To The Surbiton Manor Born

  We shouldn't be seeing this garlic So it turns out that we are now in Zone 5a per the USDA's plant hardiness zones , up from Zone 4b.  Another sign that we are all doomed. It's real this climate change, and it is happening. Nobody is "safe." I'll be replanting the garlic this weekend, as the bulbs I put in Oct. 16 are all sprouted and will not be coming back.  The weather does look like it will be changing by the end of this week. I will be overseeding the lawn with red fescue to complement the white clover. Going to make an effort to improve the lawn parts of the yard. "Grass is trash," but we do have lawn. Zone 5...It looks like pear trees are a possibility now. I imagine that all of the seed packets will now have to be re-printed.

  The view from the top of our treehouse It's an unusually warm November, but it can't last. This is the view out of our new bedroom window. Aside from being very cool and nearly floor to ceiling, it gives a fantastic view of almost the whole of Steepmeadow. The raised bed complex to the upper left, through the trees the berry patch, stockpiled wood in the foreground. The window from the inside It's been warm enough, unfortunately, that the garlic I planted in October sprouted and is basically ruined. I just ordered up more to get it in the ground before it really does get cold. I have a sack of creeping red fescue to drop onto the lawn - especially the bare patches. But that's not supposed to go until it really freezes. The same is true of the strawberries, which aren't supposed to be cut back and covered with straw until they go entirely brown and full and continued freeze is in the forecast.  We've still got '60's in the forecast this week. To leave t

  Do not be too proud of this technological terror you have constructed Today will be a day long remembered. Or maybe it won't. I don't know. It was, pointedly, probably the last decent day to get any yard work done. And yard work we did. Over the past three days, Kiki and I have been to the leaf drop-off, picked up most of the leaves, cleaned the gutters, cleared out and re-stacked the shed, blown leaves off the patio, cleared out the raised beds. Top dressed the raised beds with some fresh compost for next year, picked up all of the garden pots, and put a wrap on the raised bed/leveling project for the year.  The middle row on the right will be filled with day lilies next summer. K. and I have been discussing what to grow next year. The beds in the photo immediately above are going to be the berry patch. The raspberries in the 4x4 bed (and spilling out all around it) at the end are going to get to expand into two more 4x8 beds. The runners from this year will form the core of