A green Thanksgiving

And by "green" I am not talking about ecology or recycling or any of that Earth Day stuff. I am talking about the green, green grass. Even the impatiens on the front porch hung on until a week or so ago. If I were more motivated, I would mow the lawn. But I'm not that motivated.

My SO was motivated to help me finish up the raised beds, thank goodness. I made one 2'x8' bed and two 4'x4' beds; he put together five more 4'x4' ones. I like the *idea* of woodworking, but in reality, find it very tedious. Knitting thousands of stitches to create a sweater or a pair of socks is not daunting to me at all, but drilling a few dozen holes and screwing together pieces of cedar did me in.

While contemplating experimenting with square foot gardening, I debated on what materials to use in building the raised beds. Cedar was one choice, obviously, but I also considered cement blocks, primarily because I pictured planting flowers in the holes. Cement blocks have their shortcomings, though, so I am going to give them a small chance to prove they are a good idea.

Meanwhile, in the garden proper (which is mostly weed patch and mint farm) today I positioned some of the beds according to a design I have worked over and over and over again. The ultimate plan calls for more beds, of course, but I did not want to go whole hog yet. (In the background is the 2'x8' bed, upside down, awaiting its final fate.)

The first vegetable to enter the square foot garden experiment is garlic, which I planted today in one of the patio beds - four varieties, 9 cloves of each, one square per variety. This is very different from how I planted it last year, in rows spaced 12" apart. We shall see how this works out.

The Meyer lemon retreated to the indoors quite a while ago, and finally, *finally* one of the fruits is ripe.

I think. It looks ripe, but I hate to pick it prematurely. Must do some research.

More recently, more outdoor plants moved back inside.

The parsley in the foreground is some that just sat there, sharing a pot with a tomato plant that also just sat there, all summer long. I think I created my own potting soil for this particular pot, and apparently did not do a very good job. Once the parsley was repotted with some commercial potting soil dumped out of the sweet potato bags, it began to perk up.

Speaking of sweet potatoes, I roasted some last week and they were delicious.  And yesterday our Thanksgiving table was graced by the Irish potatoes.  The green beans were *not* from the garden, but the onions were.  The climate is changing, which means we need to adjust our gardening methods, so as to continue to grace our tables with backyard bounty.