Back to the Blog.

i've been remiss in my blogging of late, partly because i got out of the habit while on vacation and while sick but mostly because i've been doing lots of boring things -- raking leaves, raking pine needles, cleaning out beds, weeding annoying lawn weeds, raking some more...

i have done a few interesting things to break the monotony. way back when on october 2nd, i planted two kinds of lettuce, spinach and cilantro in the new / unoccupied vegetable bed. the lettuce and spinach seeds were leftovers from this spring; the cilantro is seed collected from the plants that grew this spring.

speaking of the cilantro, lots of cilantro volunteers are coming up around the yard. one batch in the island bed where i do remember a small bit of dried cilantro had fallen / been blown by wind. and a second batch behind the garage below the spot where i hung seed heads to dry (and they are still hanging there).

one variety of lettuce began sprouting four or five days ago and has already been thinned out a bit. the other lettuce is much slower to start. the cilantro is also coming up well; the spinach so-so.

the two tomato plants from this spring have completely taken over their bed. the lavender and mexican mint marigold are struggling for light. the lavender, after thriving all summer now seems to be suffering from the fall rains. i've pulled back all the mulch around it to help dry things up, but i've also taken precautionary cuttings to try to propagate.

the other interesting thing is that today darin and i finished a making an espalier out of branches from the trees we took out. the idea (darin's) is to grow a dwarf apple tree on it. picture to come. he is now (as i type, i'll go help as soon as i'm done) working on a trellis for the long-suffering carolina jessamine (which, by the way, is about to put on a very nice show).