Back in the dirt.

Despite my carrot-loving friend's absence, I got out and did a bit of Fall planting today. Carrot and beet seeds are in the ground.

Yesterday was full of enjoyably back-breaking compost turning and bed preparation, with a little lettuce planting  and artichoke side-dressing for dessert.

As I had hoped, the cooler weather seems to be good motivation for gardening. We'll see if it helps with the garden blogging.

Planted:

Oak Leaf leaf lettuce, Tom Thumb and Winter Density head lettuce from seed, 9/27/2008

Early Wonder beet, Scarlet Nantes and Danvers Half Long carrots from seed, 9/28/2008

Bink the Stink

As long as I'm not posting about gardening, I'd like to share a small sadness.

Bink Smith, the fuzzball you may recognize from the background of many a garden photo, passed on this week.

Despite her love for pulling broccoli plants up by the roots and eating only the ripest tomatoes off the vine, Bink was a serene presence in the garden, as everywhere else in our lives.

Before she went, we had time for one more round of "chase the water", a game she loved albeit one I wasn't always happy with, especially when the field of play was a brittle squash vine. And she got one last shot at catching that rat in the shed. No success, but the hunt was always the best part.

She was a good dog and we miss her lots.

Ohai.

Still not a lot to report around these parts. I've been lamenting the effects of this summer's crushing heat, particularly earlier in the week when the two surviving growing tips of my tromboncino squash got roasted to a crisp in the afternoon sun. Oh, and did I mention that control squash is all et up with the squash bugs, and I've still got no eggplants? It's a bit demoralizing.

Note to self -- just take next August off. I'm sure there are plenty of gardeners elsewhere who would say that a 10-month growing season is plenty.

Today was nice though. Hurricane Ike (or as it turned out here in Austin, "Hurricane Psych") gave us a day of cloud cover if no rain. I got out and turned up one of the empty beds. It's good to get into the dirt again.



I put in some green bean seeds when I was done, and have been giving some thought to the fall garden plan. At the moment, lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets, broccoli-kale, onions, garlic and leeks are on deck.

In other news, we got a new patio door. My friend John helped me install it last week and I've been fiddling with the trim some today. Addie hates it since she can't see the yard when the blinds are up.

It's for the best though. She would have died if she had seen this display of nerve out there earlier.

Planted: Green beans, Burpee Stringless Green Pod from seed, 9/13/2008