The morning sunlight set the blossoms of my Thanksgiving cactus on fire, brightening our morning meditation. Since our family gatherings will take place on different days than this, we set about creating a day of grateful ease for ourselves. I made a special feast for a late lunch. One of the stars of the meal -- of course, every part of it shines, but -- was roasted radishes. One of my favorite reasons for planting a fall/winter garden is the winter radish. Winter radishes are larger and denser than the little spring radishes, and I can get a lot of pounds in a relatively small space ..read more

  Bittersweet More Sweet than bitter, though. Yesterday morning I rose late. It was Sunday, after all.  I grabbed my coffee, as usual, sat on the front porch and watched the gray skies brighten as the sun rose higher behind the. "I am so blessed," I thought. I had just spent most of the week, probably the last really warm week of the year, glued to the couch, with a fever and scratchy throat. COVID had knocked me down. Less than a month ago I significantly changed my diet -- giving up some tasty foods, possibly for good -- in order to heal some health issues.  The weath ..read more

  From Death, Life. Yesterday, while at a neighbor's place searching for stones fallen from a rock wall, I came across this dead tree covered with these little shelf fungi. How beautiful. It's a reminder that when anything ends it becomes food for something new. The dead tree feeds the mushrooms. When it all is broken down, both tree and fungi will feed other living beings. What beauty. Nothing goes to waste. All cycles and recycles. That's Life and Death ..read more

  This photo was taken more than a week ago, after the first rain we had in more than a month of drought and heat. Rain fell over three days and we netted a blessed 2.5 inches (6.35 cm). When the rain ceased, I spent three days preparing the garden for freezing weather to arrive on the weekend.  It wasn't going to just fall to 32 degrees F. (0 degrees Celsius) or a little lower. Oh, no. Almost all of the cool season vegetables would survive that without protection. The forecast called for it to drop to 25 degrees (about minus 4 Celsius), and continue going down for a few days. So I ..read more

  The Souvenir de la Malmaison rose by my front door still blooms in late October. The rose has looked more lush and beautiful than it ever has. Typically, at some point its leaves show signs of black spot, a fungal disease that affects the foliage. This causes my husband to keep pruning and trimming. This year was very dry and warm. Not the kind of weather conducive to the development of black spot. So there was some benefit in the heat and drought. We, of course, watered the rose regularly with our dishwater, an easy task because the rose is near the front door, which is next to the k ..read more

  We are in that in-between phase of the seasons... The summer garden has started its decline and the cool season plants are bursting with life. And yet... This hardy hibiscus in front of my house keeps blooming. I started it from seed early this year and planted it out in early summer. It has achieved most of its mature size in just one season, from seed. It is the "Luna" variety of hardy hibiscus. The seed packet contained a mix of colors. Besides this luscious pink, white-blooming ones also grow in my flower garden, although they are not as robust as this specimen. If I keep them wat ..read more

  Autumn has arrived! A season of transition from summer's big production slowing into a season of rest. We had our first "frost advisory" last week. No frost in our hilltop gardens, but frost at the bottom of the hill. This is our "pond," which has had no water in it all year. It's been dry since last fall. So many different plants have taken over. I love the way the plants have created this variegated effect, with different colors and textures. The white areas are a froth of grass seedheads covered in frost. The rising sun highlights the plants in the front of the photo, while the bow ..read more

Welcome to my garden. My husband built this archway a couple of years ago out of hedge wood harvested from our place. He built it to replace a makeshift archway that I had thrown together with concrete reinforcing wire and t-posts. On that first cobbled together archway I had planted these lush, tropical vines. When freezing weather killed them, my husband cleaned up the dead vines and took down my archway. When I objected, because I wanted to leave it in place for the next season, he promised to build a better one for me. Which he did. And each year I plant these outrageous vines, luff ..read more

 Cucumbers, cucumbers, cucumbers. This photo is the beginning stage of brine-fermented cucumber pickles. Onions, garlic, dill and black peppercorns. Oh, and cucumbers. For crispier pickles I added grape leaves, which provide tannin that helps crisp them. The final ingredient is time. I let them sit for about a week, but more or less time is fine. Whatever gives you the flavor you want. To make brine, dissolve three tablespoons of salt (canning/pickling salt, not table salt which has anti-caking agents added) to one quart (four cups) of water. Weight a plate with a jar full of water so t ..read more

Rossa de Verona Radicchio Last fall, while showing off my end-of-the-season harvest, I bragged about my lovely radicchio. Then a friend asked, "What is radicchio?" Regardless of what this photo looks like, it is not a cabbage. In fact, it is much more closely related to sunflowers, lettuce and other members of the Aster family (Asteraceae).  Radicchio is a form of chicory (Cichorium intybus), an inconspicuous roadside weed that suddenly becomes conspicuous in late summer when it sends up a stalk bearing bright blue flowers along it. Roasted chicory root can be brewed like tea, o ..read more