Tea Time

Chilly weather calls for warm beverages!  My kids love having tea sometimes instead of a typical snack.  This day, it was pomegranate tea and artisan bread spread with cream cheese and strawberry preserves.  Espresso cups are ideally-sized for toddler hands, though my two-year-old preferred her "real" cup from the china tea set they play with.  

Little People like to grow too

At breakfast one morning, my four-year-old asked me if he could plant a seed from his kiwi.  I explained that kiwis need more warm days than we have here and then mused that perhaps we could try to plant some when his grandparents build their greenhouse.  That got his attention and he was fascinated by the whole concept of a greenhouse and growing things from other places.  I told him about when my own gramma had a greenhouse installed outside her kitchen door and how much I loved the smell of it in there, kind of humid and clean and earthy, even in winter.

He listened intently, then paused for a moment and said, "I think our Little People need a greenhouse."  We looked at each other and I could tell we were both thinking the same thing because we both started laughing and I said, "I think we can do that!"

First, we laid out our popsicle-stick grid.  We decided to make three sides, with the fourth side open, like the Little People house.

Next, we cut out some clear plastic from a bit of packaging in the recycle bin.  My plan had been to use a milk jug for that slightly-opaque effect.  After looking at some picture of greenhouses online, Tucker decided he preferred the clear look.  The plastic was glued to the frame with a combination of Elmer's glue and glitter glue for decoration.

Once the glue dried, we taped all the sides together and asked Little People mommy to do a final inspection before we put the roof on.

And here is the final product installed just west of Casa Little People.  As you can see, it now houses a variety of exotic and colorful plants that don't normally grow here this time of year.  I hear that one of them is a kiwi.

Death and Color in the Autumn Garden

I've noticed that my garden looks very different since I began to look at it as my own Bit of Earth instead just a flowerbed.  I expect both beauty and nourishment from my labors in the soil, so it is not quite as "perfect" as the "professionally landscaped" look to which I formerly aspired.  I find much more beauty in it though.  Nothing in nature is perfect and what grows around my house is much more organic than ever, both in form and in fact.  This, I like.

Color is rampant in the fall garden and many flowers continue to do well despite some frost.  I think being close to the house gives plants like the Sweet Alyssum (in the first picture) a little more protection from freezing temperatures.  I did not plant pansies for the first time ever this year, but plan to mulch over in December and plant early spring lettuces instead.

We had our first frost this weekend....and our first fire crackling in the fireplace!  Before the frost, the pineapple sage was a riot of color, but alas it is now withering quickly; I will cut all this back in January and have a wonderful, herby shrub by the front steps.

This year, we made our first scarecrow as a Halloween/Autumnal decoration.  Next to him, you can see the paper bag scarecrows that were a fun craft for the toddlers in the house.  They loved making them despite my inability to locate googly eyes.

After the dry heat of August, I cut back all of my tomato plants and, lo and behold, they sprang to life again!  Most of these were harvested green and I'll use them for some fried green tomatoes.  These Cherokee tomato plants are done for the year, but I do have lots of seeds for next year.  Even my children know that inside a seed is a whole living organism, a miracle, just waiting for us to plant and nurture it.  

The square-foot gardens still had quite a lot of flowers and herbs growing last week, but I think the Genovese and Thai basil will not make it much longer.  I do have some broccoli and snap peas growing (my first fall crop ever), and we'll see if we get to harvest them in a few more weeks.

The cherry tomatoes continue to grow in the front flower bed.  Perhaps they derive heat and shelter from the large holly that also supports them to a degree.  I plan to leave them as long as possible since my four-year-old loves to pick and eat them whenever he passes by.  This is the beauty of fall.  The savoring of the last moments of life as we watch all the leaves fall and all the flowers wither.  We see the world die, but we know that it just a stage before it is born again into something new and wonderful.

I used to dread fall, to dread the coming cold and darkness and bareness it heralded.  Those bright colors on the trees didn't fool me!  Now I welcome it.  Life is full of those cold and bare spots, but without them, we could never enjoy the spring.  So now I welcome fall and winter and even the dying of the light, because it offers a chance for rest and, ultimately, rebirth.