So, it’s September now, and in seven days summer officially ends and autumn begins. At this border set by out planet’s motion around the sun, it is time to access Avalon’s Garden’s harvest.
Well . . . the flower gardens were lovely. They always are. As for the veggie garden – well, maybe not so much. Many things did not even come up: herbs, collards peas pulled a no-show. A few beets appeared but they were puny and never grew. Beans came up nicely, though, but their presence was noted by the white tail deer before I could cover them. Still, I had a bean harvest. They were wonderfully sweet. You know, I never liked beans until I had them from our garden. So, I’m claiming beans as a success. Carrots, too. They are coming along nicely though they are small. That might be my fault. I could have thinned them out better. Summer squash are few; they were last year, too.
Alas the tomatoes! Something nipped many of the tops of the young plants. Those unmolested gave only pale fruits. Even the small cherry tomatoes plants that usually become overloaded with enough to overwhelm any appetite produced only a paltry amount.
Late August and early September storming didn’t help. I live in an area of Wisconsin that received a “biblical” amount of rainfall and some 17 tornadoes. Avalon’s driveway was left badly washed out, but three miles north acres of trees were uprooted, and power poles snapped.
So, I was lucky!
But, back to the garden. Things will change. Even Susan knew the vegetable garden was too large for a working couple. It occurred to her, too, that it may be too large for an older, nonworking, couple. So, as I work to put the garden to bed for the winter, I’m making some decisions about its size for next year. Currently, the veggie garden is comprised of sixteen 4X12 foot beds. Each bed is bordered with cedar planks that are at the end of a 20-year life corralling our veggies. Though I need to repair them all, some have deteriorated beyond mending. I’m dismantling the worst frames and will let those beds return to quack grass and whatever else grows in this old pasture. I’ve already taken out two beds, lugging the planks out and putting them in a pile next to the compost bins. The target is to have ten beds, and in those, I’ll plant green manure. To move things along in the compost bins, I’ve poured the bedding from my sister’s chicken coups that she has had to dismantle since she and her husband are going to become condo-folk later this fall. All that great chicken debris is great stuff, and before dumping it into the compost bins, I sun warmed a trash can of chicken-poop-soup. That got poured out on the rhubarb that has folded back for the year and the asparagus that has gone full frond mode.
Never thought gardening would make me a chef of sorts cooking for the garden.
But, the flower gardens that are just now entering autumn bloom . . . those will remain just as they are.