ENDING A SEASON... ENDING AN ERA...

I broke my favorite gardening tool several days ago... ending a twenty year era using it to fork-up garden soil. I bought it just after my 50th birthday with a gift of cash from Frederick & Rodney in Sonoma County, California, carving an inscription to that effect along the handle. It had been fragile & we had replaced it with another so as to coddle its weakness, but, in a mood of reminiscence. I took it out of its corner in the shed for a gentle chore. 

Its time had obviously come... 

I might have used it to dig the tubers of the Mashua, which has covered its trellis this summer & is now blooming... the first indication that the harvest at its roots is beginning to develop... probably to be ready around solstice...

The entire plant is edible, leading leaflets are great in salad, as are the insignificant blossoms, 

This is a Peruvian nasturtium I discovered when I was volunteering at the "Mother Garden", the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, also in Sonoma. Most years I've had difficulty growing enough "seed" tubers to plant, but last year I didn't let us eat any of the zippy morsels  & we are now going to be rewarded! We happily eat them sliced raw, but they are also delicious roasted, when they mellow n flavor. I've posted about this before with these photos of a previous crop...

 I'll close with these delightfully colored Fava beans from earlier this summer...

Apprentice Chandler took the time to sort them into a gradually spectral line...

Now I will shop for a new handle for the still sturdy tines of the fork... 

perhaps it will yet help to harvest Mashua!

Frogs & Fog...

Recent mornings have been rather mystically misty.

Bringing my morning coffee down to sit in the garden startles the frogs into silence for only a few minutes while they assess that I am no danger. I could not say "chorus", which certainly applies to the sound we often open car windows, slowing on our drive home, to enjoy passing several ponds higher on the slopes above Soundcliff.

As I settle the quiet restores & they begin again... usually only a trio or quartet of young explorers, presumably from those wet places further up-slope. I sip, celebrating that they chose to grace this garden at the edge of... well... everything! To have frogs, butterflies & bees, plus increasing variety of birdsong in our Eden gives some hope on our cliff's edge... emissaries of the Goddess.

How does one measure a garden's progress?  Years ago I grounded myself as quincunx to the center of the four raised beds I call "Roothole". I've held faith in the intelligence of growing beauty & food, rejuvenating my patchy gardener, after some years living urban... proving my devotion.

These musings sometime get warmed by bright moments aptly described  in our vernacular as the sun-breaks we cherish. The camomile bed begins to call me. I've ignored it this summer to the point I was ready to give up weeding it. Weeding again becomes meditation...

Summer has been gloriously sunny... the garden has similarly responded!

There is a lovely wild plant abundant in our neighborhood. I do not know any name, but we have dubbed it a "gourd". It is not. Instead it is a fragile husk which protects three large seeds, which develop into a sturdy perennial octopus-like root mass. While not on my list of weeds, I am chary to let its lovely rampant growth into my garden!

 The pea trellis eventually gave a long season of both snow peas & sugar snap varieties.

 It grew in the old fire-pit, which has developed rich soil...

I found seeds for a variety of beans I knew from the Mother Garden in Sonoma County... which we came to call "Dragon's Lingerie" mimicking the French name.

 We grow many kales & greens, but our favorite kale has long been Lacinata, rich substance, dark green. Late summer brought another old favorite in Trombonchino, a squash often living up to its name in shape!

Our favorite of the several varieties of kale we grow is Lacinatta, a deeply vital, dark green, rich in texture & nutrition... glorious fiber!

Squash blossoms are further boom, offering cavities to stuff with goodie before sauteing.

 

One result...

 

We love having fine displays from new bulbs... Hymenocalis, so reminiscent of blooms in Bali, we can only welcoming this exotic flower to Soundcliff's garden!

Another "exotique" was dug out between paving stones as I weeded...

This ginger was gift from Taylor some years ago. finally finding a home to bloom...

The challenge is to determine our zone as it might define our unique exposure for such specimens... I've a life's-work yet in this garden. 

I end with a nocturnal view of Soundcliff wishing you good night.

!!! EGADS !!! EQUINOX !!!

I remember as a kid being intrigued when my Auntie K used that phrase... I often heard it as "ye-eee gads". By high school I seem to have figured out it was probably a way to circumvent our Baptist family's prohibitions about using the name of deity... for whom there was only ONE. I've used it with my fondness for her, celebrating her gentle slyness. She was my mother's eldest sister, a passionate teacher, becoming one source of rare wisdom... if sometimes a bit cynical... for this boy stuck on a farm.

The phrase came literally to my tongue when I saw that this blog has languished almost a year!

I'd been thinking about posting for the late summer garden, but then I've contemplated any number of posts during this vacancy... the spiders are once again beginning to stretch their airy palaces... EGADS! how do I weave some such "palace" to bridge this lapse of time? We all know my proclivities toward daunting dumps of photos & verbiage.

In my imaginary silky palace floating above another year I see the garden surrounding Soundcliff changing diligently, by design or at least intent... then things happen...

So another of the swath of aging alders long shading our southern yard had to come down, opening our exposure radically. Shade no more.

 Numerous loads of manure from a local farm were hauled & dug-into beds old & new.

The gardens in the north continue thus to build fertility. We've eaten well in each season from a variety of kales & collard, peas next... an abundant red lettuce added to salads.Great to have grilled favas for several months!

A singular bounty of "Dragon's Lingerie" beans... beautifully purple streaked ivory yum. Lacinato kale becomes staple as Tromboncino squash begin to dangle as I stuff & saute their blossoms.

This one had opportunity to become very exuberant !

An early spring view of the potager... with the pea-tipi in lower left.

I tackled a number of projects, including replacing the last of the original raised beds... more than 15 years useful! I'm building them now out of rough sawed two-inch cedar, believing they might outlive me!

The flower boarders have given us much exotique satisfaction from favorite bulbs like Tigridia...

Plus new first timers... these Hymenocallis will definately be invited back next year!

 

For years we have kept a Brugmansia on the upper deck during summer for years, which needs to be sheltered during the winters... taking some major space indoors as it grows rangy in spite of pruning!

 

We've had an abundance of bird song & bee buzz... now come welcome frog chorus.  Weeds constantly challenge battle... but that's the earthy web of roots & fruits & wildlife nurturing &  cocooning our human lives.