Fall

Autumn offers a bit of everything, rain, debris and various varieties of gray….

But also beautiful light, beautiful colors and warm temperatures, the season taken into account.

The temperatures that are well above 12 degrees are a dilemma for me.

Lovely because they prolong the season, roses and dahlias continue their promising bud production - which again, perhaps, is a little indifferent, for climax they are nowhere near. Most buds rot or at best, they just become heavy and transparent from water. Hence the dahlias also stare colorlessly, limply into the ground, so the pleasure is so so… ..

The warm temperatures have also created continued growth in the greenhouse. The squash has until recently delivered, and even giant copy. Now, however, the greenhouse has been emptied and the squash, which stood outside, discarded.

Last harvest from the greenhouse on the way in the oven.

Leeks, and especially celery leaves, are ready to eat and continue to develop.

We save on the heating bill and can still stay in our conservatory, currently subsidized by a mobile radiator.

But it is also worryingly unnatural that we have approached ‘tropical’ 20 degrees towards the end of October. But this is another blog.

I have peeled the last carrots and beets up, emptied the tomato plants and thrown out the leftovers, along with cucumber, red pepper and chili.

There are blue grapes in abundance on the wine, which reigns in one corner, and what else it manages to grab from space. I forget the grapes a bit when there are no other chores in the greenhouse. But they taste great.

A little beetroot of different kinds was pickled - and here I must admit, the striped ones I was not successful with. They became pale and tasteless, almost tasteless. I eat them now anyway - but I would not have done that if they had been purchased….

So here I will in future only pickle the regular beetroot-colored ones.

I would have liked to have illustrated better how big the squash was, because you do not quite feel it in photos, which were taken in a hurry, but while I was distracted by an indifferent traffic message on the radio or similar, the man snatched it, and wupti, had he shredded it in a casserole dish. You snooze you lose. Hmmmmm

The unexpected positive surprise was in the rows of carrots. Suddenly the beetroot-colored carrots appear - not in droves. But enough to prove they actually exist. Had become a little skeptical.

They are hysterically beautiful. There were also albino / signal yellow - carrots, and of course the life jacket-colored. Very colorful and inviting. So much so that I have not bothered to sacrifice them for anything other than the camera and carefully selected people who got a little taste. (Which was very similar to the regular ones, maybe even a little less tasteful.)

So occasionally I open the drawer in the fridge and smile down to the rest, while I acquire for raw food etc. in the supermarket. Crazy, but that's how I am. Well I do not have livestock intended for diet. I would be incompetent - buy penecillin - filled meat in the supermarket while the pig slept in my bed - and this is not my husband I'm talking about.

As it turns out, I'm about to be at the end of the season. Everything except strawberries, celery leaves and leeks has been decontaminated.

However, I also have a tarragon standing, which I do not know is overwinterable. So its future is still uncertain.

Celery leaves are very ready to eat, so a lot needs to be digested, some have few brown stems due to rainwater that has accumulated at the base of the plant, I would think. But they have been very insistent on meeting the challenges and have been ready for change - despite the lack of sun, heat and lots of rain.

The leeks are nice and big, the white bottom piece is not that long, so they are allowed to stay a little longer.

The gables still have plastic on, but expect to remove it before winter - maybe. But otherwise, all the plastic was removed a long time ago, and put together for the winter. Wanted to wash it, meeen then I could not that day: - / so hopefully for the spring…

Have emptied the soil in the capillary boxes in the greenhouse, but left the soil in various beds.

It has been a pleasure to get acquainted with the GrowCamp prayers, I have learned a lot - I hope. So next year will be ‘walk in the park’. Well - maybe not quite, but expect to reap from my experience so the yield will be even more satisfying. I was from the beginning set on less yield, with the exception of the beans, which got lice. Practice.

But was e.g. quite skeptical of celery leaves and leeks, so is positive on that account.

Fennel unfortunately did not come, but will definitely try again, think they got too little sun and heat. So they get a better place next year.

With my little knowledge and experience in the field, with a criticizable location of praying and miserable summer in terms of sun and heat, but a great go at courage and positivity, it is actually both easy, enriching and affirming to get started. Even without any preparation, in addition to instructions on the back of the seed bags, which were equally parts vile, ignored and followed.

So use evt. the winter for a little thoughts, dreams, performances and maybe a little initial research and theory, so you are ready for spring - top-motivated.

Thanks for this season.