a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

  • What’s For Dinner?

    StillOutOftheGarden

    What’s for dinner? It’s a timeless question. The answer is out in the garden until a killing frost lays waste to the greens still flourishing into mid autumn. Some of the white flower beans are blissfully unaware of frost’s impending doom. They continue blooming even though there is no hope of them becoming beans. Originating from the mountains of Central America, they are used to eternal spring. In milder climates, they are perennials. Perhaps if I mulch their roots enough, they will sprout next spring.

    LateBloomsA
    LateBloomsB
    WhatsForDinner

    Soon to be on the dinner table, is this stunning rooster. Sadly for him, his coat of many colors can’t save him, not even his blue feather. He is too aggressive like his brother, who is currently in the freezer. He chases the hens too much. He fights the other roosters too much. “No” means nothing to a rooster.

    RoosterColor
    RoosterColorA
    RoosterColorB

  • Maybe, Maybe Not

    ArtemisMelon

    There’s one last artemis melon left in the hoop house. Will it ripen? Maybe, maybe not, but I’ll let it stay on the vine as long as it wants. I found a berry flower in bloom today. It’s too late to be pollinated and turn into a sweet berry, but it’s as beautiful as berry flowers in spring.

    BerryFlowerInOctober

  • Trees on Fire

    MapleLeavesA

    The trees are on fire. When the sun is out, where is the heat coming from? The sun? Or the trees and their burning leaves?

    Every day there are more white flower beans to pick. I never tire of popping open the bean pods and seeing the large white beans.

    ShiroHanaBeansInHand
    ChestnutLeaves

    The horse chestnut leaves are yellowing. They look like dancers in the gentle breeze.

    It’s a morning for olive-green-pink eggs and ham. Why settle for white eggs when eggs come in so many colors?

    ThreeEggs

  • Is It Fall? Is It Spring?

    ArtichokeBud

    The budding artichokes and morning sun make it look like spring. Artichokes are monumental plants. If you want your garden to make a bold statement, plant artichokes. How does something so magnificent sprout from such tiny seeds?

    ArtichokeMonument
    WheelbarrowOfLeaves

    The wheelbarrows of leaves I’m gathering say it is fall. Tangerine and her chicks come out to investigate what I’m doing. We weren’t so sure she was going to make it as a mother. She was not one to stay home and bake cookies for her babies. If something caught her eye, she’d go after it, and not worry if her baby chicks could follow her or not. It was up to the chicks to find her if they wanted a mother. There were numerous times when we helped the peeping chicks find their mother. A peeping chick in search of it’s mother can peep so loud, its cry pops your eardrums. In the end, the chicks learned to cope with their eccentric mother. She shows them off with pride now. “See, tough love works,” she seems to crow. When the chicks are older and sharing their life stories with Hazel’s chicks, I can hear Hazel’s aghast chicks say, “Your mother did what!”

    TangerineAndChicksCheckingOut

  • Egg of Forest

    ForestsEgg

    Which new hen is laying this pale blue egg? I’d been wondering about it for a while. Now I know. It is shy, elegant Forest. She looks like a hen who would lay a blue eggs.

    ForestA
    ForestB