenly it feels like there are a thousand things to do.

But I’m trying. I’ve been canning pasta sauce like mad. I even made a yummy dish out of cherry tomatoes that I skewered and grilled. Last week I saw free chokecherries on craigslist, and I picked half a bucket. I’ve never made chokecherry  jelly before, but I’m eager to try it, even though I hear it’s hard to get it to set properly.

I’m not sure I’m ready to say goodbye to the pleasures of summer. Are you? How long do you try to extend them? Will you cover your plants tonight? Is there a point where you usually just let fall be fall?

This year, my basil was a bummer. Instead of growing tall and bushy, it languished long and leggy.

Was it lack of sunshine or water? No.

My basil was overpowered by parsley — freaking flat leaf parsley. The more I cut it back, the bigger it grows. Four tiny plants are now a fragrant hedge.

As fall nears, my basil’s days are numbered — and spoken for. I got pasta sauce to make and homemade pizza to bake.

But, what does one do with an overabundance of parsley — an often overlooked herb?

Chalk it up to the healing power of nature. My garden came back.

In early June, it was decimated by a hit-and-run hailstorm. Most of my garden — the hostas, the ferns and the hydrangeas and rose bushes that I had just planted the day before — got pummeled by the nickel-sized hail. My garden was a mass of shredded leaves and broken stems.

There was no way I could afford to replace all those plants. So I did what the experts recommended: I cut back. I removed all the broken stems and cut off the leaves that were badly torn. My garden looked pathetic, like I’d gone at it with a weed whacker.

To cover some of the holes, I bought some annuals. And lots of generous gardeners offered me divisions from their gardens. I planted them, but I really didn’t have much hope. Turns out I was wrong.

I guess I was lucky the storm did its damage early in the season, when the plants still had a lot of energy to grow. Most of the hostas sprouted new leaves (albeit not as big as the originals), the roses put on good growth and the hydrangeas (Limelights) bloomed beautifully.

They’re still in bloom. And I’m still in awe. My garden is no showcase. Because I planted without a whole lot of thought, I need to move just about everything. But I’m thrilled that something so broken could fix itself.

So how did your garden fare? Do you have plants that took a lickin’ but kept on tickin? Or did insects, disease and the dry weather take a toll on some of your faves?