I am so excited to welcome you to the newest segment of my newsletter-turned-blog! Here, I will be diving deep and sharing what I have been up to around the garden. Some weeks will be full of delightful surprises and projects and others might be slow as I honor the seasons of the earth and those that reside within myself. Together, we will learn what works and what doesn’t and see all the beautiful transformations in between. Welcome 💛
November 2024
This week was a rough one. But through the garden, I found a bit of solace, a reclaiming of my own autonomy. I’ve never been great at meditating, of sitting still and trying to quiet the mind. Only when I am toiling away beneath the sun with nothing but a gentle breeze and soil coating my arms to keep me cool have I found my mind to go still. To hone in on what is most important to me. To guide me back to my innermost north star.
It is such a gift that the earth gives freely, and I am so grateful to have had so much time to spend outside this week. I’d love to share a few of the highlights from my time spent playing in the dirt:
Monday
Today I struggled with rolling headaches and lots of tummy trouble (which I talked more about in Thursday’s post), but even through the pain, I managed to get quite a bit done today:
I cleared a pathway to our current compost bin as well as a larger section where our new and improved compost bin will reside. We plan to craft something similar to the one Deanna created from Homestead & Chill.
I built a leaf mold pile using chicken wire and posts we already owned. Then I raked the back fire-pit area and put all the leaves inside which was incredibly satisfying.
The newly cleared fire-pit area and all the leaves nestled inside our new leaf mold bin.
I tried (in vain) to remove the fallen leaves from our little pond. Many of them were stuck because of the pond plants clinging to them, so I wound up mixing more of the leaves into the pond than pulling them out. Ah well. I suppose this gives the pond plants more food for the winter.
Our pond with the eastern redbud leaves more mixed into the water than removed from it.
I then went to the front yard and raked our driveway + pathways of leaves and placed the gathered leaves inside our garden beds as mulch. We always leave all other leaves in the grassy/ plant-y areas to naturally decompose and provide habitat for overwintering bugs.
The beginning of raking up the leaves falling into the garden pathways.
Finally, I cleaned four terracotta pots for an irrigation project I’ve wanted to do for years and years (more on that later).
Tuesday
Once dried, I put non-toxic putty into the hole of the four terracotta pots I had on hand and dug them in to their respective garden beds. These pots will act as makeshift Olla pots that I will fill with water periodically to help keep the front garden beds moist as our hose does not reach this area. Terracotta pots are porous meaning water will slowly leach from them if the surrounding soil is dry, keeping our beds moist even during the warmest of days.
The pots set into the front garden beds. The beds desperately need more soil, but that will come later.
I managed to clear the front garden by our garage of weeds and thought a lot about how to amend the truly poor soil that resides there. I mean, it is terrible. So dry and caked down that I could hardly get my hands around the weed roots to pull them up properly.
The before and after of our garage garden
I also picked some zinnias to bring into the house. They have been going strong this year.
And I read up on the native plants in our area, highlighting ones that might go well in our garden.
The cats love reading with me, though with a book this size it is difficult to juggle all three sitting on my lap.
I also stumbled across my own older blog posts and fell down the rabbit hole of seeing how far our garden has already come in just 4 short years (or 6, though I only started documenting in 2020).
Wednesday
Today, I took it really easy after waking up to the news of the election. I’m not one to subscribe to a single person being a savior of the nation, but I do feel fearful of a second term from Trump. The daily chaos and stress of his first term took its toll on so many of us.
So today, I prioritized crying as often as needed, eating comforting foods (a mix of chocolates, dried fruits, and Pho), and being gentle with my body. It was raining, so it felt like the universe was giving me the permission I needed to pause.
Thursday
I went to my best friend’s house today and we worked together on her garden. We pulled the remaining summer veg from her boxes and then turned our sights to the front corner of her house where the bushes had begun growing out of control but were also dying from an English ivy invasion.
The before, filled with english ivy hiding beneath the leaves and a dying azalea.
We talked a lot about the results from Wednesday, our fears, our plans, our feelings of despair. And then we channeled that energy into something tangible, something physical, something totally within our control. By the end of the day, we were exhausted but felt strong. Powerful. Like we could tackle anything that might come our way. And we had a lovely cleaned up space, ready for phase two of my friend’s garden vision.
The after (but not final) with all of the ivy cleared out, the back bushes trimmed, and the azalea brought down to its base to regrow in the spring.
Friday
Our backyard has been bothering me for some time now. I let it run wild all summer long and now, every time I look out our bedroom window, all I see are the weeds (primarily Chamberbitter—Phyllanthus urinaria) blanketing the garden boxes and pathways.
It’s quite the mess.
My hope for today was to simply make headway on clearing some of the pathways so that I could at least get to the garden boxes. I wound up really finding my groove and getting lost in the work and managed to not only clear a few paths but also level and set in our newest garden box!
Pathways looking more clear (I left some sweet grasses and violets to grow) and our newest garden box (the one furthest from my POV) is now leveled and set into the garden.
As a reward for all my hard work, I took a long shower and then made my absolute favorite gluten-free tiramisu Swiss roll by The Loopy Whisk. This Swiss roll is SO GOOD I wound up including it as an entire chapter in my novel. Zero regrets.
Saturday
No gardening today. Instead, Arlen and I spent the entire day crafting a holiday playhouse for our cats from scratch. We’ve been collecting cardboard boxes for some time now and cleared our entire day to watch holiday movies and construct then paint/ decorate this “brick” house for two of our cats to enjoy. We plan to build a cobblestone home for our third cat another weekend.
The only progress pics I managed to get before my hyper-focused attention turned to painting and decorating.
They both seem to really enjoy their new digs.
Thanks for joining me this week in the garden, the kitchen, and doing some crafts—💛B.A. Franc
