Dirt under my nails

 Today we had a grand time together.  We worked in the garden in the morning when it was still cool.  It was a little sad to pull up all the tomatoes and the cucumber vines that had produced so much for us over the last few months.  But they have run their course now.

So we weeded and pulled vines, leaving behind those plants that were still producing.  This is what the garden looked like when we were done.

The peppers are still prolific.  I picked one that was at least 12 inches long.  It was a Mexican sweet pepper.  We will make some pepper jelly soon with the hot and sweet peppers.  It is my mother's recipe and the jelly is generally a big hit with people, especially at Christmas when we give jars to friends.

The okra is still producing little pods.  Okra loves the hot weather that we have had.  We will probably get another month of pods off the plants. I will hate to see the okra go because it has truly been hardy. 

We also aerated the compost so that the soil can be amended prior to planting.  I really like these compost bins. The soil is already rich here because the property was once part of a large plantation and all the land was cleared and planted, probably in cotton.  The fields were allowed to grow up and now mature trees of pine, oak, sweet gum, and magnolia cover a lot of the property. 

And here is what we picked today.  For lunch, C. made a bastardized version of ratatouille with the peppers, okra, eggplant, onion, and some tomatoes.  It was awesome.  Look at the size of that sweet pepper--huge, right?

After lunch, we went to buy seed to plant: beets, carrots, broccoli, winter squash, kale, mustard greens.  The actual sets for some of the plants that we want to put in weren't in yet so we got a few fall flowers to plant in the front flower beds.  I was looking for clematis because it smells so sweet this time of year.  I'll have to check at another garden center in town for it.   But we bought some globe amaranth,  a plumbago, and some mondo grass to put in large pots.  We also picked up a few cacti for the little desert gardens that we have going in some ceramic containers.

There is something so neat about being among the plants and looking for a few new varieties to try.  It was just a fun day.  Working side by side with dirt under our nails was fun.

It reminded me of the time when we had our first house, and I made a round flower garden for C.  I filled it will all kinds of flowers.  And we had our very first vegetable garden at that first house of ours.  That was a while ago.  We were much younger and filled with all kinds of ideas and dreams.  Now we are older and still filled with ideas and dreams.  And today we shared those things together without distractions.  Amazing what the promise of the coming season can do.