Nestled all snug in their beds...

Happy holidays everybody. Get your seed list together -- Spring will be here sooner than you think.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to tell my coworkers about my blog

'cause this shit looks kind of crazy to the untrained eye:

That's the sight of 14 bags of dead leaves that fell in other people's yards and made it as far as the curb the night before trash day before being stealthily loaded into the back of my Jimmy. Well, stealthily, with the exception of those that fell in the yard of Evelyn, the sweet little old lady who was finishing up her yardwork in the dark and just pleased as punch for me to have them.

Hopefully sooner than later, these will all make a run through my recently acquired leaf shredder. Then they'll sit in an inconspicuous heap in the backyard awaiting a slow feeding to the compost pile, or thick layering as mulch around the spring plantings.

With luck, they'll hold out until about this time next year when the circle of carbon sequestration will begin again.

Winter time is here again

Nine PM, and I'm in a rain jacket and gloves with a headlamp under my hood wrangling wet plastic over the garden, because the weatherpeople were right for once and it's sleeting. I'm not actually worried about the temperature so much, but I'm now on my second set of beet and lettuce seedlings, and the third set of spinach, and I figure they can use all the help they can get.

As you may recall from my last post, lo those many weeks ago, something mysterious had decided to chew on every new plant in the garden. I suspected insects and disbelieved my rodent-phobic wife's accusations against the squirrels. But that was before I caught one of the furry bastards in the act of jumping into the Swiss Chard box.

I released the Kraken on him ...

But he was too fast. (The Kraken, by the way, has honed her hunting skills since the departure of her mentor, and has already upped her career body count by one.)

The squirrels still don't seem to get the message though, which is why I had to institute some food security measures.

The chard has been netted.

The beets are on lockdown.

Lettuce dreams of freedom.

And the spinach is awaiting due process.

I think operation "garden-tanamo" has been a success, as everything is putting on new growth and not getting eaten to the ground. However, I worry that all the setbacks may not bode well for my fourth-season gardening. With the sleet currently falling outside and first freeze looming, these leafy greens have missed out on some prime cool sunny fall days.

And, hard as it is to believe, we're about a month away from tomato seed-starting time! I might be pursuing a different approach on that front this year though.