I Feel Fall Coming

 ALERT! June, July and August have gone missing. The last time I posted here was in May and it was about my microgreens and sadly, shamefully, I did not follow up. In brief, the outcome was just okay. Turns out my dear husband does not care for radishes, not one iota.  But hey, that little experiment was back in May. There are days ahead to play with microgreens again, just not anytime soon.

I am in full anticipation of fall. I've started broccoli seeds inside under the grow lights. I have Belstar and a fancy purple broc. They came up in 3 days. Yes, you read that right, 3 days. I'm waiting on the chives and celery to come up. I also started cumin - that's the wild card. I know nothing about growing cumin. This is probably the wrong time of year for it but if it works out, how thrilling will that be?! 

As for garden plans, I have a few. I've pulled up everything that I could along the front fence. We went to the nursery and looked at Pink Muhly grass. Michael has always loved ornamental grasses and he's convinced me it's the way to go in the front yard. It will sit in front of bull panel, aka the very convenient trellis. This is where I'm bound to fuss things up. I'd like to put Confederate Jasmine on the panel. It doesn't have to be Confederate but I like the creamy white flowers together with light pink Muhly. I'd put in Loncera Sempervirens as suggested by a very dear garden comrade but I don't want the colorful flowers from the vine to steal the show from the Muhly. 

My plans will require tilling, relocating much of the tilled dirt and replacing it with garden soil. The condition of the dirt here is just abysmal so I replace soil in areas as I go. There is a Mongolian Bluebeard (Caryopteris Mongholica) that I'm really quite fond of that needs to be relocated and a Blackfoot Daisy and a Autumn Sage (salvia Greggi). They'll live as ferals in the backyard. 

I'm a little nervous because of how deliberate all this is. I'm not that kind of a gardener because I see this as landscaping and I'm not a landscaper! I am a gardener. I plant things seasonally. I watch the life cycle of the things that I grow and reap food and knowledge and joy. I am stepping outside of my comfort zone. Wish me luck!