Tomorrow's Garden Today

It's been a busy weekend of planning and preparing for the future while some fruits come to...well, fruition.

Looking ahead to next year, the long-weekend started with another purchase of 2x6 & 4x4 lumber to finish off last weekend's project of building three 4x4 raised beds in the Lower Garden.

Once again, I was surprised by the slope here at Steepmeadow. Even the beds that appear flat are at least two 2x6's at the base. So lumber costs are going to be higher than expected, and we need to take into account the limited transport capacity of the Sonata. The limit is about six 2x6's. So we need to do this step-wise. On the positive side, it helps to keep things inside the limited budget.

This work is, of course, focused on preparing for next year. As much of the garden has had it for this year, or is looking beaten-down and sickly, there is a strong urge to rip it up and look to the future.

Part of that process is planning what to plant next year and putting dates on the calendar, figuring out what to plant and where and how to space it and which plants will be complementary, and which will need succession planting, and the soil conditions necessary, and sorting out where, exactly, to put everything we want to grow, and whether certain crops are feasible. Strawberries, for instance, would need to be started in the refrigerator January 14th. And they won't fruit until year two. So do we want to do those at all? Indoor space to start plants is limited. How many will Zipper parkour into oblivion?

Zipper. Parkour kitten.

Is there anything a spreadsheet can't solve? Spreadsheet, calendar, and internet in hand, we press on.

Next year we want more efficient use of the space. We'll do better.

Meanwhile, we've had some strikes along with our more common gutters. We harvested some of our Yukon Gold potatoes. One for each month between now and April, including the Yule potato.

If we can survive by sharing one potato each month, we will make it to spring. The Yule potato is the one on the left.

We had one good cantaloupe.

We are starting to get a wee bit tired of eating tomatoes in everything, but the garden is only starting to show the faintest of signs of giving up.

We harvested two pumpkins, and we've eaten one.

There's another pumpkin on the vine, as well as a weird looking thing that we suspect of being a Hubbard squash. It's hanging between two dead corn stalks. We shall see.

We continue to be visited by hummingbirds, goldfinches, and bees. Life in the garden is pretty good.

Just a minute ago, there was a hummingbird in this picture feeding on this flower.