Fall has come to the valley and with it comes the time to plant for Winter! We are fortunate here as I was recently reminded to have a year round growing season. I was waiting at one of my favorite farmers markets as my order was being filled (spicy greens, red lettuce and a nice head of curly green lettuce) to be later turned to a beautiful salad for dinner with friends as a customer asked about the produce and the growing season. 
She was amazed with the produce and in a bit of shock as the farmer and I both explained to her that it is a year round market. The shock on her face was quite evident and so I asked where she was from. She was here visiting from New York and was happy to say she was here for the next three weeks and would be back each following Saturday. OK...so this is exactly what I was NOT going to do! 
I had sworn I would not take this place and all it had to offer for granted and yet I find myself at times (just 3 years in) doing just that! Of course year round markets are amazing and of course it does not happen everywhere!!! I must remember this so that I can be grateful and appreciative of the bounty we are offered each week. I have been reading a lot this year about food production, etc. and have been working at supporting our local farmers. I make an effort at eating as a "locavore" as much as a vegetarian these days. This means I try and eat and drink things that are produced within 100 miles of our home. Now this does not always work as there are things that I love that are not grown in our beautiful valley such as coffee which I must have and then there is always the chocolate that I cannot live without but I have found that I can buy those from fair trade sources and am at least helping those families even if I am making a bigger carbon footprint by having them travel all those miles to our valley.
Having gone way off course now...the thing I spent my weekend planting was not food, a bit of herbs but not really anything more that we would consume but something that brings a smile to my face each time I walk the gardens which has been multiple times since yesterday... is my Fall planting of winter annuals! Saturday was an early rise day this weekend as Brit had SAT testing and so we set our alarms and rose to make coffee, a high protein breakfast for our daughter so that the brain was awake and functioning and then waved good-bye as she and a friend headed off to sit and test for the next five hours! We were up and energized and it was a beautiful Fall day and so I headed out to beat the crowds. I did not beat them all as other gardeners had the same idea...get there early and get out in good time to beat the crowds and get back to the gardens to plant before the heat of the day hit. October is our time to plant winter annuals and it is one of my favorite times to garden! I have to say I love the plants we are able to grow here and we have worked hard at learning the plants that thrive in our zone and have transformed our space in the last three years! But if truth be told, I love the winter gardens!!! 
They are bright! Bright to take our minds off the gloom once the fog sets in and bright to make us forget the rainy season once it begins! Bright for me I imagine so I will not complain quite so much about the cold...ok, so not even the beauty of the gardens helps me to stop complaining about the cold. Who was I trying to fool. So it was, as I filled my flatbed cart with flats of poppies, pansies, snapdragons, cyclamens, and primrose flowers! All bright and varied in color. No matching for these gardens!!! The more colors, the better is how I see it for Winter. One hundred and ninety plants and two trips later, I had successfully planted a myriad of color throughout our space! 
Poppies were chosen for me and Wayne as they are one of our favorites!!! They are the Iceland variety and different from the ones we grew in IL but bright and fragile and breathtaking in just the right light! 
Snapdragons for my mother as I have never known her not to plant them and this was one of our favorites as children in that we would carefully pluck the blossoms and place them on the tips of our fingers...these sweet flowers were ones I had begun mixing in just last year when anticipating her visit in November. 
Dad and her had to cancel that trip because of health issues and so my snapdragons, planted just for her thrived but without her having a chance to see them and so this year, once again they are planted, waiting for their arrival in November. 
Pansies for one of my best friends...Uncle John, who is an amazing man who helped me through the teens years and has been a constant friend throughout my adult years, a good listener and just a constant support!
I first planted these for him last year as he was struggling with cancer and continue to plant them with their sweet smiles as a constant reminder of how far he has come over this last year! 
He will always be one of my most cherished role models. The cyclamen is planted for a dear friend, Petra who would each spring during our homeschool years deliver a potted one to me for my birthday. 
The Primrose is just because and 
slightly because it reminds me of all the beautiful African Violets my maternal grandmother had growing...a woman I hope to be as strong as some day and one I will always feel connected to when in the gardens or in the kitchen...the reason I still insist my daughter snap beans with me as I did with her grandmother and mine all perched together in the summer heat of Illinois. And so it is that after one hundred and ninety plants...flowers, basil, and rosemary I can sit back and smile as winter creeps closer and the warmth of our summer falls away. 
These are the plants and with them the memories that will warm my heart and hopefully shed on me a bit of physical warmth as Fall fades and Winter encompasses us over the next few months!
She was amazed with the produce and in a bit of shock as the farmer and I both explained to her that it is a year round market. The shock on her face was quite evident and so I asked where she was from. She was here visiting from New York and was happy to say she was here for the next three weeks and would be back each following Saturday. OK...so this is exactly what I was NOT going to do! 
I had sworn I would not take this place and all it had to offer for granted and yet I find myself at times (just 3 years in) doing just that! Of course year round markets are amazing and of course it does not happen everywhere!!! I must remember this so that I can be grateful and appreciative of the bounty we are offered each week. I have been reading a lot this year about food production, etc. and have been working at supporting our local farmers. I make an effort at eating as a "locavore" as much as a vegetarian these days. This means I try and eat and drink things that are produced within 100 miles of our home. Now this does not always work as there are things that I love that are not grown in our beautiful valley such as coffee which I must have and then there is always the chocolate that I cannot live without but I have found that I can buy those from fair trade sources and am at least helping those families even if I am making a bigger carbon footprint by having them travel all those miles to our valley.
Having gone way off course now...the thing I spent my weekend planting was not food, a bit of herbs but not really anything more that we would consume but something that brings a smile to my face each time I walk the gardens which has been multiple times since yesterday... is my Fall planting of winter annuals! Saturday was an early rise day this weekend as Brit had SAT testing and so we set our alarms and rose to make coffee, a high protein breakfast for our daughter so that the brain was awake and functioning and then waved good-bye as she and a friend headed off to sit and test for the next five hours! We were up and energized and it was a beautiful Fall day and so I headed out to beat the crowds. I did not beat them all as other gardeners had the same idea...get there early and get out in good time to beat the crowds and get back to the gardens to plant before the heat of the day hit. October is our time to plant winter annuals and it is one of my favorite times to garden! I have to say I love the plants we are able to grow here and we have worked hard at learning the plants that thrive in our zone and have transformed our space in the last three years! But if truth be told, I love the winter gardens!!! 
They are bright! Bright to take our minds off the gloom once the fog sets in and bright to make us forget the rainy season once it begins! Bright for me I imagine so I will not complain quite so much about the cold...ok, so not even the beauty of the gardens helps me to stop complaining about the cold. Who was I trying to fool. So it was, as I filled my flatbed cart with flats of poppies, pansies, snapdragons, cyclamens, and primrose flowers! All bright and varied in color. No matching for these gardens!!! The more colors, the better is how I see it for Winter. One hundred and ninety plants and two trips later, I had successfully planted a myriad of color throughout our space! 
Poppies were chosen for me and Wayne as they are one of our favorites!!! They are the Iceland variety and different from the ones we grew in IL but bright and fragile and breathtaking in just the right light! 
Snapdragons for my mother as I have never known her not to plant them and this was one of our favorites as children in that we would carefully pluck the blossoms and place them on the tips of our fingers...these sweet flowers were ones I had begun mixing in just last year when anticipating her visit in November. 
Dad and her had to cancel that trip because of health issues and so my snapdragons, planted just for her thrived but without her having a chance to see them and so this year, once again they are planted, waiting for their arrival in November. 
Pansies for one of my best friends...Uncle John, who is an amazing man who helped me through the teens years and has been a constant friend throughout my adult years, a good listener and just a constant support!
I first planted these for him last year as he was struggling with cancer and continue to plant them with their sweet smiles as a constant reminder of how far he has come over this last year! 
He will always be one of my most cherished role models. The cyclamen is planted for a dear friend, Petra who would each spring during our homeschool years deliver a potted one to me for my birthday. 
The Primrose is just because and 
slightly because it reminds me of all the beautiful African Violets my maternal grandmother had growing...a woman I hope to be as strong as some day and one I will always feel connected to when in the gardens or in the kitchen...the reason I still insist my daughter snap beans with me as I did with her grandmother and mine all perched together in the summer heat of Illinois. And so it is that after one hundred and ninety plants...flowers, basil, and rosemary I can sit back and smile as winter creeps closer and the warmth of our summer falls away. 
These are the plants and with them the memories that will warm my heart and hopefully shed on me a bit of physical warmth as Fall fades and Winter encompasses us over the next few months!-Blessed Be
