Hello dear readers,

I write to you from my kitchen desk while a storm brews outside. The last few days have been more October than June, and I can’t say I’m not enjoying it. I’ve never been all that fond of summer, with my opinion only changing in adulthood once I became a gardener.

Speaking of this: I planted a final crop of birdhouse and loofa gourds at my grandparents’ farm, much later than I’d anticipated, but life got the better of me. With my pumpkins and gourds, and my grandmother’s squash, I’m happy to report the field is nearly full! Once the vines begin to spread, I doubt we’ll see any empty ground.

Also on the farm: one of my pepper plants is loaded with peppers, some over four inches long already! This is only because of the fun new grow light my grandma bought this year, though I’m very much looking forward to more early peppers and tomatoes in the years to come.

Back at home, I made a new wildflower bed in the back yard a few weeks ago, and those seedlings are just beginning to show now. Also in that bed are sweet peas and a few red sunflowers. In the front yard, the black hollyhock I planted last year are just beginning to bloom. One of them, for some reason, has grown to over eight feet tall, and it’s going to look amazing once each blossom has opened.

Something not so great in the garden is that my basil never came up. I planted three times—with two different seed packets—and each time I was left with nothing. Not even a single sprout! I’m not sure what went wrong, but I plan to buy a couple plants this week, because my dried basil stores are getting low.

But my radishes have flourished! I pickled my entire crop of regular radishes, and my daikon radishes have been cleaned and stuck in the fridge until I decide what to do with them. Which, unfortunately, may be nothing other than giving them to someone who will eat them. I don’t think I like radishes nearly as much as I thought I did.

A final garden-related task is that I’m drying a number of seeds for a friend’s upcoming birthday; she’ll be getting marigolds, bachelor’s buttons, siberian wallflower, and jellybean poppies. She is a self-proclaimed black thumb, despite badly wanting a garden, and so I’m passing along seeds I know she won’t have any trouble with.

That’s all I have on the gardening front this week. I hope you’re well, and have been enjoying the weather, whatever it may be for you.

—Catherine

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