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Greengirl: Fall unfolds

Posted on September 28th, 2005 – 8:39 AM
By Jaime Chismar

In the garden, bees buzz slow and sluggish. The blossoms have wilted. The leaves turn brown around the edges and curl inward.

As I weed, my hands stiffen and chill in the morning dew. I rub them together for warmth. Sometimes, I see my breath. Sometimes, I see geese flying overhead in a “V” formation.

My garden is getting sleepy. My herbs, greens and tomatoes are still clinging to summer, but my beans, cukes, and peppers have surrendered to fall.

I’m starting to think about putting the garden to bed, but I’m not sure exactly what that means. How and when do you put your garden to bed? Do I retire one plant at a time or the whole bed at once?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 28th, 2005 at 8:39 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to "Greengirl: Fall unfolds"

h lindsay says:

September 28th, 2005 at 11:21 pm

Aloha, Wahine ‘oma’o (Green Girl)!
‘Ae, how this “put the garden to sleep” time makes me yearn for Kapa’a , Kaua’i. Tonight after work, I hurried outside to dig up ti plants and pot them to bring inside. I fear they will not make it under the ‘aina (land) in my ST Paul yard in temperatures expected tonight. THEN… I carried 3 potted hibiscus plants, 1 jasmine plant, 3 potted ti plants, and 1 huge budding gardenia plant into the house. And it is a small house! All the time I am apologizing to these poor tropical beauties for trying to grow them in Minnesota. Some of them know what to expect; they have migrated from my yard to my living room in Falls past, yearning for warmth and more light than they will get for a long time. Now please pause and offer up protective wishes for the 6 foot hibiscus that I had to leave out in the front yard because I just could not lift the pot by myself and had no room to bring it in yet anyway. I will have to trim those blooms off soon, and bring them to my kumu hula (teacher)so that I can fit the old friend through the door. (The hibiscus, not the hula teacher.)
My advice is to tend to any tropicals yesterday. I figure the marigold and petunias will make it for another few weeks. Co-workers have known me to rush in with armloads of oregano and sometimes basil after a night of frost. It’s just too emotionally painful to dig, cut, pull, and toss all those living things at once. Maybe too painful for knees and backs as well.
E malama pono,
Holly (Halileilanialohahau’oli) Lindsay

deb williams says:

September 29th, 2005 at 11:20 am

Putting a garden to bed is like toddlers, you put them to bed when they are tired. Sounds like your cukes and peppers are watching the 10 p.m. news.
Put the stuff to bed that looks bad. Compost anything that did not expire from disease. Throw anything you suspect.
Leaf lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, all the cool season stuff planted late will be o.k. til a hard freeze.
(just cuz’ ya asked, I eat the kohlrabi sliced real thin in salads or in a relish tray with dip as it is sweet and crunchy)
Spread a layer of shredded leaves ( run em down with the bag on the mower) on the ground that has been vacated to shut out any weed seeds that blow in or get carried in (birds are my main culprit) so you don’t have as much to yank out in the spring.
Sing “Goodnight ladies”. Go inside for cocoa or tea.

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