Hello dear readers,

For a while I’ve wanted to start a section on this blog all about gardening and time on the farm, but I just haven’t gotten around to it. Part of me thought October was a little too late to start talking about it, but then again, there’s still so much happening out there.

After being housebound for the past week with a cold, I chose to spend my first day of wellness puttering around my grandparents’ farm. I’ve planted a garden there two years in a row now, meaning I go there every two or three days from June through the beginning of September. I still enjoy visiting for the rest of the year, of course, but this is when I’m there most.

September was weird for me in that I was very inside the novel I was revising, and this week too I’ve been pretty deep in the new one. But I had a few beds I wanted to clean out there, so I went bright and early this morning to do so. Of course, coffee and toast is had first—we always sit around the kitchen table for a chat.

I started with one of my herb beds I’d been putting off emptying, which was half dark opal basil and half marjoram, then moved onto the one that held carrots and peppers. The peppers are gone by now, but the carrots are still going; I should be able to clear the rest of the bin when I go back on Monday for pumpkins.

Speaking of pumpkins: we planted jack-o-lanterns—we save the seeds from the biggest jack-o-lanterns every October to plant the following spring—and sugar pumpkins in the lower field, and just jack-o-lanterns in the top field. And, also in the top field, a surprise crop of ghostly white pumpkins! My grandpa gets dirt and other landscaping materials dropped off from time to time, so they must have come in that way. I will definitely be saving the seeds from these to plant next year, too.

After loading the pumpkins into the car, my grandma and I picked some apples from the tree, though neither of us can remember what they’re called. Either way, I’m planning on baking some tonight with cinnamon and sugar, and making a pie over the weekend. And then the rest I’m going to have to magically find room for in our fridge. Honestly, if we had space for a second fridge/freezer, I’d take it—I store, can, and freeze so much produce over the fall and winter that our entire freezer is overflowing.

When I was younger, I always thought the gardening season was over late August, maybe mid-September depending on what you’re growing. But there’s still so much to do this year; I’ll be planting garlic and onions in a few weeks, and some new bulbs in the back garden, too. I do love tulips, but I’m hoping to find something at the garden center that will bloom at a different time.

Also at home: I still have a bed full of basil, catnip, mint, parsley, and oregano. Later today I’ll be cutting those back, because starting tonight, we’re in for our first real autumn storm (I am so ready). But I’d like to get all those cut and tied up before the rains come. The sunflowers, too, need to be cut down, but I’ll wait until next week for that.

I think that’s all for now, though I’m sure I’m forgetting something. Either way, I would love to hear what you’re doing in your garden right now.

Hope you’re well ♡

—Catherine

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