Everything Was Damp and Gray
Everything was damp and gray in the moment between fall’s rich color and winter’s severe elegance.
Robin Mather from The Feast Nearby
This week has pretty much summed up this quote, it’s been raining, and raining, and raining some more. Then it turned to damp snow and ice, and then more snow. Lots of wet weather to signal that change between fall and winter.
I still love how interesting everything is in the garden this time of year. And now that I’m feeling better I was inspired to throw on my wellies and get out to get a few photos of the garden before the big snows arrive. Here’s what I saw in my garden on Monday.
I can tell that winter is fighting with fall and it will soon win. The air is starting to get the crispness to it and there’s a noticeable lack of smell when you go outside, except for the faint scent of woodsmoke.
Has winter arrived in your garden yet? What weather predominates for you right now?
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She’s a Beauty + a Calendar Giveaway
I don’t know why I’m still taken aback by their beauty when I receive my calendars in the mail. I know the quality of Lulu printing, I’ve seen the photos a million times, yet seeing them in print and running my hands over the glossy paper makes me smile.
I spent some time earlier this week wrapping them up and mailing off the ones that go to friends and relatives far away. I love that they will have a little piece of my home showing in their home each month of the year!
At the end of December my calendar will be hung right beside my computer where I see it all day long. A big thanks to those of you who purchase my calendar as I get a few dollars from each one. This helps a lot with the expenses for keeping this blog going and helps me keep this blog ad-free! If you’d like to order a Chiot’s Run calendar for yourself or for gifts follow the links in the sidebar.
And now the part you’ve all been waiting for, a chance to win your very own 2012 Chiot’s Run Calendar. All you have to do is comment on this post and you’ll be entered to win. Winner chosen:
Where do you typically hang the calendar in your home?
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Garden Design
It is true that nature, up to a point, can, and often should, be compelled by the gardener. But the very best gardens are made when nature is a collaborator rather than an adversary. Often, that part of the gardener’s site that seems at first a painful liability turns out in the end to be the very genius of the garden, its best asset.
Joe Eck (Elements of Garden Design)
I must admit that I really need to work on my overall plan for the gardens of Chiot’s Run. Before I purchased the lots on either side this wasn’t really a problem, my garden was small, I had a plan and I was executing it. Now it’s a bit of a challenge since what used to be the boundaries of my garden are no longer there.
The edges I had defined and planted with hedges and ornamental borders are no longer there. My garden extends a quarter acre on both sides beyond the previous boundaries. My current garden is the middle slice of the lot. I have to decide how to proceed to incorporate these two new areas into my existing garden plan and make it seem cohesive.
Even though we don’t plan on living here forever, and because of the local gas fracking we may be moving sooner rather than later, I’m still a believer in gardening as if you’re never leaving. I may only live here for another year or two, or I may end up living here the rest of my life. I would really hate to be here 10 years from now and have spent that time putting off what I wanted to do just in case I moved away.
I’m working on moving forward with my new and expanded gardening plan, trying to figure out how to deal with expanding my current garden plan onto lots beyond it’s border. I’ve already started by planting bluebells and daffodils along a new walkway through the maple grove. It connects the fire ring in back of our current garden to the new lower lot. Eventually the plan is to have these flowering bulbs wander down into what will hopefully become an orchard on the front of this lot. The new lot on the other side will, in my mind, become a more formal potager surrounded by a strong hedge to keep out the deer and to provide privacy for the neighbors. These are just a few of my initial thoughts, I need to sit down and scratch them onto paper and try to figure how I must proceed to make my plan a reality and to fit my current garden into this new plan cohesively.
Do you have master garden plan? What’s your biggest problem when it comes to garden design?
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Dinner for One
Today is the first official day of gun season for deer here in Ohio. That means Mr Chiots set off yesterday morning to meet my dad at the family hunting cabin so they could be in the woods at the break of dawn this morning. That means I’ll be eating alone all week long. I spent all day Saturday cooking up a few pots of soup for him to take. With the leftovers I won’t even have to worry about cooking this week, a few quit minutes on the stove and dinner for one will be served.
It doesn’t really bother me to be alone, I’m an introvert so I rather relish it. It’s actually perfect that it happens to be this week because I have a ton of work to catch up on from being sick and the holidays last week. Not having Mr Chiots around means that I’ll be able to dedicate all of my time to working and to finishing up the last few garden chores of the year. I’m hoping I’ll even have a few minutes to spare to get a few pages read in my newest book: Elements of Garden Design!
Do you enjoy time alone or do you like to have people around?
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Quote of the Day: Nigel Slater
The seed catalogs have become an annual source of inspiration, information, and temptation. Winter afternoons are often spent thumbing through seed pamphlets and trawling internet sites before putting in my order for violet-colored beans and fire-cracker red chilis. It is almost impossible not to get carried away. You could do worse than follow my habit of writing out your wants list in the late afternoon, then taking a red pencil to it the next day. A night’s sleep can often induce a reality check.
Nigel Slater Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch
It has begun. The first seed catalog arrived in my mailbox earlier this week from High Mowing Seeds. Usually I don’t see one until a few weeks from now, like most things it gets earlier and earlier each year. I have yet to order from High Mowing Seeds, though I will this season. They carry seeds for ‘Roxy’ lettuce which I found at the local farmer’s market and really loved. That’s one of the great reasons to shop at your local farmer’s market if you’re a gardener; you might find great new varieties that will do well in your area.
I’ve still been feeling a bit under the weather from that cold that I picked up in Cincinnati and I’m not quite back to 100% yet. The worst part is that when you’re feeling bad your creativity goes out the window. When you have to be creative for your job, it makes everything really difficult. It’s been tough to keep the blog posts coming every day here on Chiot’s Run for the last two weeks and I apologize if they’ve been a little less than exciting and a little light in the photo area.
I haven’t been taking photos because I haven’t been feeling well. Usually I take between 25-100 photos each day, I’ve only taken 20 photos in the last 14 days – that tells you how I’m feeling. I dusted off my camera yesterday to take photos for this post and felt like my creativity was coming back. It’s still not quite back to “normal”, but enough to come up with a little something interesting for this post.
This seed catalog will get shelved with the others that arrive until January. I simply cannot make myself think about planning the garden and ordering seeds for 2012; there’s still too much to do in the garden and around the house for the holidays. Also, I’m still really tired and worn out from being sick.
Have you received your first seed catalog yet?
