Eulogy

I'm not sure if it's appropriate to use my blog as a place for mourning - but i feel the need to write just a few quick words today.

Yesterday was my birthday. I normally like to delve full blown into a day of self indulgence, presents, and self-honoring activities with people i love. Unfortunately this year's birthday coincided with the illness of my husband's husky Tela.

 

"Chocolate milk face"

Tela was rather old - but only 10. A pure bred husky from a not so reputable doggy farm somewhere in Texas (huskies in TX seems just wrong to me) and apparently her sweet little insides just weren't made for longevity. A few weeks ago Tela got sick. Wamo. Just like that. No more chasing ball. No more trying to eat chickens. After a few visits to the vet and some antibiotics her health improved somewhat. Then we took a walk = her very favorite thing to do EVER. She was an untrained ridiculous beast when i met her 3 or so years ago, but with those years of training with me she turned into the very best little walking partner a person could ask for, complete with sit and wait at the traffic signal skills.  Anyhoo, after that walk, she stopped eating, drinking, or wagging her tail.

 Very tired camping girl after an exciting visit to Possum Kingdom State Park.

For two days i watched her sit at the back of her house looking out forlornly. The kind of expression that says "i love you, i hate this, i love you, i'm hurting." My doggy of 14 years passed away after apparent weeks of suffering after several strokes. I did not want that to happen to Tela. But what's a human to do when your doggy is suffering and you don't know why?

The afternoon of my birthday, March 3rd, my husband and i brought Tela back to the vet to get a last opinion. She could barely walk to my car. She could get in, with help, but could not get out. We carried her out of the car and she paddled slowly to the vet's office. In the waiting room, she laid on the cool floor while we petted and loved on her. In the smaller patient room, the doctor massaged her, listened to her erratic heart, and puzzled over what could be wrong with her. Andy gave her a drink of water from his own cup and she kissed him on the face one last time. We watched as the doctors lead her, slowly, to the back room for an ultrasound. I didn't want her poked and prodded any longer, and apparently neither did she.

On her walk to the table she simply collapsed and rested. Sweet Tela died almost exactly at noon - the very same time i was born 28 years ago. An unfortunate coincidence - perhaps the ole girl was getting back at me for yelling at her attempts to eat the chickens or dig the compost. Or perhaps she wanted me to know she loved me too. She was a daddy's girl, Andy was her whole world.

My husband lost his first woman yesterday. I lost a great friend and walking buddy. I had no idea how much her loss would affect me, but my swollen eyes are proof i loved her too. A yard without a dog is a difficult thing to face. Why are we humans so connected to our beasts? We've been trying to convince ourselves to be happy for her - she's no longer suffering, she was tired and ready to go. We should be happy for her, and we are. But we're sad for us. We miss our friend.

My brain just can't stick on the realization of it. I'm stuck in dream space. The facts and the memory of her sweet, lifeless body are just too discordant for my mind to fully wrap around. Too sudden. Too awful. Death is part of life - and it is a relief for those who've passed. It's just so darned difficult for those of us left alive.

Sweet girl: now you can finally run in a straight line, with no leash, for as long as you'd like.
Go chase as many chickens as you want to - i promise i won't yell at you for it.

Survival and Bragging Rights!

Monday afternoon. Mid forties. Tent city has been deconstructed.

Only main casualties are the peas and one rubbery broccoli plant.

Supposed to be mid 30s tonight, but i'm trusting the plant babies

to deal with that temp. 18 degrees has been left behind and scoffed at!

 

Some scalding on leaves is a common symptom. Hopefully these

immature broccolis and kales will bounce back with warmer weather

and forecasted rains. I might even be nice to them and

add some compost or fertilizer.

  

 

The lettuces are surprisingly perky and ready to be thinned

and consumed for a salad dinner tomorrow. Kales are getting bigger.

 

I can't believe the fava beans made it.

Their friends in the backyard are totally smoosh.

 

A little limp, but this one had been harvested once anyway.

 

Yum! This radish was cold and delicious, which isn't always the case.

I wonder if the cold temps reduced its bitterness some.

 

A success and a relief. I can't believe the garden coped as well as it did, though i'm not looking forward to the electric bill after 4 nights of using a heat lamp. I'm happy my plant friends made it, and i'm planning a quiche for dinner this evening with some broccoli and onions from the garden. I did a little weeding, as well and fed that to the chickens who of late have been displeased with the lack of greens in their yard. Their yolks are showing the lack as well: not nearly as dark orange. For their peace of mind and better egg nutrition i plan on building a small mini tractor to place in the front yard and hopefully not get knocked over by the stupid black dog that always gets out in my neighborhood. I don't want to think of the repercussions of that, but i know the girls would like being on green grass again. In a month of so i'll scrape at the back yard some and scatter some poultry foraging seed blend that will hopefully grow and nourish them once again.

Locals: How did your garden fare these cold temps? Do you think we're in the clear or will we be hit with some more winter? ( i hope not, i'm tired of slinging tarps, despite my lust for a real winter again - i'd prefer to be better prepared next time)

It Happened. It Froze.

8:30 am. Right now i'm seriously wishing these darned trees had lost all their darned leaves and would let the morning sun shine through to resuscitate the frozen babies in my vegetable garden. Everything is frozen.
The peppers in their securely covered patch with lamp seem to be okay ... but not thrilled. Their onions cohabitants look stunned, and the garlics in the bed nearby look positively displeased with life.

The main vegetable patch under its tent city construction? I peer under the sheets and see a sorry sorry sight. A touch to a baby spinach leaf reveals stiff rigor mortis of plant body.  I have never tried to garden in an actual winter before, so this state of frozen garden inhabitants is quite unsettling, frustrating, and fear inducing. Will I fail in my winter crop as well as my summer? Will my hard work and love be repaid with dead plants, stunted and non-producing? Was i fooling myself thinking that "cool weather plants" really didn't mind getting a touch of a freeze?  This will be a learning experience for me - hopefully we'll get something to eat this winter (since i missed all my tomatoes this summer on a wedding vacation) and not just a whole lot of chicken snacks and compost.
Sigh.
9:30 am Hurry up, sun! The babies want to feel your warm embrace. If only the garden were on the other side of the house..... but then it would only get am sun, and that is insufficient.
 I'm noticing that i piled some leaves here and there as mulch. I was afraid to smother the plants underneath so i mushed them around exposing the tops of the lettuces etc to the air- but i think i should have just covered it all with leaves and maybe spared the plants underneath them. This freeze just caught me unprepared.

Have to keep reminding myself: gardening is learning. you do not know everything. you will make mistakes and kill plants occasionally.... i just wish they weren't plants i was counting on for food!
I live in zone 8 and have plans on moving to a northern version of zone 8 (yamhill valley in oregon). This is the first year i have seen a hard enough freeze to fill a bucket with more than an inch of ice.

9:45 am. Need to walk to the gym now, cooolld walk.... but i'm feeling hopeful. I pulled back a little bit of tent city to let the sunshine in, will leave the rest covered and light on peppers until i get back from yoga.... it looks like the peas are becoming happily pliable again, the little kales seem unphased, the broccolis thawing out.

12:30. Hope is in sight! I've pulled back some of the sheets and uncovered the peppers and turned their light off. Peppers have just a bit of frost bite on their edges, not bad. All the winter crops in the main garden seem to have sproinged back to life, great. Eggplants have bit the dust, but that was to be expected.

Looks like I may not be a failure after all.

So far so good!

What zone do you live and garden in?
What do you do as a gardener in winter time? When do you call it quits? What precautions do you take before freezes? What crops do you expect to survive and produce throughout the winter in your area?

Cold Nights are Coming!

I use the term "cold" loosely - but the peppers and other tender plants certainly think low thirties/ high twenties is not their cup of tea.

So today i spent a bit of time pruning, piddling, and setting up bizarre structures over which i drape freeze cloth/ sheets/ random chunks of plastic sheeting.... depending on how cold it really gets.

I am NOT by any means doing a super great job of it - i am approaching my winter garden with a "we'll see what survives and what doesn't" mentality. It would be great if the eggplants came back next spring or stuck around all winter, but i won't mind if they freeze to death. Same goes for the bell peppers. The hot peppers, on the other hand, are destined for perennialness and have been covered... poorly. Ha, so we'll see how it all goes. I figure: may the best plant survive to thrive another season, all weaklings may recede.

Pretty garden with all sorts of volunteer marigolds, ridiculously growing back after being hacked to the ground eggplants, and pretty baby lettuces.

Lettuces, marigolds and kales, oh my!

Elephant garlic is getting BIG. Mulched with pecan shells from hours of pecan shelling.

Pulled the basil, planted more kale things, garlic is growing bigger and bigger.

An Evening in the Gardens

I felt the need to take some pause and reflect on the emerging and regressing beauties in the gardens.
Spinaches and greens are germinating and growing stronger, the bell peppers are slowly ripening to vibrant colors just in time for an end of season harvest, the garlic are peaking out their slender green heads, and the multiplying onions are, well, multiplying. These, along with some awkward volunteers, are filling the gardens with beauty and daily change. It's a great season here in Austin.