Happy Autumnal Equinox! Here’s a brief garden update.
The tomato and bean plants look ragged but are still producing, as are the eggplants. Unfortunately, voles, ground hogs, rabbits, and other critters have ensured that we have very little fall crops. It’s depressing, but at least we have a good bit of green beans and tomatoes put up for the year.
No silverbells or cockleshells, or “pretty maids,” but the Spousal Unit is rather contrary. Hah!
Some of the things I love are the corn:
and the Concord grapes:
What are some of your garden favorites? @ me on Twitter!
Or maybe I only imagined you said it, but you’re getting more anyway! 😀
The stuff on the leaves is not mildew; it’s pyrethrin powder to try and get rid of the flea beetles that are constantly decimating those plants.
The events of the past week have sunk me into the depths of despair. I have done what I personally could to help out..not only my Black sisters and brothers, but also to give myself some sense of being in control when the people in power seek to take that away from us. I’ve donated to causes, signed petitions, amplified Black voices on social media, and bought books from Black creators.
The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the organization I volunteer for, has put out a list of Black-owned bookstores that we can all frequent:
In my own little corner of the world, watching nature renew itself and grow, reaching with energetic optimism towards the sky also helps to calm and center me.
Stay safe, stay sane, my friends. And hold onto hope.
Every year around this time, hubby starts the seedlings for another full year of gardening. It’s a season of hope and optimism for good harvests that we can eat and preserve (until voles, vine-borers and other vermin destroy that dream).
This year, with so much fear and uncertainty in the air (not making a joke here), starting seedlings is even more important as an act of defiant hope and self-preservation.
So here is what we’ve started so far…
These other ones are on a warming mat and are therefore in the somewhat filthy utility room:
Are you growing something for hope and food this year?
And if that doesn’t make you start singing, then you are obviously not as old as I am ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTXat-LsxHA ).
Hubby noted last night that it’s the beginning of October and we are still eating bounty from our garden. We’re also still processing tons of veggies from the garden. Oh. Yay.
But you’re here for the food photos, I know, so I’ll get straight to that…
Well, I’m getting hungry now…
Hubby is practical and has become more so as he’s aged. We used to grow flowers, partly because his mom was into flowers so when she was still alive, she would encourage it and even buy us plants to put in.
But as we’d gotten into homesteading, we don’t want to bother putting in so much labor, time, and water for annuals that don’t feed us. We grow plenty of native flowering perennials which are good for wildlife and don’t require much work of us, but for ourselves, we focus on what we can eat and put away for the winter months.
It’s been a cool, wet spring, so the garden has yet to truly take off. But here are a few photos of what is growing outside of the main fenced garden…
Hubby was a bit late starting up seedlings, but here they are, a week or so old. Aren’t they the cutest?
He’s even thinned some already.
By the way, this is the 540th post! 60 more to the 600th…and that’s when I’ll have a giveaway!
Teresa Robeson 何顥思 