The Season Is Past Time

I just updated my profile to include gardening as one of my interests. How quickly I forget. I guess it happened because I started this blog in November and my summer garden is almost history.

I had such a wonderful time in my garden. Hubby and my son built three grow boxes for me and helped me fill them with soil, courtesy of the local cemetery, and the mulch, available from the local landfill. I enjoyed planting the seeds, transplanting my seedlings, shopping for small flats of vege and flower varieties that I did not start from seed and working to keep it all in order. We put a barrier down on the walkways around the boxes, so weeding was kept to a minimum.

It was so much fun--until enough of a harvest came on that we could not eat it or give it all away fast enough. I actually had to do something to keep all that produce from going to waste.

Part of my plan was to put up some of the food for the winter. I have enough squash-bean-carrot-broccoli-onion stir-fry mix, not to mention grated squash and pumpkin pulp to last me the year. I dried tomatoes so they would not take up as much space and put them in the freezer. Problem was, once it was harvest time, the fun was over and my garden started to feel like work.

I thought about a winter garden. Then, when the reality of harvesting and preserving really hit, I decided that my tendency to be a "time and season for every purpose" type of person should apply. My garden season is almost over and it is time to do something else this winter.

I think the garden agrees. I still have tomatoes--we have not had a frost yet--peppers and onions. Several are currently in my sink as I type will end up in the chili pot tonight. The flowers I planted between my vegetable plants to add color and discourage pests struggled through the heat of summer, but exploded with blossoms once the weather cooled a little. When my squash plants decided their season was over and stopped producing, the nasturtiums I planted next to them seemed to grow ten times their previous size overnight. The blossoms now are beautiful.

So, while others are enjoying the autumn leaves turning colors, I also get to look out my window and watch the flowers say good-by to the time and season of my garden. If food gets scarce because I decided to not grow a winter garden, I guess I can always eat the nasturtium blossoms.