Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Autumn Gardening!

Gardening in the Autumn can be tricky in Northern California. Sometimes, the heat continues through October making it hard to pull out the tomatoes, peppers and basil. Other weeks, it is cool and crisp and feels like time to plant greens and root veggies.  Here we are back in early September, planning the garden plots after pulling out most of the summer veggies.


We select a garden plot each year to fill with a cover crop, like fava beans, to provide nutrients to the soil.  Hopefully, the beans and peas will grow up into our handmade tepees from branches that our neighbors cut down. Grow, little fava beans!

Adding sweet soil from the bottom of our compost pile helps revive the raised garden beds. Our compost pile is hidden by the fence near our meditation spiral.  The spiral is filled with new golden leaves each morning!  This is the view from our bedroom window each morning.

We have learned that certain crops just do not grow well from seed here, so we plant some seedlings -- broccoli, onions and cauliflower.  The garden gnome watches over our progress.

We are going to add some flowers for beauty and color to invite the elementals to stay! Sometimes, we do better planting in pots and barrels like this one, filled with celery, strawberries, pansies and nasturtiums.
Time to sing as we garden!

I dig, dig, dig
And plant some seeds
I rake, rake, rake
And pull some weeds
I bend and watch
And soon I know
My garden sprouts
And starts to grow!