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Garden gets a C+ shows potential, but must live up to that potential!

 It had to be about the smallest pear I've ever eaten, about 3 inches from nose to butt. It was delicious, a harbinger of things to come. I shared it with Deb. A nibble each.

 Our pear trees are about 2 years in the ground with us. One has struggled since it's arrival in the mail, a bit of a runt from Stark Bros. The other has progressed nicely but still I wasn't expecting fruit this year. In August half of the healthiest tree decided it was spring and time to bloom. I laughed at it's youthful confusion and admired the beautiful flowers. When I saw the tiny yellow Bartlett the other day I was impressed but knew not to expect much. First fruit on a tree can tend to be unflavored or even bitter. Nope this little guy was ripe and ready!

 When I last wrote I was awaiting a storm and wondering how much of the garden to pick or lose. The storm came the storm went. The weather was beautiful fall weather and last week or so was a week of rain. This weekend threatens a light freeze. Again I am confronted with the question pick and protect or leave the tomatoes to possibly ripen as fall continues. Maybe AI has all the answers - I don't.

 My plan for now is to check the weather closely till Saturday. (The freeze is expected that night) If it's still showing a freeze I'll pull in the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. Not ideal as a red pepper beats a green one by a mile and so too a tomato. The eggplants that remain are smaller but ripe enough to use. To capture the next few weeks of growing and ripening would require a major effort of frost covers. The plants and the garden as they are don't lend themselves to an easy solution and thus the solution is acceptance.

  As I type I'm listening to Gipsy Kings and some other Latin guitar music. When I pick the last of the tomatoes it feels like the line from the song by Morrison - This IS The End My Friend. Within acceptance is the beauty of the rhythm of the Gipsy Kings, dark one moment exciting the next and always rolling on. There will be some greens that struggle along a bit longer. Mostly though clearing the beds will give me the opportunity to replace the remaining wooden pallet raised beds with some sandstone I've managed to scavenge.  This is not the end my friend it's just a different season of the garden. Gosh I can't wait, all the plans, hopes and schemes rattling in my head. Can I figure out shade cloth for the heat of the summer, a tomato to plant in August and ripen in early October, an Avocado tree that can handle our winter, a small pond for dragon flies, the right succession for the space and the place - and Oh, the figs, paw paws, and will those Bartletts give me a full crop next year?

 We live in interesting times. That is a saying with two sharp edges. Oh, the possibilities! Can you imagine what could be, what we could create.... and then you have politics! I'm in a musically inspired mood thus I'll let the links in this blog share the emotion of the words I don't have for the times in which we live. And if you're of an economic mindset I'll offer this link. I believe it offers the answers to the Econ test we'll all soon be facing. In this case it's not cheating to study the answers and it might just dull one of those sharp edges leaving exciting times that roll on.

Doug A.   

P.S. I knew nothing of Rem (one of the links) till this morning. Wow! Deb tells me that he suffered from a missed diagnosis of Lyme disease. Now follow the thread of Lyme disease down some of the rabbit holes of how it might have come to be.... and we are back to politics in America today. Just saying!   

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