I have mixed feelings about fall and the coming winter.
I wander the garden and yard looking at the carpet of wet leaves. They would be a lot more beautiful if they would just voluntarily hop right into those bags for composting. They have nearly all fallen now except the two zelkovas, which stubbornly hold on to the leaves until I have raked up all the others. Then those rascally zelkovas drop them all the next day within about five minutes.
How do they know?
Trees have fallen in the fall as well, like giant pick-up sticks. More mess that will require a chainsaw. Chickweed is creeping into the neglected beds.
I wake up in the dark. The days are so short now that the chickens go to roost at 3:30 in the afternoon.
I try to reframe my view of autumn.
The shorter days mean there is less time for frolicking with my rake and leaf bags. But I’m as happy sucking up books as a drunk at an open bar wedding reception.
The cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes are gone. But I have a robust crop of Swiss chard. I have even managed to outsmart the deer by netting it. Lettuce, spinach and arugula are thriving in the cold frame. Cabbages and Brussels sprouts will be ready for harvest soon. The salvia is blooming. Chickens love chickweed.
Without the leaves, I can see more of the majestic, sculptural beauty of the trees.
Yes, I have mixed feelings about the change of seasons. I will work on seeing the glass half full.
(Click on the photos to embiggen.)
Robin
Mother Nature has sorely tried our patience around here in the past couple of months.
First there was the earthquake that sent me darting out the front door with the little dogs in my wake for fear that the computer cabinet was going to topple right onto my lap. Then there were tornadoes raging around in the vicinity to get us all warmed up for Hurricane Irene.
Oh, Irene! Irene dumped rain, tore up the roof and knocked down trees and generally made everyone but the dogs miserable. (The little dogs were sedated and slept through the whole thing.) Of course, the power went out, which meant our basement sump pump stopped working. Harry tried bailing water for a while until it became apparent that we needed nine or ten Harrys in a water brigade to stop the water from rushing in and filling in the basement like a very large, but very ugly, indoor swimming pool. After a while we quietly closed the basement door and tried very hard not to think about what was going on beneath our feet.
Once the subterranean waters receded I was hot on the phone with Thomas, our plumber, to get a battery backup sump pump installed tout de suite! Good thing too, because Mother Nature wasn’t done with us yet. We had another four or five days of rain dumping yet another 15 inches or so on our already saturated ground. And yes, BGE kindly made sure the power went out again so that we could test the newly installed sump pump. Bravo! It worked!
Thankfully, September 11 passed without incident. Mother Nature was probably just worn out.
Well, now we get to the part about the farm truck, Lulabelle.
Waiting on pins and needles, were you?
Throughout the various and sundry tests on my patience I was grateful that I had resisted the urge to have the hideously large and ugly Lulabelle hauled away for scrap metal. See, last winter she had left me high and dry not once but TWICE in some very cold weather, necessitating that I wait for AAA for a combined total of three hours without benefit of heat. As you can imagine, this truck was not high on my favorite vehicles list.
But she has recently made up for her earlier transgressions by being quite handy at serving first as a mobile dumpster as we sorted through the soggy remains of the basement and then hauling everything away. (Okay, she didn’t do it herself, Harry drove her. But you get the idea.)
Now, Lulabelle is performing a function that requires a great deal of patience but does allow her to use her considerable weight to advantage. Lulabelle is now a tree stake.
Yes, a tree stake. We lost three of the ‘Winter King’ Hawthorns by the driveway. Harry managed to upright another that was listing to the south. This particular tree was also bent in a southerly direction but resisted attempts to be righted by a mere wooden stake. So Lulabelle has been pressed into service.
Okay, I won’t give you all 101 uses for a farm truck, but I did think you would like to know that a farm truck isn’t just for joy riding.
Robin
Sometimes when I look at photos of my garden I think, “Hey, that looks pretty good.” This isn’t one of those times.
I don’t know why, but it seems that for all the work I’ve been putting in, the flowers just aren’t cooperating. Things don’t look as full as I want. The grass isn’t green and lush. I’m dissatisfied. It’s just not…enough!
Perhaps it’s because all of these photos were taken around June 1. This is the second month of this year’s marking time in the garden with a monthly overview shot of the potager. May’s photos are here. Maybe things will get better. But the point of documenting is to show warts and all. So here goes…
- Potager on June 3
The naked spot in the potager is where the ‘Speckled Trout’ lettuce was just pulled up. I found that it bolted more quickly than the other lettuces. The rest of the lettuce is still doing well—’Red Sails’ and the heatwave blend from Cook’s Garden.
Next to the mimosa tree limb trellis I’m giving some yellow pear tomatoes a shot, despite the past fusarium wilt problems in the potager. They are supposed to be resistant and I haven’t grown them in this spot before. I’m fully prepared to yank them out if they look sick.
The herbs are healthy, although the cilantro insists on bolting after about five minutes of heat. I still need bedding plants for the borders but haven’t been able to bring myself to choose from the measly offerings of annuals at the garden center. *snore*
Herb bed June 3
We have been enjoying the new, cleaner look of the tree line from the back patio. In fact, the tree guys have been out doing some more edge clearing so that we can now see the trees for the forest. I’ll have before and after photos at some point.
View from the back patio on June 3
There are a couple of cute little details. The ornamental oregano is a new plant for me this year. This one is Origanum rotundifolium ‘Kent Beauty’.
- Ornamental oregano – Origanum rotundifolium ‘Kent Beauty’
And, given how partial I am to chickens, I think the little chicken form covered in hens and chickens is adorable.
A whole new meaning to hens and chickens
I will work on being less critical, less persnickety and just enjoying the small bits of beauty.
P.S.
You can click on the photos to see a larger version.
Robin
