The seasons offer us many opportunities if we only pay attention. Late winter and spring is a time that wakens the resting plants and brings on blooms and this is our signal that we are getting to planting time. Summer brings on heat that certain fruits and vegetables need or they will not grow. Fall signals us with beautiful golden and orange colors that it is time to finish the harvest so that we are prepared for winter. Winter is time to nourish ourselves from our pantry with the vegetables, fruit and meat that we put away during the other three seasons. It is time to clean and repair our tools, to mend and work on those projects that make our home that place of refuge and comfort.
This is spring now where we live and I will be canning the mulberries very soon as this is our first fruit of the season here at our home. It is fall for those of you across the water, are you stocking up for winter?
Our little plot of earth where we live has a lot of shade, this is good for the summer heat but not for growing vegetables. Last fall I made a little test spot out front of our home (shown above, last years photo) because there is a small sunny area here. It did well and grew fall beans and scalloped squash, so this past week we moved some fencing and started working on a new small garden spot here in this place.
Shown above is early last week, we took up the fencing and moved it around to put in a container garden. For an entire week we trimmed limbs did a lot of digging in the dirt making new places in our yard for planting and pulling weeds all over the yard.
Charles dug down to sink some pots so I could plant beans across this area.
This is the new container garden today in the space where we tried out a test garden last year. This area will grow beans, scalloped squash, zucchini, oregano, parsley and tomatoes.
I have been digging up and transplanting small flowers that volunteer to grow in our paths and places that we needed to move them so they have a better chance to grow. So each spring I get out with my gloves and small shovel and transplant these different flowers that are often seeded from birds, insects and small animals.
I thought this would be a good location for the snapdragons. They will be very pretty when they fill out.
I cleaned up some of the hanging pots and planted petunias to add some color. I noticed that this year seems more gray and there are not as many flowers in the neighborhood as other years. It seems as if something is off and maybe the earth is trying to mend. If everyone would try to add organic matter to the soil where they live it would be helpful. We do this with composting.
Albert has been a real sport, last year he hung out in the peppers and now he has been protecting the nursery plants. We had to replace a few things this year because of the deep freeze. We lost our lemon tree and the two satsumas are questionable if they will recover. The pear trees will have few pears due to freeze.
Albert found a spot on top of the sundial so he could approve of the work we are doing. There is still much work to do in the back yard. I will pressure wash the walks when I finish with making such a mess.
Albert, William, Heather and many of the other ornamental animals are gifts that Charles has brought home over the years and I talk about them as if they are real because they make us happy.
The plants lined up on the stepping stones are part of the plants that I planted for our family member Madge. We will put them on her deck so all she has to do is water them and harvest them. I will be adding more plants as they get big enough to take up there. The tomato plants are getting very tall now.
Some of these plants have been in three different pots or cups since I first planted the seeds.
These are more plants in waiting. I am not completely comfortable with putting them out to their location until the temperatures are more stable. I will be planting more seeds in trays this week and I am still waiting for warmer weather to plant the okra and cucumber.
Back inside I have quite a bit of work to do since our working vacation brought in a lot of dirt and grimy clothes. The rain days that forced us inside occasionally and those days we worked on shredding paperwork and going through desk drawers.
Each evening we bathed and literally dragged, grunted and crawled into bed because we were so tired and basically in pain most of the week from sore muscles. I am thankful for the ability to do the work and a comfortable bed.
We were back to easy meals due to no time for cooking. We purchased grocery store wraps and put anything simple and easy on those wraps. Mashed up some avocado, shredded some lettuce, sliced tomato and yogurt. One day this was the same but with ground beef.
When I was sorting through paperwork I decided to start using a small notebook and put tags on the tops of the pages and use it to stop writing things on small pieces of paper that was everywhere and I could never seem to find that piece of paper I needed.
So now I am using my little book to fill with notes I make.
The plants that we plant in our yard, I check to see if it is dog friendly or safe so we can have a pet safe garden. I keep adding things as I do research. Also I want to add more companion planting information. Many years ago my mother had a cat that got terribly sick and almost died and we found out that he had gotten into something from the nightshade family. I believe the name of it was Belladonna. After that I have tried to research plants that are toxic or poisonous for pets. Since I found out that the geranium that I have is toxic to pets, I moved it to an area that the dogs do not go.
We do not have a television but I still can watch dvd if I want to. Through the years we purchased dvd's and so we have a dvd library that we can pull from if we do want to watch something. I made a list of my favorite series and on days that I have a lot of ironing I will pick out one of these and listen as I iron.
The little book is small enough to put in my purse and now I have little section for prices of groceries and a note section for something I need to remember.
Our apples are doing well and for a young tree we are happy that it is producing apples this year. We are still counting around 20 apples, I hope they can hold on until their time to harvest. More storms predicted for this Thursday, I hope it just rains because we only need the water not the wind and hail.
I planted this petunia have it hanging at the front porch so I can enjoy it each time we go outside. I have never had a petunia this mingled blue and white color.
The yellow is so refreshing with all the grayness around. I hope that it brings joy as people pass by. We all could use more joy.
What is going on at your home this spring/fall? Grandma Donna
