Late, but better than never

I must say I am a little excited.

In my quest to continue learning about boundaries, the limitations of my own body and mind, and balance in my life (which has translated this summer to once again paring down my schedule), I have a little more time at home - which feels incredibly good. I'm hoping this extra time in my own nest will facilitate some creative work this fall, namely - sewing. I'd LOVE to whip up a couple pretty fall skirts and insulated curtains for our bedroom. Yay! :-)

So there's progress in one area.

But the thing I'm really excited about today is this ...

... I have the tiniest sprouts of beets, carrots, and yellow summer squash!

"Oh, my," you might think, "isn't it a little late to be starting a vegie garden?"

Well, let me just tell you about that.

In my realization that I can't do everything I want (gasp! am I my father's daughter or what?!), this spring I decided to just let go of my hopes of having a lovely vegetable garden this summer. So sad! I didn't get to do much of that last summer, and so letting go of it for this summer was pretty hard. I decided, however, that my time was just too filled already.

So passed May, June, and most of July. And then I read a magazine article that sparked some thinking about a late summer planted - early fall harvested veg garden. What could I plant this late in our short growing season? What would still bear lovely fruit? I did some research, looked at maturity dates, and - lo and behold - there's actually quite a bit I can still expect to harvest.

So here's what I did. Last week I prepped my raised vegetable garden (and for me that means weeding. I'm a pretty lazy gardener...), bought the seeds I wanted, and staked out my plan.

As of yesterday, I have the teeniest, weeniest little beet greens showing, and today's examination revealed that my two summer squashes are going to pop out of the ground either today or tomorrow (I can just see them pushing past the dirt), and my carrots are beginning to sprout! I'm so excited!

To be honest, the carrots are a dubious late summer crop. I may only get the smallest, baby carrots, but that will be just fine with me. The summer squash may not have much time to produce, either, but it sure will be fun trying.

As to the sugar snap peas, kohlrabi, beets, radishes, lettuce, and mache (another salad green), I expect to have lovely, full crops of these through mid-Oct or at least through the first really hard frost.

And to top it all off, the rhubarb I transplanted from my dad's garden (notoriously hard to transplant I've heard - from an agronomist/gardener friend of mine) appears to not only be surviving, but putting out new leaves. Wonder of wonders, and joy to my heart!

Small pleasures, no?

Of course, I still don't think I can do everything I'd like ... but I'm just a little bit closer. :-)