It’s Thanksgiving day today and I am definitely feeling thankful. The main thing I’m thankful for today is that we are receiving a steady, soaking rain right now – the first good rain in months. We really need it. The reservoir that serves most of our area has less than 3 months of water in it. And all the trees, plants, and gardens need a good soaking, too, they are so parched. My rain barrels should be full again after this rain.
I’m thankful that we have plenty of good food in the house, and my family is here, safe and healthy, to share it with me. I’m thankful that my little fall garden is still growing away, even with the scant water I’ve been able to give it these past few weeks. I’m thankful for the beauty of the autumn leaves all around. I’m thankful that I have a stable job while I transition to the next phase of my life (Although I’m not too grateful for the commute.) and that my needs are few.
I hope everyone has a wonderful day today, full of peace and reflection.
We’ve had one night of freezing weather so far. I pulled all the green tomatoes from the vines and they are ripening in a dish on the counter. I dug up a hot pepper plant and a bell pepper plant before the frost and planted them in pots. They will winter over in a back bedroom and hopefully provide an early start on peppers next year.
Today I dug up the sweet potatoes I planted. It is a very small crop, but I am not discouraged. I saw that the hugelkultur bed I planted yielded much more than the conventional raised bed. I think that in a more normal year, when I plant earlier and perhaps we get a bit more water, the sweet potatoes will yield quite a bit more. They will definitely be one of our staple crops.
We still do not have any rain. I am watering our greens and other fall vegetables with water saved from our showers and rinsing vegetables, and with the last of the rain water we saved from the last rain. But it’s not enough. We need a really good rain.
Tonight we have the woodstove going. The warmth is so soothing. We got the wood from someone who lost a tree to a storm last year. I’m grateful for the warmth, and for the exercise I get hauling in logs.
Filed under: Gardening
The garlic is coming along well, as are the snow peas. But the little greens seedlings are growing very slowly. We don’t have much water to give them and we have had no rain for two weeks. Tomorrow night or the next we are predicted to have frost. Let’s see if they survive it. If they don’t, it is goodbye to the garden for the winter.
