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| Oh, Henri. This was one of the last clematis flowers hanging on until last night. |
Except for cleanup on the aisles of the garden, nature has officially closed up shop. We dodged frost until overnight last night, but you can't expect the growing season to last forever in Minnesota. Dave noted that the hydrangea is now a bye-drangea, and the petals on that Henri plant dropped like flies. This first frost was way later than most years, but not quite as late as the record of Nov. 18, 2016. I was probably ready for garden season to be over that year too.
All the heavy terra cotta pots filled with herbs have been painfully schlepped inside, including a non-hardy hibiscus that is now taller than both of us and has to fit between the rafters of the basement ceiling under grow lights. It's one of many things that grew like a weed this year, including, well, the weeds.
It wasn't a bad year, as gardening goes, although there were certainly times I questioned whether I really want to have a garden anymore, given that so much of it is at ground level and the weeds flourish in weather in which I wilt. But I really want to have fresh garden produce available outside my back door, and since I lack a garden staff, donning garden gloves is really my only alternative.
I, of course, had grand visions of finally getting my garden into some sort of shape after years of backsliding late in my working life. I may have moved it closer to striking distance for next year, but didn't move the needle nearly as much as I'd hoped. But I am closer to a vision of what I want it to be, and with any luck will enter next year more in attack mode than recovery mode.
I will say this, one of my stated goals for retirement is to be more present in my garden, and remaining weeds aside, I can honestly say I was out there more often and got to enjoy more moments of comparative Zen. I also captured more of the herbage for use in more ways in the kitchen than I've had time for in previous years.
And if garden success was measured by number of pollinators per square foot, this was a ridiculously successful year. In addition to the usual suspects, we let way too much of the arugula reach the flowering stage, and I have never seen such a feeding frenzy on any other plant than the wild asters. One of the plants to benefit from the pollinator plethora was a volunteer cantaloupe. We only got one to come to full size, but it was free.
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| The price was right. |
Next year. No really, I mean it.
