September 7, 2022
I’m not sure why it is, but
today’s date, September 7, is the date I always associate with the day of
returning to school. Hereabouts in my neck of the woods, elementary and high
schools commence their fall terms after their summer breaks the day after Labour
Day. This year, the kids went back yesterday, and for the first time, our dogs
didn’t cause a ruckus when the bus arrived. Which means either that I did a
good job of repositioning that chair last night—or they’ve moved the bus stop.
There will be a day this week
when I will know if it’s the latter.
Despite that fact that fall
commences this year on Thursday, September 22nd, for all intents and
purposes summer is over. And while this week we’re in for some heat, next week,
according to the weather network, we’ll have more moderate temps with the
actual and “feels like” all in the seventies.
Our veggie garden has begun to
fade slightly. Our beans weren’t nearly as good this year as they were last; I
did get three packages into the freezer so far, and we did enjoy a couple of
meals of them, besides. I maintain that the major difference this year over
last was David’s inclusion of yellow beans in the mix. Actually, the yellow
beans harvested outnumbered the green two to one.
I knew my opinion confused him
because he couldn’t hide that look. Anyone who’s been with someone for a long
time knows that look. As if suddenly, they’re faced with a complete stranger
who also speaks a foreign language. His response was to state what he believed
to be the truth: that I loved yellow beans.
Funny, though, how when I asked,
he couldn’t recall a single time when I had served them as a veggie at the
table, at least not in recent years. I did once serve them—the canned variety—in
our younger days because he’d asked for them from time to time. But if he didn’t
ask, I didn’t get. And I suppose that was remiss of me, because the truth is he
loves them, and I can’t stand them.
When I reminded him of all
this, he seemed relieved. Then he told me that they really hadn’t been that
good the few times we had them this summer, and he was happy that he wouldn’t
have to plant them next year.
And yes, he’s already making
plans for next year. Jenny has convinced him that his gardens need to be a bit
deeper. And she’s told him we need to replace all the soil. The soil in them
has lasted several years, but boxed gardens aren’t like the real thing in the
ground. When you plant your garden in the ground, after the harvest, you don’t
need to pull our all of your dead plants, like you do with the boxed gardens. During
winter, you can strew all sorts of things like coffee grounds, pulverized eggshell,
or simple compost on your garden. Then, in the spring, you turn the soil with a
tiller, and plant anew. Thus, every few years it seems wise to replace the soil
in the boxed gardens.
There is one more thing they’re
planning to do next year: there is an area in our upper yard that is fairly
flat, where we had a garden, back before we lost our Anthony. It worked out
quite well that year. These days, of course, that’s a part of the yard I can’t easily
visit because it’s a steep climb. I was trying to recall why we didn’t use that
area for a second year. I don’t think it was because of poor produce. It likely
was a combination of things, not the least of which was the climb and the
difficulty getting down to the ground and back up again.
The one thing David has been
frustrated with in regard to his boxed gardens has been his lack of success
growing any kind of squash. Our daughter thinks the problem was simple lack of
depth, so they’re planning, next year, to turn some sod at the top of the yard
to make a squash garden.
I’ll just need to remind them
that if they are planting just one small garden for squash it ought to be just
one variety from that plant family.
I still recall the time my
mother planted watermelon for the first time. She put them too close to the
cucumbers. Now, those cucumbers turned out pretty good, but those watermelons
were the worst I’d ever tasted.
I think the term for what
happened in that case is cross-pollination. And that’s something one should
avoid.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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