autumn garden.

The days are chilly, the nights are very cold. The garden is wrapping up slowly. We have pulled out one area of the finished tomato, pepper and cucumber plants. The squash has been picked and the vines cleared. But there are still full areas. Full of red raspberries, full of kale, full of herbs and flowers that seem to go on and on even with freezing temps and frost.



We are still picking kale. I grow a lot of kale because I love it in soups and stews all winter, and also because we have a bunny (she loves it). I pick from a few main plants all summer and leave a few others for late fall - just because I love how beautiful they look when they are huge twisty frilly trees of vibrant color. We still have wonderberries and huckleberries, swiss chard, calendula, feverfew, parsley, lovage. The amaranth is battered from our strong October winds but we leave some because we love all the color.


I have been slowing digging up and re-potting herbs. I have brought in parsley, thyme, celery and basil. We are starting trays of greens for our indoor garden, but I love how long we can keep herbs going when they move to a sunny window.


We have planted more greens and radishes along with a few other things, but they grow more slowly with the cold and darkness.



We leave some things for the birds - some currants still on bush, sunflower heads bent and dried full of seeds, and the compost pile is a popular spot for the juncos. And the chipmunk clears out most of the tomatoes that I pretend I don't see (am I the only one who gets really tired of tomatoes by mid October?).


I do love this time of year - the cold, the smell of the air. Tucking in, laying to rest, getting ready for winter.

How is your garden?

august garden, pt. 2

We have been busy busy both at home and out and about this week and I have a lot to share, but I keep getting distracted by the garden this time of year.

I usually am in the garden twice a day - in the morning while the boys are eating breakfast. I water pots, pick, tie, check and basically wander outside. I go out again in the evening when the boys are playing in the alley with friends - to water the pots again and beds if needed, weed, check and basically wander outside. The garden is always mostly shaded at these times, and yet sun peeks in here and there. It is a great place to wander. To walk. To think. To think about not thinking. To feel the grass underfoot. When the light is just right I usually grab my camera and wander some more.


I love wandering so I can pick all of the veggies, fruit and herbs of course - we are overly abundant in tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, squash, and the raspberries are ripening, eaten right off the canes.

But it is more than that. There is so much to see. The curls of the vines, the way things move to the sun. The color - so vivid! It is all so complex. But all so simple.


The beans have wound up and over sunflowers, amaranth, and even bushes. They reach for the sunshine. The insects all seem to have a path, a plan, and a single minded pursuit.


The herbs are wild by now. I dig around and under massive plants to find fenugreek, feverfew, toothache plant (chewing on the leaves makes your whole mouth tingle!). I turn the nozzle on the rainbarrel and the water rushes out, loud and fast after a rain.


Some things look completely surreal - the boys search and touch the tiny fuzzy melon vines every time they think of it. The fuzz feels like the backs of the bumblebees we sometimes stroke.


The garden is so thick that it envelopes us when we sit outside. Everything feels private even though we are very close to neighbors here. We turn on the gazebo lights and listen to the frogs (amazing we have them in our yard) and crickets.


This week we cleared some space for fall planting - we planted beets, radishes, onions, peas, and several kinds of greens, and more will come. In the midst of so much green seeing a patch of such dark brown earth is almost startling.

I love seeing the rows of tiny little seedlings shaded under what now seems like ancient trees of kale.


And, just as I start thinking about the indoor winter garden (baby/microgreens) seeds are going on sale. Today 37 packets of seeds arrived. So many seeds, so many plants, so many ideas, so much color, so much variety, endless possibilities.


Even though it is still hot, I can just feel things will start changing soon. Slowing down. Finishing up. Cooling down.


Not yet though. While I can see the change of light and smell the cool morning air, we have quite a bit of this left. So I still have plenty of time to wander.

How does your garden grow?

august garden, pt. 1

Things I love about the garden in August?

That after even the hottest summer days, when you walk through our arch in the evening when the garden has just been watered you can feel the temperature drop immediately and you are enveloped by the smell of damp earth and flowers ... like entering another world.


That when the grass all around is brittle and brown, the garden is still green and luscious.


That there are so many busy bees you can hear them buzz and sometimes feel them lightly brush by as they go about their way.


That there is something blooming somewhere, all the time.


That even though our tomatoes (and cucumbers, and peppers, and melons, and squash) come in a LOT later than everyone else in our area because of our garden location/sunlight (no matter how early we start), we do still get them.


That it all gets SO thick that my husband just about every night wanders with a shirt full of veggies saying "I can't find anything else!" and then I find another shirt worth.


That there are bushes flowering in August every year that are not supposed to. I have lilacs! In mid-August!


That under all of those leaves are a LOT of squash.


That even when I think we have lost something due to wet or dry to heat or cold, when pulling 'finished' plants I find things that have been busy winding their way where they need to go.


That there is always someone (big or small) out with me each evening, filling the watering can from the rain barrel, and carefully watering each and every pot we have.

And, that I'm not the only one out there talking to the birds, the chipmunk, the frog, the plants, or the bees.

jungle time.

It is that time of year. The jungle time! The garden is so thick and green it is hard to get in there to reach things and forget about even finding weeds. It is thick and lush and things are finally growing and ripening and vining. This week we are in the midst of a big heat wave though, so I don't expect full jungle to last long.


A lot of the greens which have lasted so long this summer will surely be done with all of these ridiculously high temperatures. But of course the tomatoes, cucumbers and squash will be happy as long as I can keep them watered. It is HOT!


While the strawberries are long gone the golden raspberries are still going strong, the red raspberries are turning pink, the blackberries are close, and I have been cutting huge bowls full of white currants.


Right now I'm making a white currant~lavender syrup for home made sodas. Oh yeah.


With the sun exposure (or lack thereof) in our yard our tomatoes usually ripen later than elsewhere. We won't be eating tomatoes from the garden for a few more weeks - but when we do it looks like we will have a LOT this year. I can't wait to try the candy cane cherry tomatoes.


I am just starting to pick the tiny cucumbers for cornichons, and will let some grow bigger for pickle slices.


There is so much kale it is actually kind of over the top. It usually doesn't do so well, but the crazy spring/summer weather so far seems to have been perfect for nothing but ... KALE! But of course we are cranking out the kale chips and I have one very very happy angora rabbit.


Some things are going to seed - and I am drying and saving seeds for next year. The dehydrator is working full time, drying fruit, herbs, vegetables and seed heads.


And I am continuing my love affair for these guys. Every time I have a problem pest before I can research the organic solutions they seem to eat them all. There are so many and they fly around me as I work in the garden, but I have not had one sting. They drink from the plants as I water. They eat the bad guys. And they pollinate everything else. My heroes.

How is your garden growing? What do you have so far? :)

Oh, in case you didn't know, I also have a food blog, cook.eat.think. It is busy over there this time of year with all of the fresh seasonal goodness going on!

in the garden...

I'm so behind on a garden update! The weather has been hot and humid, which has gotten everything finally growing. We haven't had much rain - the rain barrel has been dry more often than I remember from past years. But as the garden is sheltered it seems to hold onto the moisture pretty well. That shelter also means that the greens are still happy, even with the heat wave. I flood them with cool water when they are on the shady side and they keep right on growing without bolting (so far).

We had such a slow/late start with the cold spring, so things are not as far along as usual...but that they are growing at all after all that makes me very happy.


Right now we are still picking big bowls of lettuces and greens daily - chard, kale, mesclun mix, head lettuce, and more. Our cauliflower, carrots and broccoli which were stunted for so long in the cold are still growing and finally starting to look like something and managing hot quite well.


We are reaping a lot of herbs - dill, cilantro, basil (tons of pesto - yum!), shisho, fennel, spring onions, lovage, and the edible flowers are also all starting to come in.


The medicinals are slow growers generally, so they are happy but small.


We are starting to (!in July!) pick a lot of peas while the beans, melons and cucumbers look like they will need a LONG stretch of heat in order to kick start growing...they are way behind.


We have beets and chives and teeny tiny (tiny!) summer squash.



The strawberries are just about done, while the golden raspberries are being picked by the cupful for the past few days. Blackberries are just starting to color. Currants are getting plump. Red raspberries are just now flowering.


The tomatoes are getting slowly but surely bigger!


We have pots of all kinds of things growing happily and comfy spots to sit on cooler mornings or beautiful evenings.


I'm sure there are many things I am not remembering from inside my house at midnight. But it is good when the list of what is growing is long! I can't believe it feels like we are just starting the main summer fruit and veggies, but we are. Of course I hope that means we will have a long beautiful fall.


How is your garden growing?