Every year I promise I won't go AWOL during the main growing season of the garden. Just so I will get everything done and catch up with the past year's neglect. but every year I manage to break those unspoken, informal vows. Usually family related, but sometime through the call of far off places I leave the yard in varying states of upkeep and return to a jungle. This year I didn't even … [Read more...] about Garden Update And Late Starts
garden musings
Autumnal Sweetness
The door is closing on this growing season. To make up for the sense of loss, somehow the season has incredible sweetness. Frost has that effect on things. On fruits, on the the ground, on our souls. It is as if to placate our mournful sense that the pleasant days of fall will give way to winter's austere lessons of rest, endings, and survival. Sweet Labors I have had a few simply perfect … [Read more...] about Autumnal Sweetness
Some Thoughts
I've been online a while writing garden articles, first in my geocities free website (which is no more- although it is on the "wayback machine"). One of the early fellow garden writers I had enjoyed was Turning Earth. Do any of you know her through her site? Today I came across a reference to those early days,here:'Bloom where you are planted'"I first saw these words on Ilona's garden site. In the … [Read more...] about Some Thoughts
My Rural Garden
Or How I Got To Be Here ...it all begins somewhere.I had been gardening in the city for some years. I don't remember ever wishing to move into a country place, particularly, but my city neighborhood was deteriorating and my family size was increasing. My interest in history, and then gardening, began to branch towards homesteading. It was the seventies that developed that trend, and so by 1980 I … [Read more...] about My Rural Garden
Sundays
Sundays at my house are quiet. I don't do any yardwork, including no power tools, etc. This is partially by conviction: I believe that people need a day of rest from their labors,but also due to the fact that I live in a conservative Mennonite, Amish-Mennonite community who do have convictions on Sunday Sabbath and who I want to respect. It is blissfully quiet around here, no going to work … [Read more...] about Sundays
Peace in the Garden
I accidentally put a rant in here, but it is all deleted now. Sometimes I feel I handle disappointments better if I can garden. It doesn't have to be actual gardening, it can be anything outside that is quality and quantity of time in soaking up the observations and experiences of God's good earth. I believe we have done a great disservice in paving over and engineering so much of our world. We … [Read more...] about Peace in the Garden