Seasonal Snaps {Autumn Equinox 2013}

  This big oak may look like nothing much has changed since the Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, and Summer Solstice snaps, but it did have an exciting moment. During a thunderstorm in July, lightning arched off the ground and struck her trunk, sizzling a family of squirrels and leaving a scar across the bark.

Joseph of Swainway Urban Farm grew six rows of vegetables in the tree's shadow which unfortunately were flooded during the same storm. Their growth remained stunted through the summer and yielded primarily produce for our two families.

Sorghum is the last remnant of a failed squash and grain garden in the front. Squash bugs and weeds decimated the squash plant; we're making do with an alternate harvest of corn.  

Plantings close to the house include Lil's flower garden, the apothecary with plants like the Toothache plant, and several fig trees. The blueberries that flank the walk suffered from lack of water in the spring but hopefully will make it through to next year.

The orchard trees are looking a little bigger than before. Comfrey and brambles are filling out in between the rows. Alex and Lil are sizing up the existing apple tree in this picture.  

Finally, the view where most of the action is - you can see tall sunflowers and rows of vegetables (albeit gone-by plants) that were just barely planted in the summer.  

Inside the hoop house, we're hanging on to a couple tomato plants that are still yielding ripe fruit for fresh eating. Ever-bearing strawberries are remarkably still producing fruit, a couple a day. The rest is planted with fall root and leafy green vegetables.

We will write a wrap-up of the season's successes and failures in the garden and the hoop house soon.

How is your garden looking this first day of fall?

October 7, 2011 {Friday Five}

Things I'm loving right now:

1. Early autumn is my favorite part of my favorite season and save for sad apples, this one has been lovely so far.

2. I recently downloaded the free CardioTrainer app on my outdated android phone. It tracks workout distance, route, time, steps, etc. in a very easy to use and reliable interface. Lil and I are having fun seeing how far we walk and I'm sneaking in some math lessons when we compare distance and speed.

3. Did you watch Ken Burn's Prohibition? I learned so much and was entertained to boot. Watch for free through PBS, linked above.

4. My walks are made a thousand times better by the Merrell Women's Barefoot Pure Glove. I have arches and insteps as high a campus student at 4:20 and struggle to find shoes that fit. These are basically like socks with soles and I love the weightless protection. I don't understand why they cost $90, but that's a matter to discuss another day.

5. We are leaving in a few hours to go backpacking in Hocking Hills. The area is beautiful in all weather but today's forecast sunshine and mild temperatures is perfect. Tomorrow, Athen's Farmer's Market!

Sad Apples

They say it was too cold or windy to warm the little bees' wings.

Or the apple flowers blossomed just before a storm and their white petals marbled the ground before they could attract pollinators.

Perhaps it was Colony Collapse, A frightening name for the frightening idea that we humans or weather or something mysterious is killing the bees on which we depend.

The only certainty is that apples are few this year.

Then last night the news came that Steve Jobs, curator of a technology company named after the simple fruit, died.

Jobs did not stop living in the face of cancer, or economic difficulty, or poor seasons, but his body still succumbed to the inevitable.

Those of us who love apples and Apples are sad.

We will grieve for a time. Then we will think with the creativity of Jobs. We will find ways to grow new fruit, to protect species known and unknown, to communicate and connect.

It is the way of the apple.

Pictured is the last of the apples I picked at Charlie's last season. It is ugly but I will cut into it and savor the gold rush. With no planning, this post is the first I have composed entirely on an apple product, our ipad.

Free and Low Cost Landscaping Goods

There are several opportunities for gardeners to improve their landscape this week at little to no cost: On November 1, visit supermarkets for free straw.  Our closest grocery uses straw bales to display pumpkins and then gives them away after Halloween.  We use straw to protect our strawberries from frost/thaw heaving, to mix in garden beds, and for chicken run bedding.

Word on the street (aka twitter) is that the Columbus Habitat for Humanity ReStore has large bags of organic top soil for $2, quite a steal.  They almost always have scrap lumber, spare patio stones, and paint for fall home and garden improvement projects.

Locals can check out the Chadwick Arboretum Fall Tree sale next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  They have a long list of native trees and shrubs available for purchase at very low cost.  If I had more growing space, I would be interested in the butternut ($10), pawpaw ($15) and persimmon ($15) trees, all favorites of edible forest gardening expert David Jacke.

If you aren't lucky enough to have a university sponsored arboretum nearby, keep an eye on your local nursery.  This is the time of year that many fruit trees are marked at clearance prices.  Given a little bit of care over the winter, fruit trees will return to life in the spring.

Go forth and love your landscape this autumn!

Planting for Fall Harvest and a Winner!

One of the pleasures of living in Ohio on a small plot of land is that succession planting is relatively easy. Succession planting, or seeding crops right after another, extends your growing season from the same plot of land. It works very well if you fill the space from a plant gone by with a new one that will succeed in the coming weather conditions.

We're a little under two months away from the frost free date here in central Ohio. Vegetables that can be planted now must either mature in 50-60 days or be cold hearty enough to tolerate a little frost. Here are some suggestions:

• Carrots - plant now and harvest throughout the winter as they get sweeter with age in the ground
• Radishes - many varieties mature quickly.  We're trying daikon this fall.
• Beets and Turnips- mildly frost tolerant
• Swiss Chard and Kale - greens that will keep producing all winter under a cold frame and tolerate frost without a cold frame
• Lettuces and Spinach - harmed by frost but many mature in under 60 days, check your seed packet

When my broccoli, kale, and potatoes were picked, I planted a variety of these quick maturing veggies in their places.  I reseeded my lettuce containers last week too.  With some help from the weather we will enjoy home grown produce for months to come.

Have you planted anything for autumn harvests?

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Thanks to everyone who entered the Made by Hand giveaway!  There were lots of great ideas. Ultimately I chose 'Book Hounds', the entry first mentioned by Lisa because it is short and sweet. Now I just need to get the dogs to pose with some books for a little logo. Lisa, look for an email so I can send you your prizes!

This post was added to Sustainable Eat's Simple Lives Thursday.

Seasons Turning Weekend

This weekend was a blur of summer fading to fall.  I put three garden beds to rest, including harvesting peppers and green tomatoes, pulling out honeysuckle and ivy creeping around the fence, and adding to our massive compost heap.

In discussion last night we decided to take advantage of low mortgage interest rates at our favorite credit union.  We hope to sell our Honda Fit and buy a mid 90s Civic or similar, using the car payment difference to refinance the house into a 15 year mortgage. That's not really pertinent, is it?

This morning Alex was planning to start on making molds for the kitchen concrete counter tops.  In reading about how to do so and the necessary steps after, he came across an article about using furniture grade plywood for counter tops.  We have had wood counter tops before and loved them.  In a fit of inspiration ten months in the making, we changed direction and are now going to install cherry veneer counters, and soon!

In the middle of thinking about the counter tops, I received a text from Trish at Local Matters.  She invited us to the lovely community garden at the ECLC school.  Really an integrated playground and garden, we loved walking the spiral paths and raised mound, playing with the climbing toys and monkey sculptures (above), and drinking the apple cider.  This event was a truly good time and a harbinger of offerings to come for Local Matters Local Foods Week.

While at the garden tour, we met a Farmer Paul and his chicken.  We have considered raising backyard chickens for eggs for quite some time.  When he mentioned he was selling several four month old hens, our ears perked.  Maybe now is finally the time for us to get into raising urban livestock.  We're researching coops and will certainly update progress here.

When we returned home, we planted three varieties of garlic.  Getting my hands in the soil after a weekend of big decisions always makes me feel grounded again.

We ended the weekend with a hearty dinner with family: roast pork and potatoes, risotto cakes with tomato sauce, portabella with goat cheese, green salad, bread, butter, and gourmet salts.  Autumn is beginning to settle in around here.