Late Season in the Garden

I haven't really posted many pictures of my garden this year. Which means, to me, that I haven't really taken many. And I need to rectify that, because I like keeping pictures of our garden (meaning vegetable garden, flowers, yards & beds - all of it) by year. It's always nice to be able to go back and see how much a certain tree or shrub has grown, or how things were arranged in the past. In the old days, many gardeners did this through a written journal supplemented with occasional drawings or snapshots. I'm taking the digital way out, LOL, consistent with today's lifestyle. However, those tomatoes still taste just as sweet!

Every year we plant some pumpkins. Sometimes they're regular pumpkins, other times they're miniatures or other hybrids. This year we have our Jack-be-Little's. My favorites. In the past we've enjoyed inviting neighbor kids to our pumpkin patch. Now we save them for children in our extended family (and someday our own grandkids will be old enough!).

I love the way the pumpkin vine got tangled up in the corn; the pumpkin has grown suspended above the ground!

Some tomatoes....

Below is some of the last of the corn. DH plants them in circles (like the Indians did). Sometimes he plants beans around them (after the corn has had a couple-week head start) and then the beans grow up and around the supporting corn stalks. He didn't do that this year, though. You can see part of the grape arbor behind the corn, and behind the grapes is the patio. The arbor provides us lots of shade from the afternoon sun, making evenings out on the patio very pleasant.

The grape plant on the north end of the arbor always seems to wrap around and grow into the patio, practically hiding the bird feeder. It'll all get cut back in another month or so.

We've got a bumper crop of juicy green seedless (Himrod) grapes this year. We've been sharing them with family, neighbors, and co-workers. And I've really got to get out there and pick another basketful or two! You can see lots more bunches hiding in the shadows if you look closely.

And then there are the Concord grapes ripening. They're so fragrant, and almost ready! We'll probably share some and juice the rest.

Corner of the yard under an apricot tree...

And a fuzzy visitor to the hollyhocks, below....

I love the angle and intensity of the bright sunlight in September and October here in the Salt Lake Valley. It creates lots of interesting shadows and infuses garden growth with a sort of luminescence.

And last, but not least, a sad note. Aretha died. Not Ms. Franklin, thank goodness, but my tree that was named for her (it was a Golden chay-chay-Chain tree, LOL).

It was a healthy, thriving tree through last year. But earlier this year we had the huge pine tree in our front yard taken out (which you can read about here), and we think that perhaps in digging out some of the major roots of the larger tree, it affected the roots of this lovely ornamental tree. We'll be on the lookout for her replacement, Aretha II, during the fall sales.

How the Mighty Fall

This is a sad story, I'm telling you up front. A good friend to us - and to countless others - has, quite literally, fallen. It was our sad choice after consultations with experts..........
This is our spruce tree in the front yard. It was planted by the former owners of this house when the house was built (in 1963), and was several years old at the time. It was truly a sheltering tree and home to many birds whom we could hear chirping from spring to fall.

However, with its shallow root system and immense size, as well as the windy conditions we experience regularly at the mouth of Big
Cottonwood Canyon as storms come and go, well, it had become a potential hazard. Had it toppled, it would easily have crushed our home or the neighbors'. Nevertheless, it was a very sad day yesterday when it was time to have it removed.

At about noon, the tree removal company arrived with their trucks and equipment. In the first picture (above left), they've just begun cutting off some branches. To the above right, the picture shows the tree as it looked as they prepared to fell it. In addition to stripping the bottom half, they'd also cut branches out around the power line running on the near (west) side of the tree. It's pretty tough to see the tow line connecting the tree to the truck in the far left corner, which will pull it down. But you can see our house in comparison, as well as the neighbor's house and our beautiful snow-covered mountains in the background. It was a beautiful sunny but cool day.

Final inspection of everything before it comes down.

Timber! This became quite the neighborhood spectacle. Everyone must have been starved for entertainment.. I thought I was prepared mentally, but emotionally I wasn't. And I hadn't prepared for the noise......... the groaning, cracking, and thud........ It was over in a few painful seconds.

Not even much dust to speak of........

DH walked over to the stump....... And we counted the rings. 58.

Under its skirt. I asked them, as they were cutting up branches, to watch for and save any birds nests they came across. Either they forgot or there weren't any, because they didn't save any.

So the neighbors returned to their lives while the crew spent the next few hours chopping up and chipping the remains of the tree, as well as splitting logs for firewood. Our front yard looks bare. Ugly, even, because nothing has awakened from winter. The lone green sentinel is gone. But spring will come, and we have plans....

We'd like to fence in a small area and grow a garden. Yep, in the front yard (we already have one in the back). Check out this idea from Mother Earth News from a 2008 issue.

Ours would be smaller in scale with a minimalist arch for an arbor to support some climbing roses. The outer area will be planted in drought-tolerant native plants (xeriscaping), and the interior will house vegetables and herbs. And hopefully some of the birds will forgive us and return...........