Grape Mates

Trees are just beginning to show their colors! Very exciting to see the reds "sneaking in" a little more each day! One sad change though, now that it's October, is that i soon won't be able to go out in the back yard and pick fresh veggies from my small garden planted way back in the unseasonably hot days of April. i have only a few more grape [to]mat'es to pick and a few sweet peppers. it makes me sad because i have loved going out and filling the up-turned hem of my t-shirt with these delicacies. i always had half of them eaten before they made it into the house. they were sweeter than candy and gave me great pleasure, not only in their taste, but in the fact that they were the results of my months of nurturing.

the few cucumbers and zucchini that i harvested were disappointing and baffling, but i'm hoping that by adding my compost to the soil for next year's garden, it'll make a difference. (imagine! me, born & raised on a small dead-end street in philadelphia, making her own compost pile! somehow that just amazes and thrills me.) i feel good too that it has saved much refuse going to a landfill and will be put to good use.

i might double the plot size next year from 8'x8' to 16'x8' and add a few other things. i also want to either get a soil test kit, or at least have our local co-op test my soil for me. plus, i want to try to save some seeds from the dead flowers in my front garden and see if i can get some of them to grow again (like i do every year with my marigolds).

as much as i'll miss gardening over the next 6 months, i'm glad we have the seasons of change. my focus can change to IN-door fun things now; no more weeding and hours spent watering and fretting over weeks of no rain. change is good. (i'm SURE going to miss pickin' and eatin' those precious, red grape mates tho!)