Greetings, all. It’s been a while since I wrote or even checked in and you have my apologies. This summer was not a happy one and I’m still trying to get my feet back under me. As you may remember, I nearly lost Mr. Gardener to a severe asthma attack in June, then lost two of my cats in July.
Sadly, my mother passed away in September. We found she had lung cancer in August and she passed a month later. We were able to take care of her at home, where she wanted to be, and she was, thankfully, never in any pain. Her passing was very peaceful and I, and my husband, was there with her when she went.
One thing that kept me minimally sane throughout was escaping to my garden and working on our renovation project whenever I had two free minutes. My previous documentation of these adventures are here:
The Grand Garden Renovation Begins
The Grand Garden Renovation (Semi) Completed
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We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, clouds ,rocks, waters, the Earth-
and note life’s patterns.
We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
In my last installment, you could see we had all the cedar beds built, filled and seeded/planted with assorted greenery.
Here are a few shots of the growth of the veggies in the cedar beds — the stuff went nuts!!
July:
And then August:
Finally, we got everything mulched and under control (well, maybe if you squint) around the middle/end of September.
Looks a damn sight better than it did back in March!
A lot of my garden experiments didn’t work this year. Some because they didn’t get the care and maintenance they needed to thrive and some because they were silly ideas to begin with. I couldn’t care less — my sanity was salvaged that one little extra bit. The rest was saved through the support of a fine husband, wonderful in-laws and good friends at work. I’m sure I won’t miss the bits of sanity that were lost too much. ;)
Next year, I can get started earlier with beds that are already in place. I might even plant the spinach and peas and lettuce that it was too late to plant this year. I want to dedicate an entire bed to cut flowers and less to large tomatoes we just don’t eat. Maybe even figure out what the heck happened to my carrots.
What worked and what didn’t in your garden this year?
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