Sunday, September 27, 2009

Garden Harvest

I put my garden to bed for the winter this past week. I dug the potatoes, carrots, beets, onions and rutabagas. I gathered up the remaining pumpkins and squash. I picked the ornamental corn and cut the tops from the broom corn and the sorghum. I cut a plump head of red cabbage, picked several zucchini and a couple stalks of Brussels sprouts. I picked another half bushel of tomatoes, the last of a slow tomato season. And finally, I harvested my several rows of navy beans. In spite of the bunny problems in early season, the beans did well.

As I do every fall, I thought about my garden successes and failures. A good pumpkin year, an average potato crop, a poor crop of squash, an excellent sweet corn harvest, an average pea harvest, a good zucchini crop and outstanding carrots. But alas, the beets and the rutabagas were near crop failures.

Gardening is a lot like life, each year is filled with surprises, some successes, some failures but always different. What will next year bring? In a few months I’ll be making plans.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: In any journey, it’s important to stop from time to time and be thankful for the distance you’ve covered.

NEW NOVEL, BLUE SHADOWS FARM, NOW AVAILABLE: Check my website for further information. Check my schedule below for book signings and presentations.


COMING EVENTS:
Oct. 1, 7:00 p.m. Chippewa Falls Library, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 4, 1:30 p.m. Monona Historical Society, Monona, Iowa, The Lighter Side of Country Living, including Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 15, 7:00 p.m. Reader’s Loft, Green Bay, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 17, (9 to 4) Writing From Your Life Workshop. The Clearing, Ellison Bay, WI. (Still room for additional participants. Contact http://www.theclearing.org.)

Oct. 20, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. Official Book Launch, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 24, 1:00 p.m. Wild Rose Library. Book Launch, Central Wisconsin, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 28, 6:30 p.m. Elkhorn Library. Blue Shadows Farm

Nov 6-8: National Farm Toy Show, Dyersville, Iowa. Book signing: Blue Shadows Farm and other titles

1 comment:

Bill said...

I am not a gardener but some of my friends are. They have a shredder that looks like the one in "Fargo" and they chop up all the stalk, leaves, etc. that are leftover and put it all in the compost. That fine chopping makes for some of the finest resulting soil you could ask for. In a couple of years, it looks like ground coffee and very rich.