Blue Ridge Gardener

Blue Ridge Gardener went through two seasons of gardening with me. I am still gardening, but this website will not be following the next year.

If you would like to follow the next phase of gardening, you need to go to: afewsquarefeet.com.

You will find a record of my exploits with my Square Foot Garden.

Today is Veteran’s Day in the USA, it is also the feast day of St. Martin of Tours on the Christian calendar.

Today is also the beginning of “Indian Summer” according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac.

St. Martin’s Day, November 11, is considered the beginning of Indian summer, a period of warm weather following a cold spell or hard frost.

Although there are differing dates for Indian summer, for more than 200 years The Old Farmer’s Almanac has adhered to the saying “If All Saints’ brings out winter, St. Martin’s brings out Indian summer.” Indian summer can occur between St. Martin’s Day and November 20.

If we don’t have a spell of fine weather during that time, there’s no Indian summer. As for the origin of the term, some say that it comes from the early Native Americans, who believed that the condition was caused by a warm wind sent from the court of their southwestern god, Cautantowwit.

Read more about Indian Summer

It is the last business day of the month.  We are about to say so long to the month of October and hello to November.  Talk about time flying–this month sure has.

Yes, I know, I have been lax in my writing for the past few weeks.

Blame it on the weather.  Blame it on my work.  Blame it on my laziness.  There is more than enough blame to go around.

I have not forgotten about my garden.  Plenty is still going on out in the backyard. It is not nearly as exciting or as busy as April (but then what is?)

• We continue to have greens on the table, and plenty in the SFG boxes.  There are onions and herbs that we are still producing.  We should have a little bounty left into November (maybe December) if the weather cooperates.
• The hoop house will go up this weekend, weather permitting.
• Some new SFG boxes went in last week.  I have the wood for the rest of my projects, but will need to purchase some more vermiculite to fill the rest of the boxes.
• 2010 garlic has been planted.  Strawberries are doing well and should do fine through the winter under straw.
• Wildflower beds are in the process of being cut back and cleaned up after multiple frosts.
• There is a pumpkin display in the front yard to carry us into the next month. I believe that I have the largest pumpkin in a yard display anywhere in the county–it just wasn’t county fair material.
• Fall colors have been vibrant, and the grass hasn’t been.  I am betting on one last mow of the yard this year, and we can start again in March/April.

Hope that your fall is going well…