Friday, September 25, 2009

The Fall Garden

We all seem to be slowing down as we ease into Fall, lazily following the pace of our gardens. Personally, I feel stuck in limbo, not sure what I should be doing at this very moment. The dozens of unripe peppers, eggplant, and squash continue to tease me from the stalk. I have been saying for weeks now that I should just rip most of them out. Should I? Am I naively continuing to wait hoping the peppers will turn shades of red right along with the oak leaves?

My newly sown seedlings are starting to show some size, and the pea tendrils are a few inches long. The promise of fresh cut greens again some time in the future is my favorite part about the garden right now, well that and the sweet potatoes. I dug a few last weekend, they were thin but we enjoyed them just the same. It was really satisfying to make a dish of roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, and onions- all grown right outside the front door!

The garden is colorful right now. Dahlias and zinnias add little punches of orange, purple, pink, and red.  The asparagus bed has me humming "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..." when I water it.  Maybe that was the nudge that had me starting my Holiday shopping today.  So hard to think of snow and Santa when there is still so much green out there. 






3 comments:

Thomas said...

i love your asparagus picture! I DOES remind me of Christmas. Also, is that the rouge d'hiver lettuce? Yours definitely look bigger than mine.

I think you should keep your peppers, eggplants and squash in. With how unpredictable the weather's been this year, Mother Nature may surprise us with Indian Summer later on this fall...or at least that's what I'm hoping for.

P.S. I think I now have a squirrel problem...uuggg...help!

Kelly said...

Thomas, that is the Rouge....doesn't it look yummy?!

Squirrels? Well that could be a tough one, they are so brazen.

Thomas said...

Thanks for the head's up about the NOFA order. I liked at their website. You go to one of there pick up sites to get your order, right? I guess I should look into becoming a member. Since we're just heading into fall, it's so hard to predict what you'll be needing for the spring. i'll have to put this on my things to do.