Dreaming . . . Planning . . . Sometimes Scheming

Anyone who has ever grown a garden knows that while you're harvesting tomatoes in the summer you are already planning your fall garden, or if you don't plant a fall garden, what needs to be done, built, created, dug up, put away, or ordered is always right there at the edge of your consciousness.

Most home gardeners practice some type of intensive gardening.  For a home gardener to plant single rows of any crop means a lot of wasted space, lots of weeding, or mulching, and lots of wasted water and fertilizer.

And if you grow an organic intensive garden it is extremely important that you keep your soil healthy.  Unless you are very wealthy and can afford to buy organic fertilizers/soil amendments you will be a composter.

So as I watch my fall container garden grow I am planning the following projects:

1. Worm composting bin.  
2. Two-section large composting area.
3. Expanding my front and back yard garden space.
4. Removing trees at the perimeter of my yard.
5. Canning and dehydrating.

This is a lot to undertake so I am doing a little at a time as I do all projects these days.  As always, I call upon my big strong sons to do the majority of the heavy lifting, so to speak.  I miss being able to turn a garden bed, or double dig new garden space but I am realistic and preserve my strength for cooking, weeding, and the smaller tasks that require less energy.  My sons know that their reward for supporting my gardening is delicious, homemade food.  They like food!

I finally broke down and ordered some seed catalogs. I have received two so far and have been enjoying soaking them up, finding even more exciting heirloom varieties. You don't read or study a seed catalog; you soak it up. Pure delight!  The only problem is that I want to grow everything and I can't.  I love knowing that I can extend my summer garden with containers.  And that I can grow a fall garden in containers bringing them indoors on nights with a frost warning.

And while my fall garden is thriving on my deck (though it is at risk of drowning right now with the second day of heavy rains upon us), I am still harvesting Suyo Long cucumbers, lots and lots of cherry tomatoes, some plum tomatoes, a handful of slicing tomatoes, and my bell peppers are almost big enough to start harvesting with at least 10-15 more growing on this one plant growing on my deck.  Oh, my jalapeno peppers are almost ready to bloom.  I am determined to have peppers into the cold winter months this year.

So I am dreaming and planning and sometimes scheming right now.