Category: Decorating

Back Porch Clean-Up

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Today, I cleaned up my back porch. It is not completely ready for winter but almost. A couple of weeks ago, I brought the rosemary plants inside and moved the lavender to the back hallway to overwinter. I will also overwinter the sage in the back hallway but toss the thyme. There are still flowering cosmos stalks in some containers on the porch, and I will need to do a final sweep after the maple lost all its leaves. And I plan to cover the folding table during the winter, but I currently still us it. I still have nasturtiums and parsley growing. Once everything has died back, I plan to cover the soil in the larger containers with pine branches to deter the blue jays from burying their peanuts and acorns (I currently deter them from making their usual mess by sticking barbecue skewers in the soil of the empty containers). I am looking forward to sitting on the bench with a cup of tea and a warm blanket enjoying the afternoon sun on warmer days.

Night and Day

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I love all the flowers on my porch this summer. These here are cosmos Rubenza and Bright Lights. I will definitely move to exclusively herbs and flowers next year. Almost there: For vegetables, I currently only have one Thai pepper and some chard and lettuce growing on my back porch. None of them are doing particularly well. Next year, I will do only spring vegetables (radishes and salad greens) and then only herbs and flowers in the summer and fall.

Warm November

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We are having an unseasonably warm November. 75 degrees today (November 5) and the same is forecasted for tomorrow. The trees have almost lost all their leaves yet here we are enjoying the sun in our tank tops. I am behind with clearing my plot and I have not planted my garlic yet. Today, I cleaned almost half of my plot and will do more work tomorrow. Trying to get the garlic in tomorrow as well.

Glass Gem Corn

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Today’s harvest: glass gem corn, green beans and a small fall bouquet

Bad news. The rodents got ALL the King Philip corn. Even the ears that were not quite ripe. I was too late. They also started feasting on the glass gem corn, so I harvested four bigger ears this morning, even though it is still a couple of weeks early. Lots of things still growing in the garden. I still have plenty of green beans. The carrots are coming in nicely, I thinned them a few days ago. Fall greens are looking good. The winter squash less so; there are only a few fruit on the vines and those are not very big.

Anticipation

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My corn is not yet ready for harvest but I am very excited about the King Philip corn I planted this year. It is a historic Wampanoag flint corn native to New England (named after the Wampanoag chief Metacom who adopted the name King Philip) and has copper-colored, reddish kernels. Flint corn has a hard outer layer around each kernel (protecting it from rodents) and is mostly used for coarse corn meal. It can also be dried and used for popcorn. In addition to King Philip corn, I grew glass gem corn again this year. While mostly used for decoration, glass gem corn can also be ground into meal or popped for snacking.