Phaedra's 2021 Garden

[Phaedra]

The weather is not so good, and it rains most of the time. I used the opportunity to finish some indoor tasks - making sauces, cleaning the oven/microwave/dishwasher, laundry, washing two dogs, and maintaining wood furniture.

My good girl, Momo, is the 3rd dog we've adopted.

The laundry room gradually became a cozy space, where I spent plenty of time, especially during winter. Some chores are what I can't avoid, but the working environment can boost mood effectively.

I swell that initially; I just wanted to wash the baking tray, but at the end, I disassembled all removable parts, including the glass door.

Anyway, the result is not bad, shiny and bright like a new one. More importantly, it is back to that same functioning piece, and my cleaning skill is also upgraded.

Preparation of sauce making

Crispy shallot confit (cream color one) and chili sauce

With a recently-settled recipe, this chili sauce is the most attractive one I have made. Clove fish and anchovy provide the umami and enrich the flavor.

The tables look wonderful after routine cleaning and applying olive oil.

If I were counted as a plant (why not?), the environment I live in, just like a garden, offers me all kinds of nutrients. In other words, I am always willing and ready to optimize it.

 

[Phaedra]

What pretty scenery. It that within walking distance from your house?

We need to drive for about half-hour, and it is already quite close to the border with Belgium. Most areas in our surroundings, especially those along rivers, are still under reconstruction due to the flood in July.

 

[Phaedra]

I love my mini table garden - they present the toughness of life and the accumulation of time.

The earlier ones are transplanted on the top of my chicken food tower. Most of them are frost-hardy, so I don't need to worry about them.

I stayed in the garden and watched the chickens. It's interesting to see how they interact with each other.

I spent some hours in the morning re-organizing and cleaning the pantry, just next to our kitchen. All the shelves were there when we bought the house, and I added different lights.

Day mode

Night mode is also quite lovely.

I love living in the countryside, slow, quiet, and peaceful. I have plenty of time to think, arrange, and adjust my way of living.

Our kitchen is always like this after dinner. This status ensures I will have a bright mood when I get into the kitchen the following day.

Good night.

 

[Phaedra]

Another Frost is coming tonight, so although it's dark now, I will cut some more Dahlias inside later. Earlier in the afternoon, I had already picked some veggies for the weekend.

I didn't expect sweet potatoes this year because the summer is too cold; however, they look delicious.

Those seedlings are ready to be transplanted during the weekend.

Those are 'graduated' from my table garden and now stay in the greenhouse for sufficient daylight.

Gekko (moonlight)

Momo and Bobo

80% of Dahlias are now in the house for overnight conditioning.

Let's call it a day, and I wish you a pleasant weekend; good night.

 

[Carol Dee]

Another Frost is coming tonight, so although it's dark now, I will cut some more Dahlias inside later. Earlier in the afternoon, I had already picked some veggies for the weekend.

View attachment 44429

I didn't expect sweet potatoes this year because the summer is too cold; however, they look delicious.
View attachment 44431
Those seedlings are ready to be transplanted during the weekend.
View attachment 44430

Those are 'graduated' from my table garden and now stay in the greenhouse for sufficient daylight.
View attachment 44432
Gekko (moonlight)
View attachment 44433

Momo and Bobo
View attachment 44434


80% of Dahlias are now in the house for overnight conditioning.
View attachment 44436

Let's call it a day, and I wish you a pleasant weekend; good night.
View attachment 44435

As usual, everything is so lovely. i think the sweet potatoes can stand cooler temps, they do look good. We are expecting to get a frost soon, maybe tonight or tomorrow night. It won't be a hard frost and the hardy fall blooms will probably be o.k. The other pots husband will put into the green house.

 

[Phaedra]

Sunday began with our breakfast in the garden shed - we had steamed sweet corn, pumpkin, broccoli, and sausage.

While reading, we made ourselves today Genmaicha, a Japanese brown rice green tea consisting of green tea mixed with roasted popped brown rice.

As the weather was nice, I started working in the garden after brunch and cleaned up corn, peonies, snapdragons, and other annual plants. Till noontime, another bag of tulip bulbs was planted, and two raised beds were filled with about 5cm of homemade compost.

Chickens enjoyed the green waste.

Tomorrow I will need to clean the greenhouse and transplant seedlings. When I had a full-time job, I always believed that I would enjoy my lazy and relaxed days without that job. But the reality is, I am not less busy than before.

Before going to bed, I would like to share some lovely photos I took on Saturday. A sunny autumn day is always charming.

 

[baymule]

Lovely pictures as always.

When I had a full-time job, I always believed that I would enjoy my lazy and relaxed days without that job. But the reality is, I am not less busy than before.

In retirement, I stay busy also. But it is a different kind of busy. It is doing the things I love, the things that I have a passion for, not the things I must do to earn a paycheck. What a wonderful difference.

 

[Phaedra]

Lovely pictures as always.

When I had a full-time job, I always believed that I would enjoy my lazy and relaxed days without that job. But the reality is, I am not less busy than before.

In retirement, I stay busy also. But it is a different kind of busy. It is doing the things I love, the things that I have a passion for, not the things I must do to earn a paycheck. What a wonderful difference.

Fully Agreed.

After leaving schools, when there are no longer tests, homework, teachers, the study for ourselves starts. When I look back and check how much I have learned after graduating from the university, I am always amazed.

Then after leaving those corporate ladders - performance, promotions, bonuses, titles, corner offices, and whatever once gave us motivations and defined us all disappeared - the searching and fulfillment of our purposes start at another level, too.

I don't know how to describe better what I felt (or became) in the past few years. For me, the first 40 years are like playing a pre-defined jigsaw puzzle. Without knowing what else I could be, I tried hard to collect pieces others were also collecting. Later I was more awake from the identities offered by different groups of Collective and realized every day I can, and I have to be accountable for the life I want. Yes, it's still about give-and-take, about priority, but 40 years is enough for me to duplicate a template-like picture.

The current life could still be putting together puzzles, maybe. However, the more I know about myself, the less time and resources I will waste in collecting inappropriate pieces.

It's also like gardening - we will eventually develop our ways to design, add, remove, trim, prune, feed, maintain, change, and harvest what are there in our lives.

Sorry if my thoughts are messy and jumpy; it's challenging to organize them with a second language.

Back to real gardening stuff, I have potted some seedlings on much bigger containers and decided to let them grow in the greenhouse this winter. I will cover them with a thick layer of homemade compost for the raised beds and do nothing until spring comes.

 

[Zeedman]

Those seedlings are ready to be transplanted during the weekend.

I forgot to ask earlier - what are the seedlings peeking in from the upper left side of the photo?

Sorry if my thoughts are messy and jumpy; it's challenging to organize them with a second language.

Nothing to be sorry about, @Phaedra Geiermann you express yourself quite well. You have a good philosophy of gardening, and of life.

 

[Phaedra]

I forgot to ask earlier - what are the seedlings peeking in from the upper left side of the photo?

Here you are. I used the multi-sow method for most of the brassica and onion family veggies.