It is just before sunrise and the temperature outside is 32 degrees Fahrenheit; it is officially freezing. Today will be the last sunny day before a week of clouds gather. It will look and feel like late fall this week. This weekend I will plant and mulch the garlic and shallots, move some verbena bonariensis, a lupine, and a few foxgloves into the front beds, and bless and leave the soil to rest for the winter.
There are a few potted perennials that I am not ready to plant out yet: comfrey, a volunteer red currant, and a few others, that I will “plant,” pots and all, into the compost. This should protect their roots over the cold months, and I can get them into their forever homes next spring.
All the houseplants have been brought indoors and placed in their winter homes around the spare bedroom, living room, and work room. I will spend part of today dividing and potting up spider plants to share and tomorrow will be the last day the Free Little Garden Shop is open before it, too, closes for the winter. If anyone in Central CT wants one or two plants, just let me know.
All the potted, perennial herbs that need just a bit of protection from frozen soil (rosemary, mints, lemon verbena) have been moved into the greenhouse for the winter. Once the potted chrysanthemums on the steps are done blooming, I will bring them to the greenhouse, too.
I have begun sketching out next year’s gardens. I find myself becoming very focused on basics: what we eat, what grows well, what preserves well, how to invite the garden to work with me for its own abundance, instead of me working so hard in the garden. There are still ways I am unintentionally at cross-purposes with it; still lessons it can teach me if I am willing to see, let go, and learn.
I think next year’s vegetable garden may be a “crop garden;” a garden to harvest crops for preserving and sharing. I have an idea about turning the (currently very messy) space along the back of the house into a kitchen garden with five simple and easy to tend beds for those things I use regularly in spring/summer/early autumn: salad greens, cooking greens, green (as opposed to dry) beans, cucumbers, etc. To do this I will need to divide three very tired hydrangeas and many hosta and perennial geranium next spring. We will see what next spring brings us.
I do love this time of year, a time of diffuse light and drawing in as the hours of sacred darkness grow: a time for dreaming, for inner-journeys, for self-awareness, a time for clearing the corners and making the home (both the home in me, and the home in which I reside) a place of welcome, comfort, nourishment, sanctuary, and rest. These are things that are important to me. Things I treasure. My heart is in them, and they are in my heart just as Rabbi Jesus taught. Go figure.
Courage my dears. Get to know your own hearts: clear them of clutter, fill them with life, grow your courage, love one another.
