What Have We Learned

Here we are.  It is officially fall.  In parts of the country that aren't on fire or under water, it is a very pleasant time of the year.  The leaves haven't fallen yet, other than a few of the over-anxious ones.  We've had one spotty frost, but most everything is still growing.

It's a sad time, in some ways.  The sound of crickets is a constant reminder that, at least here in the Midwest, warm and friendly weather has been given the two-minute warning.  With a few exceptions, everything that can be eaten or preserved for winter has been.  It is time to enjoy the dwindling colors of the flowers, and time to tidy things up for spring. 

This year, I joined several Facebook groups composed of gardeners.  I was in a group for raised bed gardeners for a while, but my meager beds look puny next to the beautiful and expensive raised bed gardens, complete with built-in fencing and a gate to keep out critters.  Some had pavers for aisles.  They were really nice, but way outside of my price range.

The groups I stayed in were people from my state, along with a group of regular gardeners.  I learned that I knew the answers to some of the questions posed by new gardeners, which made me feel good.  I learned that there is a LOT I don't know about gardening.  And, perhaps more importantly, when people posted photos of a mystery plant or plant ailment, it was gratifying to see that many people chimed in with answers, but that they weren't all the same answers.  We're all learning, I guess.

I learned to admire the people for whom a garden is their subsistence, since the stakes are pretty high.  To me a bad garden year is like a bad haircut.  It'll grow again.  

Every spring I have a mental list of things I want to accomplish in the garden, and this year many of them got done.  The Covid19 situation had a lot to do with that, as we stayed pretty close to home.  I'm looking forward already to next year, and fixing some of the things I did wrong.

I hope your garden was good, and that you have good memories of preparing, planting, weeding, and harvesting.  Every minute we spent outside in our gardens was time we weren't (more than likely) consuming media.  That time to think might be the best harvest at all.