In many Eastern cultures, the human entity is divided into three aspects: body, spirit, and soul. The biblical heavenly garden, the Garden of Eden, is an attempt to satisfy these three spheres of our being: our need to feed our physical body, to quench our endless thirst for beauty and spiritual experiences, and to bring some peace to our everlasting soul, struggling to come to terms with our mortality. ~Achva Benzinberg Stein, “Thoughts Occasioned by the Old Testament”
2 October (Monday). Sunny, temp in low 80s. First day in garden after 3-day trip to Kansas for MVM’s 55-year HS class reunion. At Coe, W. & B. were already working, putting up the frame for the greenhouse. Took almost four years of advocacy, but the greenhouse is actually happening. While the builders were building, most of my morning was with the chipper/shredder. Processed three bags of shredded vegetation for a compost bin, choping up 1/3 of the original pile. After our first hard freeze, there will be a lot more to compost. Right now the material is dry and shreds easily. I added some Milorganite fertilizer to provide more nitrogen and speed up the composting.
In the afternoon to Wickiup [my 1/4 acre vegetable garden near Wickiup Hill Outdoor Leaning Center]. Concentrated first on cleaning out weeds and grass in area where I store the wheelbarrow, iron poles, bamboo, etc. Also pulled up dead zucchini, watermelon, and cuke vines. Did some harvesting: excellent hills of King Harry potatoes and fingerlings (much more productive than I had expected, based on the first hills I dug). Got some tomatoes, two small watermelon, one cantaloupe, nice Bolero carrots, 2 kohlrabi, a lot of hubbard and acorn squash, 3 cucumbers (the end of an incredible cuke year), 3 white zucchini (several plants still producing), and a few onions. I would have picked pole beans but ran out of time.
3 October. Temp reached the 80s, but it was cloudy and showers arrived this evening, though less than ½". At Coe, notable progress with the greenhouse: roof is on, also plywood sides. It has a low ceiling (will have to keep my head down on the west end), but it’s exciting to see it emerge. While they worked on the greenhouse, I removed a rose bush from behind the “L” bed bench. Moved the “H” sundial into that spot, where it can be more easily seen. Spent a lot of time digging out the roots of a large clump of goldenrod in “C”. Once the area was clear of roots–at least the ones I could find–I added sand and compost and replanted some black-eyed Susans. Last task was in the “M1" bed digging up those weeds with the small white flowers (probably snakeroot; stem and leaves suggest they are in the eupatorium family). I also trimmed back the red rose bush, which had gotten very tall in the past month and trimmed back some of the white rose bush. I should remove the latter: the blooms have no fragrance and a short life span--after which they turn a sad, miserable-looking brown--but this is one of the oldest plants in the garden and I hate to kill it after so many years of service.
4 October. A real overnight rain; 1" in Coe Garden rain gauge, and I’m hoping a similar amount at Wickup–with more rain in the forecast. The drought has finally been broken. At Coe discovered that W. did not remember we needed a window on west side of greenhouse and that we also will need one on the south side since he could not locate a door with a window. So two more windows must be ordered, creating an unexpected two-week delay. But the door between shed and greenhouse has been installed, and everything is beginning to take shape, providing a feel for how the space will work.
In the garden, I focused on the west end of the “D” bed, weeding around the astilbe and behind the flowering crab. Dug up half of a goldenrod patch in the middle of the bed [one year later, I dug up the rest of that goldenrod]. Earlier I removed all the goldenrod from the “C” bed–which will give space for something, perhaps Husker Red penstemon, which are promiscuously popping up throughout the bed. I also trimmed a couple of large limbs from the SW apple tree. I’m not sure this is the best time to do such pruning, but I was inspired by Christopher Lloyd’s advice that you prune a tree or shrub whenever you have the time. You can’t afford to wait for the perfect time.
13 October [On a 2-week RV trip to New England] Today in Amherst, visiting the home of Emily D. and the Evergreens next door. The latter, which has not been restored, is dingy, dark, frayed at the edges, much as it was on the day its last resident died (I think in the 1950s). But the Homestead has been meticulously restored and is a beautiful home to visit. Stood in Emily’s bedroom, the small writing desk at the corner near two windows facing toward the street. I was surprised to see a picture of Judge Otis Lord on the wall, wondering if his likeness would have been there when Emily was alive.
Wandered around Emily’s garden, which looks a bit ragged this late in the year. Took seeds of some four o-clocks (which MVM recognized, a flower her mother grew on the farm) and a milkweed. I was curious if the milkweed would have been welcomed in E.D.’s flower bed–or was it a meadow plant. Milkweed is not listed in McDowell’s book on ED’s garden. Other flowers included zinnias, salvia x superba, nasturtiums (with large orange blossoms), a lovely anemone with oversized white petals (Anemone ‘Alba’), many peonies, two substantial pokeweeds (Thoreau writes in his journal about walking through a forest of pokeweeds), Perilla frutescens (false coleus), a Gross Pink dianthus, a dame’s rocket, and some hostas. According to McDowell, hostas in ED’s time were called daylilies and not distinguished from what we now classify as daylilies.
18 October. Beautiful sunny autumn day, temp in the 60s, ideal for hiking in Acadia National Park. Our first walk we made a wrong turn and never found our destination, Schooners Head, which proved frustrating, but the walk was level and easy, through a forest of young trees, mostly oak and birch, some small maples, and one stand of young white pine. Saw a lot of blueberry bushes, many larger than typical of those in the Boundary Waters. A lot of bracken and sweet fern–several times I ran my hands through the fern leaves, momentarily capturing their divine fragrance. At Jordan Pond Visitor Center, we saw two enormous wisteria, totally covering a large pergola. Several nice potted flower arrangements, one with an overgrown but lovely salvia, its dark blue blooms hovering over the dusty miller. Also one lobelia, perhaps a Crystal Palace, with many blooms. As for wild flowers, saw an occasional small aster. All the goldenrod are finished. Oaks and maples, however, are in “bloom”–as Thoreau might have said. Our second walk was up above Sandy Beach, a route which required frequent scrambling over rocks, but fortunately for us the path was marked by patches of blue paint, usually on rocks but occasionally on a birch–the bark often worn smooth by the hands of passing hikers, holding on while negotiating the trail.
For access to the complete set of journal entries, click on this link: Fall 2018 Garden Kalendar.