Empty Nest Gardening

Tomatoes, peppers, and herbs potted on the deck.

Fish pond, turtle island and the cistern.

The fish tower being utilized.

Pesto!

Drying peppers.

The beginning of habanero salsa.

Roasted cherry tomatoes.

The original garden plot.

Now that fall is here, and this last heatwave of the summer has broken, I thought I would share how our garden made out this summer.  

In truth, we've been empty nesters now for over ten years.  The year before we tried something new and we grew some of our vegetables in pots on the deck, while keeping the original large garden we planted in 1985 and its perennials intact.  But this year when winter began to wane and we got the urge to start getting our hands dirty, we made a bold decision.  We tilled under our garden.  When spring finally did arrive the old garden plot was gorgeous.  The grape hyacinths took hold and spread and the grass filled in.

This year, our only planting was done on the deck, four tomato plants, four pepper plants, and two basil and rosemary plants.  (I have a small herb garden just outside the front door where thyme, oregano, lavender and mint come back every year and Italian parsley is planted each year.)

My husband came up with a way several years ago for us to catch and store rain water.  A fish pond, (stock tank) was put on the small patio below the deck.  The gutters feed into it and it, when it's overfull, feeds into the under ground cistern left from the original farm house that was on our property.  We then have a pump on a line we can lower into the fish pond from the deck above and water from the pond.  It's works beautifully.  It's also made for the easiest gardening I've ever done.  To make it pretty, we add floating plants, fish and a fish tower every year.  The oblong tank pictured behind the fish pond is turtle island, where my husband's turtles summer.  But that is his story to tell. :)

Anyway, as far as production goes, it was an amazing year; so many tomatoes and peppers!  I think we've found our happy gardening niche.

Welcoming Boredom

Living in the rural countryside the past 32 years I have to admit that for years I didn't understand why others, who lived surrounded by wilderness like me, wanted to spend their weekends camping.  After all, if I want to soak up nature all I have to do is step out onto my deck.

Then we became empty nesters and I began to look at RVs as a way for us to do some travelling.  So we did some shopping around and bought one.  And I have to say, it's my all-time favorite way to travel. But it wasn't until we took our camper out to the local lake that I understood fully what having an RV would truly mean to me.

This weekend we spent three days at the lake.  While we were there my daughter asked me, "what do you do all day out here?"  And I replied, "nothing, and that's the beauty of it."  

Because when you're at the lake, there's no laundry calling, no dust guilting you into taking care of it, no gardens begging to be weeded.  What little housekeeping that might need your attention is so small it takes no time to accomplish.  There's no Netflix or Amazon Fire or Tivo to steal your time.  Your calendar has been cleared. 

What there is is endless hours for reading, hours for sketching, old movies on antenna TV, board games, tiny jigsaw puzzles, and new recipes to try on a campfire, (grilled ginger peach chicken and steaks with avocado butter).

Best of all, there's mornings for staring at the lake, and afternoons, and evenings.

When Monday comes around I find I am so much more rested than on a Monday following a weekend that wasn't spent at the lake.  And I start looking ahead for the next weekend available to go again.

A Brief Encounter

On Sunday I was unloading groceries from the car when I heard, and felt, something running towards me.  When I turned around I saw this little one.  My first thought, where's mom?  He/she, practically ran right into me.

Obviously frightened, she kept trying to find places in the shade to rest.  Several times she would try to get close to me but at the last minute would startle and run.  After a while it was evident mom was no longer around.  I wanted to help.  My husband questioned whether it would be the right thing to do.  I didn't know about that but I did know the little thing wasn't going to survive long without someone looking after it.

Unfortunately she arrived only a short time before our Labor Day BBQ was to begin and our property filled with our children and grandchildren. 

Oh, how I wanted to keep her and help her!  My mom had a fawn when she was a girl, so did Audrey Hepburn.  I'm sure our rather overactive company probably drove her away.  I've been keeping my eye out for her ever since but I'm afraid she's probably gone for good.  I was really hoping for a storybook ending.