All the Leaves Are Brown and the Sky is Gray

November 06, 2017

"All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray". It's a typical November day. All the leaves on my Perpetual Spinach were brown too, from the leaf miners that got an upper hand, in spite of the resident tree frog. I cut the plants down to the ground, raked up all the debris and hauled it down to the creek to feed the raccoons. They haven't been bothering the garden so maybe I should start feeding the rabbit down there too..

The forecast is for 25° tonight so I put back up the greenhouse panels to try and keep the tiny cauliflower heads from freezing. I don't know why the greenhouse cauliflower is behind the outdoor ones. They have ideal growing conditions so I must have been lacking in irrigation. The outdoor plants got dew and I didn't compensate for that extra moisture..

November 07, 2017

I got my garlic and onion sets planted today. The ground has dried out a bit so I wasn't working in mud. I make the holes with a divot and then backfill with my finger depending on the size of the bulb. Having the tops right below the surface works good for me because instead of using the soil around the set to cover it, I get a bucket of fine compost and put a handful over each hole. It's the same way that I plant corn..

There is a soft dome over each seed that allows for easy penetration of the emerging shoot. Compost on the sides of the seedling allow for nutrients to be readily available and rapid root expansion. I then "water them in" by using the shower setting on my nozzle and thoroughly soaking the soil until it's saturated. Heavy water application moves the soil and compost up against the bulb or seed and eliminates any air pockets which are undesirable..

November 09, 2017

The notion of having a "green thumb" seems to imply some kind of a priori, intrinsic, paranormal, savant understanding of plant physiology that puts people into a class of their own. The reality of the observation is that people who are fascinated by the complexity of the soil tend to spend more time interacting with it, and use plants to determine how well they are improving it. My wife, and the visitors to my garden, think that I have a green thumb, but I will just as easily pull up and discard a troubled plant as nurse it back to health. What I do have is a love of dirt. I enjoy the way it looks, smells and feels..

I am enamored by the mystery of it's enchantment, an entire world of life and interactions observable only under a microscope. It's as important to life on earth as our gut bacteria is to us. I've caught myself smiling at the asparagus ferns, the corn stalks, and the ground..