Fall Manifestation, Do A Little Dance
Mimi and I had 2 days at home last weekend. We were getting ready to fall garden with a plan and tools cleaned and sharpened so when we get that little cool snap that comes around this time we will be ready to hit it.. We will set the tent up in the back yard on the levee. On the nights that we yard camp we sit out on the patio near the pond and chat and eat our dinner. When it gets late enough we go in the tent to watch the full moon rise above us.(hopefully our snap will coincide with the full moon on the 26th of this month). The top of our new tent is screen mesh o we can enjoy the bright night sky. As it begins to get dewey we put the rain fly on and sleep so good. We are in between yurts right now so we will have to whip out the regular camping tent for these early cool nights. We will whip out the big yurt a little later in the season.
During the months that it is cool enough to sleep outside we sleep in our yurt. We take it down during the between months to protect its white cotton canvas cover. One will last 3 years then it begins to pick up mold and other airborne particulates that will begin to degrade the liner. We were on our 3rd year with this one so we have a brand new one in the box in the garage. We will wait until we see the temps beginning to stabilize into the 50’s at night before we put up the new one. Thats the best sleeping weather and anything below that works until it gets below 32 degrees. We dont get many nights below 32 during the winter so we stay out there for about 3 months solid. We have a big buddy heater hooked up to a propane tank that keeps it toasty in there. It takes about 10 minutes to get down to shorts and a t-shirt warm on a 35 degree night. Mimi has decorated the inside of the yurt Bohemian style with a king size bed on jute carpets, prayer flags, two coffee sipping chairs and a little stove and table for making pour over coffee, a major part of camping for us. We have rechargeable lamps on our bedside table.
It seems like more and more things are available with rechargeable batteries that make nights like this fun. Our phones are on rechargeable blocks as are our music source, headlamps, lights in the yurt can be charged with solar chargers, even the golf cart we get down there on has lythium batteries. It’s nice on the nights we go down there with the trees and paths leading to the spot being illuminated. We started getting nutty with our lights a few years ago when I asked the lighting guy who initially installed our system the question. I wanted know how many lights I could add to the existing system. He said that since the lights are such a low load that I can keep adding lights until it shuts the system down. That was all I needed to hear, I test it’s boundaries pretty frequently and so far all is well. Sometimes I’ll come home with a big spool of lighting wire and start at the farthest light and just head out into the dark woods.
I will hook up 2 or 3 more lights in a daisy chain when I find some good lighting trees. Going so far out into what would just be black darkness to light a few interesting tree brings a lot of depth to our yard. Right now Mimi and I are creating a path through our Timber Bamboo. I have lit the path with 4 more lights so now we can see the gorgeous canopy of the bamboo poles from the house, I can barley see the front of the barn through the trees now that I’ve added some lights out there. On those yurt nights we normally go for a yard walk while the lights are redirecting our vision from everything that needs doing to the lit trees and their reflections on the pond. I enjoy those walks more than anything since the night sky hides the work part of the garden and allows a relaxing time to pat ourselves on the back and talk about what’s to come. When we are finished walking we can look back at the yurt with its lights on from within is so beautiful, it’s warm and inviting appearance draws us back to it and its cozy covers. When we yurt on the weekends we will be set up to have a slow morning with some coffee and something to read. On school night yurts we usually get up and head to the house for coffee at our normal stations so we can get on to Garden Works and do our thing.
Our new practice is to hot tub with epsom salt to relax sore muscles then a good yoga session on the patio before lights out. When the yurting season returns we will be going there instead of the house. It’s nice to keep our evenings interesting and away from whatever is happening on that TV. That stuff drives me nuts and gets me down, I’d rather pass my time in the real world. We are in the traditionally driest part of the year. It seems to be holding true this fall as well. We love our irrigation system for getting us through until our plants can be watered correctly. Most of my 22 zones are set for 30 minutes. That sounds like a lot (that’s eleven hours if I do it in one day) but the water from a 30 minute run doesn’t penetrate the ground 1/8 of an inch. It is usually not enough to even get through the mulch, that’s why I say the system gets us through until the plants can get what they need. Weeks of no rain seems to be coming our way so I will stay consistent with my watering and really water when time allows. Once we get past this dry spell we can relax and let Mother Nature hold the hose for about 6 months, I’ll be looking forward to passing the torch back to her sometime in November.
Mimi and I will be headed down to New Orleans this weekend for a big ole blowout with some of the Martinson crew to celebrate Mimis birthday. That short 3 hour drive makes a big difference in where you were and where are. First all New Orleans seems like another planet compared to my hometown But the change in plant zones is giant. Seems like around Hammond, LA the plant life begins to feel different. They are able to grow plants year a round that we just barely can’t pull off. New Orleans has several really nice nurseries. We have seen some of them and we will try to slip in another one after the festivities have worn off on Sunday. I keep hearing about a place called Urban Roots. They apparently have a nursery and petting zoo. I hear the staff is very knowledgeable about plants and the selection is eclectic. If we can fit that in we will. We have been to Perinos several times, their plant selection always makes me jealous. And it is such a smoothly run nursery servicing most of New Orleans so you can imagine the amount of inventory that it takes to run such a large nursery, its mind blowing.
This week, I believe on Wednesday, our first 18 wheeler load of pumpkins and what not was in our parking lot. We have all the regular jack-o-lanterns coming but the fun stuff is on this truck as well. The white pumpkins, the stackable, Cinderella, Fairytale and Turks Turbines. We will have bins of winged gourds, mini-boos, corn stalks and hay bales for fall decorating. We will spend most of next week getting the load displayed in a way that will inspire those that come and see. The timing is perfect, the mums are cracking a little color, the pansies are getting planted, the fall veggies are in and Mimi has a fresh giant truckload of house plants on the way in with Crotons and ferns. Ben is filling up the shrubs and trees area. We have several trucks coming our way over the next few weeks, hopefully we will have what you need for some fall and winter gardening. Andrew has the aquatic plant area looking fresh and has propagated a fresh crop of plants for water gardening in the fall. I hear we have 2 more containers of pottery coming in from Vietnam in the next couple of weeks, I’m not sure how all this gets done but somehow we will be ready.
Feels like we are heating up as normal this month but we hope that by bringing in the fall goodies we can manifest the cool winds to start blowing in our direction. We will be doing the cool off dance and you are welcome to join us, the more the merrier. You can do the hope and pray dance at your own oasis by digging in as if its fall or come join us to let us get you into the spirit of fall. Either way it’s close and we are excited for the change. I am off to the Big Easy!
Before I go, I would like to remind you that Dawson is having a workshop this Saturday morning the 19th at 9 o’clock. Dawson will be teaching methods of propagating succulents. Succulents and agave’s are starting to make more and more sense to us as gardeners because of these long dry summers that are just right for that group ppl of plants. He will be demonstrating about taking cuttings how to get those roots to grow and produce your own plants for for just a few pennies. The attendees of this workshop will also go home with some succulents that they have planted in some really cool looking pots that Dawson picked out. We are asking that people sign up for this workshop so we can have enough supplies for everybody that attends. There will be a place to sign up right next to this article or call us for more information at 601-856-3078. We would love to sign you up for a little Saturday morning fun with your favorite person or a group of people.
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