So Much to be Grateful For

As I untie the last knot on the plastic yellow rope, the bean tree trellis falls to the ground and is no more. It is November in the garden, and, yes, Tim and I are still working on creating paradise in our own little corner of the world. It is a rare sunny day, warm for this time of year. As we work together outside, I think about how working in the garden with him is on my list of Top Five Things I Like To Do With Tim.

How did the garden come out? I can't say it was huge success, but I can't say it was a huge failure either. This is a picture of it in late August/early September from the upstairs window in my house. No matter what, it was all quite lovely to look at throughout the growing season.


I had some awesome Brussels sprouts plants going until the cabbage moths got to them. Perhaps if I had planted the tomatoes earlier, they would have ripened after all, but this is a first year experiment with that, so I won't give up just yet. I did eat a few cherry tomatoes here and there, just like I managed to eat a fair amount of strawberries despite the chickens and birds feasting on them, too.

There was enough basil that grew under the window teepees for a bit of pesto, and the rhubarb grew like gangbusters, so much so that I took a few stalks which they say not to do in the first year of planting. You can see it there in the planting trough next to the shed. I also dug up some red onion, but that would have been a greater success if I had planted those earlier and perhaps in a sunnier spot. The zucchini did well enough because zucchini is like that.

"You want to see if there are any potatoes in there?" I ask Tim. He starts to dig, and we are pleasantly surprised to find about 4 lbs. of beautiful, scab-free, red potatoes in the ground. Given that I paid this plant the least amount of attention of all, it was the best find of the year. I will definitely plant potatoes again just to make sure it wasn't a fluke.

As for the scarlet runner beans, I decided not to eat any after someone told me they are bad for you. I never did research that until just now, and apparently you shouldn't eat them raw, but cooked is fine. Since the beans were just left on the vine, there are plenty of seeds on the ground when the trellis comes down. I hadn't planned on saving any seed, but the mottled purple-black beauty of scarlet runner bean seeds makes them very hard to throw away.

So. Note to self: plant earlier, and don't go on vacation for 10 days to Yellowstone during the hottest part of September and leave the watering up to others who don't quite care as much as you do about your garden (or, at least, pay them real money instead of free eggs to care).

And now, I can actually afford to pay someone to look after the garden while I'm away as I was promoted at work at the Food Co-op just recently. I am so happy and grateful to have a good-paying job with benefits after so long, you just have no idea.

While here for Thanksgiving, Tim gives the chicken pen an upgrade with a new roof, too. It was getting quite muddy out there, so I certainly appreciate this. We can now stand up when we go in to feed them, too! Woohoo!

While all of this is going on, the chickens are allowed to roam freely about the yard, which is their preference. As we scoop them up to return them home, I tell Tim it's like the tv show where people come home and find their house totally redone.


A person-sized door is still to come, and he says he thinks he'll build a shed and coop that wraps around the pen later. When that gets accomplished, we'll pass on the current coop to the next aspiring chicken farmer. It's cute, but not exactly what we want. I'm also planning a rainwater catchment system off the roof.

The coyote has not returned, and I have to wonder if someone got him with a shotgun before I did. But predators and opportunists abound in the Northwest, and now there is a bit of a rat problem for which we strategically place some poison. That's probably not the best solution environmentally maybe, but I'm tired of going through chicken feed like it's water.

As for the chickens themselves, they still lay regularly every day, and I constantly give eggs away.

After working in the garden on this Saturday, Tim and I sit down to eat our own Thanksgiving dinner. We went to the traditional family get-together on Thursday at his mom's, but hey, when you have so much to be grateful for, why stop at one dinner?

On the menu is fresh turkey (bought with a $50 bonus given out to each Co-op employee for whatever they wanted for Thanksgiving), mashed potatoes and gravy, delicatta squash and Nash's carrots (the carrots were given out at work to those who rode their bike or walked to work on a certain day) roasted and spiked with alder-smoked paprika from Some Like It Hott, homemade cranberry sauce, and cherry pie made from Shirley's (Tim's mom) cherry tree with vanilla ice cream. Oh, yeah, and pear cider from Finnriver.

Nom, nom, nom, and NOM!