Wistful Over Autumn

Did our parents know that in between their own worries and their hard work - they were creating sweet memories for us? I think about this as a parent. While I doggie-paddle and tap dance to keep the house running and keep a paycheck coming and keep Willa in clean clothes and eating healthy food - is she picking up on any of that distracted busy-ness during her everyday, magic times?

I hope that she is focusing more on the acorns, pine cones and quince we pick up during hikes, the taste of wild persimmons, the golden evening sun, her new pimped-out tricycle, dancing to the vinyl we put on the record player, giving her three goofy dogs a bath and reading The Big Orange Splot.

A long weekend with my parents in New York earlier this month hit all of my early autumn memories. We spent time during the rainy days going through old photo albums. The smell of oak tree leaves, half-melted Snickers from trick-or-treating bags and clean hair warm from the autumn sun all came back. I get terribly homesick for New York these days.

And so, as grown-ups, we must create our own moments and memories. New ones that can tie into our childhoods a bit, too. For me, it's the smell of baking apples and pumpkin innards. Watching the evening slip into night and wood stove fires. Pulling out the last harvests from the garden. And maybe throwing in a pint-sized Stormtrooper and a Princess Leia up-do for good measure.

Gardening Got You Down? Eat A Whoopie Pie.

I recently realized that this blog has departed (somewhat) from gardening. Especially in the visuals and I know that those of you who live in Virginia will understand why. Photographing the garden hasn't been fun. I actually find myself cringing and looking away from the garden because some decisions had to be made that went against every grain of my gardener soul.

Dwindling well water supplies and no real rain since July means letting things die. My stomach twists even as I write this. My plans for adding to the garden in September had to be abandoned because it would be like planting in dust and ash. Forever curious to me are the lives of the weeds that thrive in these situations. (Which reminds me, I must find some uses for pokeweed.) Even Willa's balcony vegetable garden has suffered and the tender, spindly beet greens were consumed fully by A Very Hungry Caterpillar within the span of two days.

But our Sugar Baby watermelons are miraculously ripening and I have a child who can't get enough watermelon in her life. I even put it in the blender when it is getting a bit mealy and she sucks down the juice (as do I). Everyone around here is thirsty.

We made it to a parade and balloon-filled fire department celebration with friends last weekend (second and third photos). I was lucky enough to get to most of my wish list - and yet, as expected - it spilled in increments into this week. The sweater is still in-progress, but there was progress none-the-less. And the whoopie pies - oh, the whoopie pies. If you try the recipe, make sure to double the frosting. It really is the whoopie to the pie. And good for what ails you.

This weekend will be quiet. We have mulch and compost to add to the garden. A sweet friend loaned me both her pink standing Kitchen Aid mixer and a copy of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. You will probably find me alternating time between those two treats all weekend long.

Weekend Wish List

Friday night vinyl!

Goodwin Creek Farm Ciabatta with brie and homemade quince jam.

Less laundry, more weeding. Remembering how great the sun feels.

More gratitude, less fretting.

Finishing that thick, brown sweater I started knitting years ago - for upcoming fall evenings. I swear - this will be the weekend it happens! The wool is from the local Mangham Manor.

A small-town parade - with firetrucks!

True Blood. Visits to Merlotte's just make me happy.

Whoopie pies - with salted caramel buttercream frosting.

Bike rides (to offset the whoopie pies).

Sowing lettuce seeds for fall salads.

Swim lessons with Willa.

One hour with my cameras.

A Little Labor : A Little Rest : A Drummer Fantasy

Some weekends it is a struggle for me to get rest, sit down or take a break - because I finally have the free time away from work to do all of the things I really want to be doing. In between the chores, I'll hang a photo, stitch a line of embroidery, sprinkle down some seeds, pull some weeds. Yes, progress really is that incremental and glacial. Not sure whether to be appreciative or frustrated on that one, so I'll just let it sit.

But this past long weekend, for some reason, I got in a terrific pattern of rest smattered with moments of productivity. Perfection, in my rambling brain, for sure:

We went to the Staunton Farmers Market on Saturday morning (top photo) . We bought some sausages from Heartland Harvest and I made one of our all-time favorite meals - the sausage-potato packet. Have I written about that here? So simple and perfect for the hungry masses that snarf it up in minutes and then mutter an appreciative thank you.

Willa and I have been doing a lot of baking. She is fully committed to her role as mixer. And when it is something extra-doughy like scones, she takes her role of rolling it, patting it and marking it with a B (her sweet words, not mine) very seriously. Thumbprint cookies with jam (we used fig jam, my strawberry freezer jam and a friend's raspberry preserves) are a present favorite.

So are the Corniest Corn Muffins. Grab the last of the sweet corn harvest and bake these.

A friend had me over to make tomato preserves. They reminded me of preserves that Corey had brought back from Haiti years ago. Sweet and savory. And good on pretty much anything.

I'm getting ready to buy a few more things for the garden - for fall perennial and shrub and tree plantings. More echinacea, some rosa rugosas, a pink dogwood, a weigela . . . and that fig tree I keep whinging on about.

I have Hoosier cabinet lust since two friends introduced me to them. Unfortunately, I don't have the funding for one, so I lust aimlessly (for now).

I'm drawn to the blog, The Age of Uncertainty, for so many reasons - including the journals of Derek and the glimpses of ephemera that spill out of books that cross the author's path. The writing alone leaves me wishing for sharper wit and observations in my own writing.

The Black Keys are coming to town on Thursday. I predict I will leave the show with a new facet added to my male drummer fantasy (about my being one, not chasing after one).

The (Second) Time of the Year for Beginnings (And Other Stuff)

Leni - teacher-cook-gardener-historian-awesomeness.

New beginnings for an old stand-by.

Late summer walk/evening light self portrait.

Garden harvests.

Late-August into September is the second time of renewal in both my personal world and my gardening world. My inner-dweeb picks up on the new school-year jolt of life and it tends to be the real beginning of the year for me. So there are fresh plans and kinda-sorta resolutions.

I would like to clean and de-clutter the house to make way for all of the crisp activities autumn brings.

I would like to hit up the local nurseries (and their sales) and plant perennials, shrubs and trees through early November.

I am planning a fall balcony vegetable garden outside of Willa's room. My first thoughts on this project are here at Virginia Living.

I am thinking about knitting and sewing again.

I am trying to increase my exercise during the week to four days and have been loving Zumba at the Old Crozet School Arts (and plan to take ballet there in the fall). I also took a yoga class yesterday at the university that, sadly, left me with a kink in my neck. Which also left me confused.

The change in weather usually releases us back outside for more evening walks (photo from one above). We were chased inside earlier in the month by the chigger-tick-tiger mosquito trinity that left us all looking rather pocky and pathetic. But I need (fresh) air and sun. (I am secretly looking forward to that first frost, too.)

Under "Other":

The bold colors from our gardens are something else (photo above of Sungold tomatoes and zinnias). It really is amazing that they are still productive, after the summer we had.

Dutch baby pancakes. They cook up easily and they taste like those eggy Swedish pancakes - especially if you don't skimp on the lemon and powdered sugar. Big thanks to the friend who recently made these for me and Willa.

Cold-brewed iced coffee from Smitten Kitchen.

The $1 vintage tricycle find. Would you believe that I sit at my work post and daydream about the satisfaction I will get from sanding rust off of chrome later that night? Photos of the fixed-up tricycle coming soon. (Also, it didn't hurt that I married a bicycle mechanic.) Next: Restoring a Chevy Nova.

I learned how to make Mexican tamales with Leni last weekend (photo above of Leni with her zinnias). She encouraged getting together with friends to make vast quantities that can be frozen. A Tamale Party! With sipping tequila, I envision. I already hit up a local Mexican grocery for the corn husks and masa. And a curious purchase of dried hibiscus flowers that I needed to have, but haven't the slightest idea how to use.

Garden Space, Rediscovered

I have a confession to make. I almost shut down this part of our gardens. It seemed too far away from the house. Too hot. Too much bald sun. Too much to keep up with. Click on photos for larger peeks into this spot (disregarding, of course, the patchy lawn death that crept up on us during July).

Then, we did the Shared Backyard project. Phase One of the Garden Resuscitation.

Then, Willa discovered it. She loves running around it buck naked, plucking Sungold tomatoes and wild blackberries, watering, squealing, looking for bunnies (her friends, my foes).

Otis likes to have a role in the garden, too (note the black dot in the middle photo). He likes having a purpose and is somewhat of a working dog. He takes his role chasing the latest interloper - a groundhog - very seriously. Like Basset Hound/Border Collie seriously.

It gives us herbs all season (oregano, lemon balm, lavender, thyme, rosemary, sage, echinacea, chives, basil); rhubarb, broccoli, lettuce, greens and snap peas in the spring; and potatoes and tomatoes these days. A few things failed - like collards (too enticing for the wildlife) and the garlic (not sure what happened there . . . ). I would like to grow more so I can freeze, can and stock for the winter. But that will take time. And practice. And the minute detail of a fence.

Now, we are talking about building a small porch-type, lean-to down there for picnics and storage. For more lingering tucked among the growth and the overgrowth - in the middle of the smells and the sounds.

Life needs to happen around a garden. Good thing others have shown me that important detail. Thanks, y'all.

Scattershot II

Red, white and blue potatoes are being harvested right now from our gardens! I am writing a round up of my favorite summer recipes over at Virginia Living Magazine - and it includes a grilled potatoes recipe that is a staple go-to. I made potatoes with paprika and rosemary (from our herb garden) for dinner last night. We'll be eating a lot of potatoes - so please send favorite recipes.

Loving evening walks after a good rain storm in which Otis and Willa wear each other out in the best of ways. Post-drizzle, galosh-wearing walks (top photo) were also very welcome this weekend. We had rain and cloud cover and appreciated every minute of it. Everything smelled like life instead of the crispy, singed-to-death landscape of the past month-and-a-half.

Meet Yer Eats Farm Tour! Cool!

I'm just a wee bit excited about Rob Sheffield's new book. If you didn't read Love is a Mixed Tape, drop everything you are doing to fetch yourself a copy. And if the title Talking to Girls About Duran Duran and the Quest for a Cool Haircut doesn't speak to you in some way, it must mean that you weren't knee-deep in high school angst in the 1980s?

I made the Peperonata in saor last week. Wow. Yum. Especially good with grilled salmon on top of it. Next from the Adventures with Ruth recipes to try? The strawberry jam tarts. I don't have elderberry flowers, but I have the freezer jam from this past spring. And I'm sure I can track down some creme fraiche. (Because I have a nose for that sort of thing.) This weekend I also quick-preserved some lemons to use in a future attempt at the tagine recipe from her Moroccan episode.

Also - while writing about cooking. We don't have cable out our way, so my discovery of shows (through Netflix) can actually be something that started airing in, let's say, 2005. Like Anthony Bourdain. I have now traveled with him to Iceland, China, New Jersey, Vietnam, Las Vegas and Paris. I could do without the scenes in which he eats cow stomach or fermented shark, but can't seem to get enough of watching him smoke and drink and stuff his skinny self alongside self-deprecating humor and a super-sharp, super-fast take on things. I hear he has a new book. Perhaps I'll experience his latest endeavor in real-er time.

Southern Gothic :: Summer in the South

: Peach freezer jam :

: Tart baking :

: Cut flowers :

: Cicadas and lightning bugs :

: Vintage metal porch furniture :
: Evening hikes under the tulip poplar canopy up in the Hollow :
: Apple mint and summer thistle honey iced tea :

: Ceiling fans : Books by Peter Taylor :
: A dinner party in the river : Evening visits with neighbors :

: Swimming holes :
: Blackberry picking :

: Deep-blue (very active) bird baths :

: Sweet tea and pulled pork BBQ :

: Watching movies like Fried Green Tomatoes (photo above) and The Secret Life of Bees :

(the first for the cooking and the outfits; the second for the back porch and the kitchen scenes)

Metal glider print
Apron
Lightning bug light
All the Love print

Scattershot

Sultry and hazy in the dell.

Small moments from our July . . .

Lodi apples. New to me this year. Tart applesauce in mid-summer from these small, pale green overlooked gems is fun. It is also a nice surprise and a reminder about upcoming autumn tastes.

As our Sugar Baby watermelons get ready for picking, I wonder about cocktails I can make with watermelon. Don't people inject melons with liquor and drink from that? Wait, is that something I saw in a moment of weakness on Jersey Shore? Whoops. There must be something more classy out there. A martini, perhaps? Or maybe I can do the injected watermelon thing in the privacy of my own home and nobody needs to know that I got the idea from Snooki.

An update on our Shared Backyards experience is over at Virginia Living Magazine's blog.

Learn how to can your summer haul with Leni. She is also offering classes on bread making and tamales. (Maybe I'll see you at the tamale class?)

My friend Sarah, who is also a rock star vegan, got me into Bento box lunches!

I'm a green mama, according to C-ville Weekly. Sweet.

I want to make this tomato cage lantern for my bedroom balcony.

When I am a little bored at work, I like to plug in dates on Expedia.com for a trip to Ireland. Just to see how much that would cost. Because I have all that money lying around and I love flying so much. But, I mean, Ireland. Right? I have this vision that the moment I land there, I am welcomed with open arms because I look like them. I am one of them. It can't be denied. My hair and fair skin no longer stand out. I easily assimilate into the folds of Ireland - the gardens, the countryside, the tea houses. It should be so.

Coming up in the garden: The garden goes off the ground for fall vegetable crops in the way of balcony and window box gardening. I hope.

Run For Cover :: The Garden in July

Shooey! Things are struggling around these parts left and right as a result of little rain and relentless scorching days. Parts of our gardens look brittle and brown and crunchy. Also, I seem to have a Death Valley spot under the walnut that won't allow anything to live and it gobbles up otherwise originally happy looking plants and reduces them to wilting, withering, leaf-dropping specimens.

But there are little bits of silver linings!

Zinnias - "Green Envy" is my favorite.

My "stone wall". Actually, it is just a few stones lining a pathway and I plunked flowers down around them. Stone walls are so high dollar, so I pared down the idea significantly. But the flower-stone pairing still does something for me.

My first coneflowers and my first bee balm. Tough botanicals with terrific texture.

My first begonias. Pale green leaves with pale pink flowers that love the shade. What took me so long?

Baby watermelons. So beautiful. That is a little Willa hand, so (to scale) that is a little watermelon. Just in case there is any confusion.

When everything else has had enough, look to the cosmos. No these cosmos (photo above). (Although I do find myself crying to the heavens about garden failures occasionally.)

Sage. Of course, - it hasn't really, really rained, so the sage flourishes. You know, because sage flourishes in places like Texas. And New Mexico.

Sunflowers!! Make that volunteer sunflowers.

A small lavender harvest.

Petunias spilling over a galvanized tin container (panting beagle has been carefully staged to illustrate heat and humidity levels).

I'm also revisiting container gardening in small ways. Where I can control some of the variables. I have big pots of tomatoes, peppers, apple mint and basil on our deck now. The only spot where deer don't roam. Though they seem to be a hair away from gingerly walking up our steps and asking for a handout. And my cold, iced-over gardening heart softens at the thought of their starving bambis. And for a brief, irrational moment, I think, "Have at it, limpid-eyed, woodland creatures. I guess I can always plant more."

Weekend Dreaming :: Six Moments

Cut tulips :: Jadeite :: Vintage globes

Coral honeysuckle at the Native Plant Sale

Pinxterbloom Azaleas

Rhubarb Crisp with Chantilly Cream

Asparagus crown plantings

More yoga :: More walking!

Happy Friday.

Spring In Motion

I had a moment last Wednesday - after I finished landscape plans for another client, met briefly with the community garden folks, tended to my own early spring garden chores, did some garden writing and put a few new prints up in my Etsy shop. I sat back and saw what a whirling dervish I had become. So happy to see spring - yet not savoring or slowing down. Finding the blur of activity clouding the beauty of the unfurling.

I need more 'No's' in my life, a few more 'Can it wait a few days?' and more rambling walks with Willa and a stinky dog (or two or three). More sitting and watching. And noting. And stillness. It is spring's demure moments, behind the explosion of color and green, that I don't want to miss. And I have one very astute Willa May reminding me of this on a daily basis.

I'm making a promise to myself to reign it in a bit. I started getting kooky again with my list making and was becoming a slave to the cross-things-off moments. Time to flip it back to being okay with the little things I have actually accomplished in a day.

More time picking daffodils. Less time fretting. Happy Spring.

How do you slow things down in your life?

Hither and Yon

Oh, spring in Charlottesville. Every time you show up, I am immediately transported back 20 years to when I first experienced you as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia. From there-on-in I was unable to settle for a springtime experience that was any less than spectacular (that also started in mid-March!).

On the home front - bulbs are blossoming, garlic is sprouting, rhubarb is peeking up out of the ground and the herb bed is coming to life (oregano, lemon balm, sage). Lettuce and arugula are pushing up through the soil in pale greens in the cold frame. Snap peas are reaching for the sky.

Our sweet community garden is full (all spots taken!) - and it is a thrill to hear people working out there, having fun and getting ready to grow their own food.

While a nasty cold waylaid me from the garden, I took solace in reading - Two Gardeners: A Friendship in Letters and Ruth Stout's No-Work Garden Book and another Ruth - a foodie Ruth - Ruth Reichl. Nothing like a few wise women to keep you company when you are feeling sorry for yourself.

We drove up to Monterey (also known as Virginia's Little Switzerland) for their Maple Festival this past Sunday. The drive alone was so needed - winding through towns like Churchville, Headwaters and McDowell and through George Washington National Forest. I realized later that it was the first time since September that I had left our area (?!). Returning with maple donuts and local maple syrup in a leaf-shaped bottle extended the visit into our evening at home.

I'm counting down the days to Historic Garden Week in Virginia. There is also an event at Monticello - Meet the Gardeners (as in Peter Hatch and Peggy Cornett! Eeeeep!) that looks like fun.

Unrelated to gardening, but smile-inducing : My new vintage-looking orange peep toe shoes, fresh-made pasta from Mona Lisa Pasta and visits to Charlottesville from two Bens (the first visited this past Tuesday, the second will be here in April).

Let's hear it for spring!

February Foiled

A friend once told me to never make any major life decisions during the month of February - when cabin fever makes you (irrationally) think about changing pretty much everything in your life (like hair styles and color, living room arrangements, job situations). Instead, he said to hold tight 'till spring, when things (almost) always look better, brighter and more manageable.

A few distractions to bring us 'round to spring then? Yes!

I spent time during yesterday's lunch hour buying seed starting stuff - for our cold frame experiment - greens and lettuce. I'll just be setting the flats in our south facing windows. I found the perfect spray bottle, too - so Willa can help with the watering.

A Hoya plant. I cleaned out a few very tired, beat-up, defeated houseplants over the past few weeks and have room for a new tenant.

Forced bulbs. The more, the merrier. The sooner, the better.

Innisfree is selling plants this year! My checklist includes borage for our herb garden, Green Envy zinnias, chocolate mint, hollyhocks, elderberry, woodland phlox and tomatoes - Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, German Johnson and Mortgage Lifter. It was difficult not checking off *every* offering.

I'm talking about container veggie gardens, seed bombs and (next week) figs over at Virginia Living Magazine's blog.

Not really related to gardening, but making February a little brighter:

I'm making a ragdoll for Willa's birthday. She pretty much always has some soft little creature in her arms lately. I'm especially excited about all the clothing I can make for the doll and how I can embroider the face.

Have I mentioned The Snowman here, yet? We have been watching it a lot during our snow days - though our copy is VHS and it is starting to give up the ghost. It is all music, no dialogue. It's magic.

I'm getting ready to start my first Edna O'Brien book. I'm actually not sure this will be so uplifting as probably more moody and Irish.

This chicken and biscuits recipe is a nice stout meal for winter days. I've been making it for years now and was happy to see Willa loving it, too, this season. Ina tends to have a heavy hand with the butter and cream - so I cut the butter in half and replace it with olive oil and it totally works.

This baby silhouette tutorial is so quick and easy. After capturing Willa's, I'm thinking of lining up the three hounds for their own personal sessions.

Oy (Winter Storm(s) 2010 Edition)

How many *more* inches of snow? Another 12? Really?

The vomit gods decide that an 'epic' (the riled-up meteorologists' term, not mine) snowstorm is the time to strike?

By day four of being housebound, does getting out of lounge wear/pjs really matter?

Do we have enough milk? Wait, let me get this straight, you used two cups of our diminishing milk supply to make chocolate pudding?!?!?!

When did our toddler perfect that mischievous-contemplative-sideways glance? And then learn to give chase?

When did I become so afraid of falling on the ice?

No pub for miles? We sloshed down the road to the general store instead and I lingered 5 minutes longer than necessary - just to see other people and catch up on the local gossip.

When does the word klutz not even begin to cover it? When I manage the following within an hour. I fell while trying to clear the roof of our car - my jacket got caught on the car door, left me hanging mid-air for a spell, ripped and summarily dropped me on the ground. Then, shaken from the snow clearing debacle, I almost got in a fender bender. And the piece-de-resistance? I knocked a part of our front bumper off when I accidentally hit a boulder of ice that was jutting out of the side of a country road, after a blind curve. Two devoted screws kept it in place so I could limp home. Not without having to drive by the aforementioned general store - to the delight and amusement of the burly men who sit on the front porch to talk and watch the profoundly inept world go by.

So, you see, not much time for writing. What with all of scrapes I have been getting into and what life has been handing us. Spring, please show up soon. And save me from myself in the way of pale green shoots, the smell of soil and the promise of outdoor time. LOTS of outdoor time. You know, without the vomit.

Higgledy Piggledy

The days are getting longer! Seed catalogs have been arriving! And, I'm trying to think ahead about the wonders that the garden will offer up after all of this rain and snow! The weather has, indeed, been chasing us indoors an awful lot lately. Anything I can do in front of the woodstove is game.

I've been knitting slouchy hats for Willa's teachers and am starting the fourth one this week. Slouchy hats were their top request and this pattern has been a humongous hit.

I have forever loved nesting dolls and found this pattern (photo above) from Sublime Stitching. I'm embroidering a few for Willa's room and will put them in simple oval frames.

We had a sweet morning hunting for used and vintage treats at the Greenwood Country Store last week. A stack of children's albums (including Wind in the Willows and The Sound of Music), an old egg beater with those satisfying, whirring gears, costume jewelry for dress up and a pile of old, crocheted doilies for $1. I'll be visiting there often.

My friend Lois gave me a division from her bromeliad. A bromeliad she bought while in grad school in Berkeley a-ways back. I love having a part of her plant.

Cooking my favorite beef stew ever. Baking my first loaf of bread. Gulping down this chai concentrate with my morning tea. And thinking about making salted caramels and homemade marshmallows.

I've watched It Might Get Loud three times now, two times with the director's commentary. I was loathe to put it back in the mail this morning and felt like I was saying goodbye to old friends. Really cool old friends.

To fend off doldrums, Willa and I have been going swimming on Sunday evenings and it has become my favorite part of the weekend.

I made a small resolution to meditate daily and these podcasts help me in a huge way. I need to have a voice to focus on, or the voices (and monkeys) in my own head detract from any rest my brain desperately needs.

What are your favorite indoor pursuits these days?

The Cold Frame Summit Talks :: Part 1

Being married to a skilled and very talented carpenter makes the most beautiful designs, materials and craftsmanship available to you at all times. Attention to exquisite details and a sense of things lasting forever and forever are a big part of how his mind works.

So when I brought up the fact that I had in mind a very basic design for a cold frame, that I would pull together from materials sitting around our property, I knew I had a little battle ahead of me. You see, gardening (for me) is about testing or switching out variables from season to season and playing around with the different things that nature offers to get something growing. I was thinking about leaning some old windows at an angle at the base of our house and putting bricks or cinder blocks (not the prettiest, but great for thermal mass) on the sides, throwing some soil in and growing greens months earlier than they would be ready in our raised beds.

This set off alarms with Corey - The windows wouldn't last for more than a few seasons! They need to be at a certain angle! My experiment was pure chaos in his mind. Instead, he had a door that would work out just right - he could craft something, put the door on a hinge, cut pieces of plywood for the sides, etc., etc. He is all about the planning and being precise from the start, I am all about getting out there, giving it a go and learning from that point onward.

We're working on meeting in the middle. More soon . . .

Resolutions In The Garden

Cosmos will be part of Willa's Butterfly Garden and our honeybee sanctuary.

Happy New Year to all! What time is it? It's make big plans and promises time. Talking the talk without yet needing to lift a finger. Some I'll keep, some I'll drop. But for now, mid-January, the big plan making is all I got. Without further ado - The Garden Resolutions for 2010.

1. Getting back to vegetable gardening. There will be help in that garden this year. Since our house and other huge projects are finishing up, Corey is setting his sights on helping out - recognizing the importance of Willa witnessing and being a part of growing our own food. I can't begin to tell you how this will affect our vegetable garden. Perhaps some fencing? More weeding? Tilling so we can have that pumpkin patch I have dreamed about (and the harvest time-pumpkin picking party I envision for our friends)? If for nothing else, I know I am a social gardener and having both Willa and Corey down in the veggie garden will provide momentum and good gardening energy.

2. More and more edibles, please. Raspberries, figs, mulberries. Things that will establish themselves and be less maintenance than the aforementioned vegetable garden.

3. Garden sharing. We are thinking that we have a lot of land and would like to share one of our huge raised beds with someone not as fortunate. In return for access to the bed, we will just ask that the garden plot renter help out with weeding.

4. A portable salad box and testing out shade-grown lettuce varieties to extend the season.

5. A cold frame. I've wished for one of these for years. Maybe 2010 will be the year. I'm already gathering materials for my own version of a cold frame and will write about that over the following months.

6. A butterfly garden for Willa and a a honeybee sanctuary for the little buzzers. My inspiration for the sanctuary can be found here.

7. Embracing Ruth Stout. My pregnancy with a big baby and a little me left my body with torn stomach muscles, a hernia and back problems. While I try to work on these in physical therapy, I am going to save my back with Ruth's mulch methods. Eight inches of fluffy hay to cut back on hauling heavier mulches and weeding. Her thoughts on do-able, attainable asparagus beds without all that trenching really has me in a dither. More on this soon.

8. And while not directly related to our garden, a small attempt at eating more and more local food. 2009 included small harvests from our own garden and also belonging to a CSA for our vegetables and our eggs. This year I hope to incorporate grains from Wade's Mill, fish from Virginia Aqua-Farmers and meat from our neighbor, Gryffon's Aerie. My new favorite thing on the planet, Retail Relay, makes a lot of this local eating ridiculously easy.

I just re-read these and I sound like a nut-job. A full-ish time job and all of these projects? Laugh-laugh-laugh with me mid-July, dear readers. When my January garden thoughts summoned in front of a wood stove, curled up on the couch with my feet up, in the dark of the winter are challenged with the reality of bugs, brutal heat, humidity and droughts. At least this summer, I'll have more company for kvetching (in the the garden).

What Worked, What Didn't Work - The 2009 Edition

These Worked

Knock-out roses were a good introduction to roses, for me. Mostly because I could completely ignore them after they had been planted. They remind me of the roses that grew near the beach when I lived on the end of Long Island. Simple. Hardy. In sweet shades. Maybe someday I'll work myself up to the more exquisite varieties. But probably not in this decade.

Daylilies are awesome slope stabilizers. I have officially become a daylily kook. The more varieties, the groovier. The deer showed no interest in these, either.

Black plastic mulch. For the areas of the raised bed garden that ran amok while Willa was wee. We tucked three out of the five beds under this mulch for future gardening endeavors. In the meantime, I didn't have to weed them for an entire season. We will put compost and shredded leaves under this same mulch over the winter - so the compost will cook and break down (making the beds ready for planting in spring 2010).

Strawberries in a big container. Okay, so we didn't have tons of berries, but had enough for Willa to pluck and enjoy. I did battle with a strawberry patch one season several years ago. Never again.

Shrubs are a garden's best friends. With our front area ready to be planted this past spring - I learned the value of the shrub in a vast landscape. I planted a Virginia sweespire, two glossy abelias and one hydrangea. I hope to add many more in upcoming years. They make a nice statement, quickly.

These, Not So Much

Respect the power of the black walnut. The roots of the black walnut tree produce juglone - and it is toxic to lots of plants. I learned this the hard way when adding to our new garden bed under our walnut. I'm looking into planting a black walnut permaculture guild in spring 2010 with tomatoes, elderberries and currants to foil it's deadly, wilt-inducing juglone. A guild is when plants work together instead of against each other. It's all about the love in the garden.

My nursery-bought shiitake log. The spring yielded one mushroom that smelled like feet. The fall yielded one mushroom that was sublime. Hence, that sublime mushroom was a $30 mushroom. I'm thinking of just making my own mushroom logs - after lots of tips from friends.

Geometric bulb planting. Ugh! So bummed about this and have no idea what I was thinking when I planted my tulips in an orderly fashion in a new bed. Learn from me - plant in clumps and drifts. Clumps and drifts, dear readers!

The new-ish nasturtium varieties in pink. They just didn't thrive like the orange variety - which I ended up falling in love with over the season anyway. Plus, the orange varieties remind me about a sweet part of the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

Thanksgiving - The Blue Ridge Mountain Edition

During long holiday weekends, we usually get some time up in the mountains included with our celebrations. Naptime has been in the dead center of our days lately, but I'm hoping we can have some drive time in at some point. Novembers in our mountains are so serene.

These photos are from the Library of Congress Flickr pool - which is fascinating. They are exactly what I see when we take these drives. These are of Skyline Drive. Those valleys and those skies get me every time.

We are also making a shift in our Thanksgiving menu to the more southern dishes. There will be pumpkin soup, buttermilk biscuits with apple butter, a peach cobbler (with peaches canned from the summer's harvest), hot buttered rum, chestnut stuffing and the turkey will be brined and smoked. That's right, smoked. With all the mesquite and hickory goodness we can muster. There will probably be some persimmon hunting this weekend, too, to make some bread.

Oh and there will be naps for the adults. Lots of naps. We'll blame it on the turkey and the warmth of the woodstove.