Warm Weather!

 I am foolishly crazy about growing our vegetable garden. I love those collards, so huge and resplendent now. Today I discovered a whole bunch of cauliflowers, already heading nicely. You would think that I would label what I have planted. But I do not. I love the wild abandon and the surprises when I find a whole row of carrots ready to pick! I love finding some of the last of the season's peppers, and those tomatoes left from the summer still top our salads. My goal is to plant something every day. Today I buried a bunch of sprouting potatoes and in a few weeks they'll be sprouting.

I work in the garden and spend a few minutes admiring the beauty of a lettuce bed with all its textures and colors. Sometimes I look out over the wonderful pristine landscape beyond the garden, and I am entirely happy.

Growing vegetables (and anything else!) takes time and sweat. I love planting and watering stuff but I hate the weeding and removal of spent vegetation. But it's all part of the process. My mate actually turned over the compost pile a few days ago, so now we have a really good mixture to use on the vegetables.

Our community garden also is doing famously and feeding lots of folks. The school kids work diligently with the plants and are taking home broccoli, collards, beans and other vegetables.

This evening I went out to our garden and picked broccoli for my supper. The coyotes were beginning to howl in the distance and the bats were flying around. Today's high was close to ninety degrees, way warmer than usual for this time of the year. It scares me. I love having this extended growing season and all the tremendous greenness, but I know in my heart that in ten days we could have a freeze. I like things to be normal.

Tomorrow I shall pick huge quantities of vegetables and take them to friends. It's great to be the idiosyncratic old lady who grows things!