On Saturday, September 13, 2014 10:49:00 AM UTC-4, songbird wrote:
frost warning for tonight.



not much left in the gardens that will be

hurt by frost so that is ok.



yet, i'm struggling with acceptance that

the gardening season is almost over when it

comes to what we have planted, what we will

harvest yet and such.



we do not have a lot of cold winter crops

in. nor will we likely ever have (because

most of them Ma won't eat or use). silly to

me, but i just try to work around what i can.



again, acceptance.



the tomatoes, well, most of them were picked

and then buried to feed the worms. we'll likely

have about 35 quarts of chunks put up (a normal

year we put up 100-150 quarts of tomato chunks

and tomato juice). c'est la vie.



onions doing well, fennel mostly picked and

eaten, beets still need to be picked and put up,

a few melons, dunno if they will be ripe or not,

sure that a frost won't be good for them, hope

we actually do not get that cold tonight after

all.



rest of the things to do are mostly picking

the dry bean crop when they get ready enough to

pick. i'm trying to not leave much on the plants

for long because of our cool weather and frequent

rains. if i can get it picked before it rots or

the critters get it then i'm doing well. this

i can certainly accept. finding some new

crosses again and that is fun and interesting.

this won't be a huge crop, but the one i enjoy

the most when it comes to long term satisfaction.

i enjoy sorting (both the tactile and visual

aspects) figuring out the new colors and shapes,

etc. and it can go on throughout the winter when

not much else is going on. i know i get this

trait from my Ma as she loves to pick rocks on

the beach and then sort them into various piles

for her projects. i've been known to resort

some just because...



the soup peas, i thought were a complete loss,

but we had a few sunny days that helped at least

keep the fungi from getting into the peas them-

selves. the pods look bad, but the peas are ok.

will likely give them a rinse and dry off after

shelling them to remove any spores tagging along

(or at least reduce the count a bit).



the challenge this winter is to convince Ma

that we don't need to leave the gardens inside the

fence fallow next year just because we had one

trouble with the buckeye rot on the tomatoes.

leaving the ground bare is not good IMO and i can

plant a root crop like garlic or onions in those

places and it will do just fine. besides our

peppers, onions, fennel, beets, beans, etc. have

done well enough (if you discount the groundhog

feasting).



a few gardens to fiddle with, figuring out

where to plant some garlic, still not too heavy

work for me (the hand still needs time off to

heal), some inspecting of the roof to finish up

any remaining issues before the warrantee runs

out, some caulking before winter, ... picking

some morning glories before they spread, ...

then soon enough winter will be here.



acceptance? i'm just not ready to be cold yet.

by January i might get there...





songbird

Where are you? It's still warm here in Baltimore so I don't think we have to worry about frost for a few weeks yet.

Paul