Garden Update: Late Summer Colors, Crops, Kundalini and Moldavite

I’ve been waiting for the asters to bloom before putting up a new garden update. Finally, they did this weekend! Last Friday brought such chilly temperatures that I actually needed to turn on the cozy fire while writing in my morning journal:

Those cold temps meant one struggling tomato plant gave up the ghost and got replaced by more chard, spinach and golden beet seeds. The lettuce I planted a couple weeks ago is also enjoying the cooler weather — good thing, too, because all my other lettuce has gone to seed!

Garden Update: Cat Naps, Fairy Crossing, and Shades of Fall

The magic continues at our new place. The wonderful neighborhood cat, who so successfully shooed away the groundhogs and scents the garden whenever bunny nibbles get too big, has taken to napping with me, just outside the sliding glass door. Whenever I decide to take a quick BioMat snooze in the back room, I usually find something like this:

or this:

Garden Update: Rain! Plus, More Helpers “Reporting for Duty”

After many prayers and much intending, we finally got some deeply needed rain last Thursday and Friday. With so many local trees obviously struggling and very dry, hard ground, I had hoped for a long, gentle rain, and that’s exactly what we received! It rained just enough on Thursday to prepare the ground, and then on Friday, we got a full day into the evening of very slow, misty rain, kind of like nature’s version of a soaker hose. I could feel a collective sigh of relief from all the nearby plants and trees, especially our weeping birch:

On Thursday evening, I went on a walk around the neighborhood. Upon my return, I spent some time with the birch and asked it to give me a sign if the nearly dead branches (from before we moved in) had any life left in them

Compost, Critters and Fritillaria

Another update from the Wild Kingdom of Faery Gardening. This morning features hopefully my last truckload of compost and soil. I ordered a lighter blend and 1/3 less than last time, so I also hope to finish today rather than in tomorrow’s 87 degrees! We shall see. I had planned to get the delivery yesterday with its balmy high of 75 degrees; however, I had a backlog of email sessions

More Mantis and Marmot Magic

After last week’s unusual animal sightings and interactions, the bizarre fun continues. The praying mantis who “reported for duty” last week is the friendliest insect I’ve come across. He (and it does seem to be a he, judging by size) landed on David’s arm on Sunday, and yesterday, I felt someone looking at me, only to discover it was my little mantis friend, hanging out on the cosmos! He said hi and then continued on his way. Today, he landed on my arm while I was planting strawberries and thyme. We both startled each other when I jumped, but after I apologized for flailing my arm, he turned his head and nodded at me.

David took down the dog run wire that had created a no-fly zone for hawks and eagles,

Garden Update: Calling, Planting and Growing an Ecosystem

I’ve had an interesting week in and around the garden! The groundhog “training” continues, with one of the groundhogs content to munch on clover and behave in a very respectful manner. The other groundhog has behaved more like a teenager: “You’re not the boss of me! I’ll eat whatever I want and like it!” Opening and closing the dining room window startles him back into his hidey hole, but this guy was determined to get into the backyard bed.

On Wednesday just past dusk, really too late for a groundhog

Shamanic Gardening

I’m making up for very sparse blogging the past month in otherwise unusable time chunks set aside for various repairs and upgrades. Today it was five new, matching locks on three doors. Because we bought an older house, the locksmith wasn’t sure how long it would take, but now I have some extra time before I get busy again with sessions.

As the locksmith left, I felt called to plant some of the potted up strawberries into the existing groundcover in front of our porch. After watering them in, I second guessed myself, wondering if that would encourage mice too close to the house. I had in my Amazon queue another 100 gallon Big Bag Bed and some fake snakes that supposedly help to repel mice and possibly groundhogs. I put some veggie burgers in our air fryer, went outside to harvest a little lettuce, and what suddenly appeared at our threshold?!

A garter snake: “Reporting for duty.” This was similar to when a praying mantis