Fall Garden

It didn't freeze last night.  It didn't even nip the plants.  In the last few weeks we've had forecasts for 40F and had light frost.  Last night with a forecast for 30F, we had nothing.  I was just thinking of the benefits we have in modern weather forecasting.  I'm reminded it's not as helpful as it sounds.

I have never grown a fall garden before.  I've read about it, but by August I was so worn out of gardening.  This year, we braved the August heat and put some seeds out.  One of my daughters volunteered to plant a row of turnips.  To my surprise, they germinated in that 100F sun and have grown well.  Many are already four and five inches in diameter.  We'll eat some, but most of them will go to the cows over the winter.  We'll throw some leaves on the plants when it gets really cold, but leave them in the ground. 

Last spring we tilled up a big section of our front yard.  It was all grass and we needed the extra garden space.  This fall that same area sports a large pumpkin patch.  I didn't even think of how good it would look at Halloween, but it sure does.  It would look better with those vines knocked down by a hard frost and the pumpkins sitting there like God had casually sprinkled them around.  Oh well.

My children are heavy into Halloween decorating, a good portion of which is handmade.  I love that my children value their own handmade things.  So much of modern culture devalues anything that isn't store-bought and I'm reassured that they haven't taken that all in.  My nine-year-old made this "witches broom" from sticks she found in the backyard.  I think she did a good job.

After a full morning of homeschooling yesterday, we spent the rest of the day with apples.  Two batches of apple sauce yielded ten quarts of sauce and five packages of apple pulp.  We also got five packages of apples in the freezer for pie.  One-and-a-half bushels done.