People Who Don't Have a Veggie Patch

September 16, 2017

I don't know that people who don't have a veggie patch ever get to eat tomatoes as if they were apples. Lemon cucumbers too. I don't think they know that green onions and cherry tomatoes are best eaten in the garden. Do they ever get to eat lettuce by the handful? I enjoy the popcorn like smell of the zucchini plants as I reach in to pick. Their prickly stems have taught me to be gentle..

Kneeling down to smell the honeydew melon, to see if they are ripe, always makes me linger. I should spend more time this way. The rustle of the cornstalk leaves as I work my way down a row. All of our senses get rewarded with a tour of the garden..

September 17, 2017

It's time to cover the wood pile, rain is on the way. Gotta clean out the rain gutters and pick up all the garden tools you've been leaving out all summer. Although I rejoice at the refreshing of the earth, I'm saddened by the end of another summer. Summers are my calendar on life. Each one represents a year. Winters are for school and work. Long gray days of rain and cold. I have come, in my old age, to miss the departing insect population..

Every day some one of them makes me stop and take note. They are constant interruptions on my days. A form of discovery and joy. The bumblebees were out until 7:00 last night. They reminded me of where the expression "busy as a bee" came from. You would think they might make me feel guilty. They don't..

September 18, 2017

There's nothing like the first Fall rains to enhance the fragrance of the tall dry grass. The woods smell like playground tanbark. Even the gravel driveway has an interesting smell. Dusting off all the tree and bush leaves probably feeds the plans. It definitely makes them shinier. I like how everything is damp, but I've already begun to hope for an Indian summer..

Bright sunny days in the 70°s, frost on the pumpkin in the morning. The frost triggers the butternut squash to begin converting their starches into sugars, so waiting to pick them for awhile is recommended. It also makes the Brussels sprouts sweeter, in a very noticeable way, if you've been eating them through the fall. It's a nice time for the melon to finish ripening and to squeeze the last bit of growth out of the corn. It's also time to get the tomatoes hung upside down in a sheltered spot..