Stagnation and Growth

I find myself 19 weeks pregnant, extremely dizzy, exhausted, nauseous, paranoid about my pregnancy, and pretty much bedridden for the sake of our child. This means that I have not gone outside to visit the trees or the garden since about August. This Autumn was very warm (126 F was the highest it got) and very dry so most of the plants died because Jed is an awesome blacksmith, but sadly his gardener genes were all burned up by the forge. Some of the more hardy plants survived and that's what we want, the hardiest plants to survive extreme weather fluctuation. (6 degree to 131 degrees F so far) And since I can't go outside, I'll see about updating our blog.

As it happens, right before I got pregnant I had made a list of items which I wished to finish before winter set in and as it so happens, two major projects were finished: the chicken coop and the gate to the orchard area. The rest of the homestead continues to grow. The fruit garden seems to be doing well but the animals got wind of the Stevia plant and consumed it essence until nothing but its memory was left. Did you know that comfrey could actually die? Normally our comfrey grows and propagates like mad but this one was subjected to one too many feedings from the geese and it gave up the ghost. (I was about to write "Gave up the goat," which is an awesome statement on its own.) With any luck I'll add clovers and other edibles, including flowers to that garden so that it can continue to grow.



The side garden is pretty much set. The quinces gave us fruit, the strawberry spinach provided fabulous greens, the currants, gooseberries, and pineapple guavas grew, the tomatoes and parsley flourished providing tons of edibles to the birds, the valerian thrived, the raspberries, grapes, and blackberries might actually provide enough fruit for the birds and us next year, and the sage, comfrey, fennel, horseradish, and thyme expanded. Other than occasional annuals, I think that area is set in regards to perennials.

 This year we added a few more tropical plants because you can take the Mexican out of Mexico, but we still want our fruit no matter where we might be living. My lovely friends from work gave me a guayaba (guava for all the English speakers) and a yellow mango. I'll see about adding other types of mangos and guayabas s the years progress but I'll made do with those for now. It's currently sugar cane season in the US (for some odd reason they only provide it during Xmas, probably because of the Posadas) and I was going to see if I could propagate some for next year. But as Jed and others will have to do the planting for me... I might just wait and see.

Things I'm falling behind on: Fall planting: Garlic. =( I normally plant around Oct 31st/Nov 2nd because there is no better time to plant garlic than when the barriers between the land of the living and the land of the dead are at their weakest point. I was able to pick up some plants/trees in July for planting.. but as I can't be outside for that long... mind you I can't really be standing up for that long, I'll have to wait to see when I can organize people to help me with those chores. Which is a pity since garlic is so fabulous and it's one of those crops that we look forward to every year. I'll see if anyone is interested in exchanging garlic in pounds for helping me plant. We'll also have to see how pruning will go this year as I'm pretty sure I won't be able to climb the almond tree. I'll have to see if I can do many little batches and then propagate in little batches as well.