{"id":2899,"date":"2011-12-01T15:50:34","date_gmt":"2011-12-01T22:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=2899"},"modified":"2011-12-12T05:52:44","modified_gmt":"2011-12-12T12:52:44","slug":"falling-asleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=2899","title":{"rendered":"Falling Asleep."},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve heard people say, “Summer time and the livin’ is easy.”\u00a0 Which just goes to show they didn’t have weeds to pull, cucumber beetles to pluck off the vines, and 100′ of hose to drag down to the garden when the drought set in.\u00a0 Around here, fall is the season for putting your feet up.\u00a0 As soon as the summer starts winding down, the time consuming crops like zucchini and corn, eggplant and beans, and squash and melon are pulled up and sent to the mulch pile.\u00a0 No more trying to figure out what pest is eating the leaves, whether that’s a fungus or mildew, and thumping fruit or splitting pods to see if the harvest is ready.\u00a0 Yes, the summer garden is a diva, alright, and although her beauty shines, she has a tendency to go on and on about split ends, a cracked nail, and God forbid if she thinks the Japanese beetles are making her look fat.
\nBut then the fall garden arrives, in her jeans and Life is Good t-shirt, and we all breathe a sigh of relief.\u00a0 A single spade is all it takes to sharpen up the edges of the garden rows to prepare for fall planting.\u00a0 The mulch we applied in the spring to hold in moisture has broken down into lovely compost without help from us.\u00a0 The roots of the summer crops have already done the job of loosening up the soil.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Since the fall garden is a granola girl at heart, we can actually start the crops from seed.\u00a0 You remember seeds, right?\u00a0 The inexpensive things that can be thrown into the ground to grow produce.\u00a0 Not at all like the summer transplants you have to buy from home and garden stores at $3.50 each.\u00a0 And another $3.50 when some wilt up and die from the transplant shock or from the disease they carried with them all the way from the greenhouses they were born in and have now spread to your soil.\u00a0 Nope, the fall garden happily accepts lettuce and carrot seeds sprinkled willy nilly over the rows.\u00a0 She adores peas and onions simply pushed in with your fingertips and is even up to new ideas like garlic and celery.\u00a0 At 50 cents a pack, why not?
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But best of all, the fall garden doesn’t come alone.\u00a0 She always bring her steady, Rain.\u00a0 They’re not exclusive, mind you.\u00a0 The fall garden enjoys some time with the summer Sun and Heat on occasion.\u00a0 But Rain hangs around quite a bit, eliminating the need for irrigation or soaker hoses or mulch to keep the soil damp.\u00a0 He’s the hippe type, too, and doesn’t bother with bouquets of flowers to win the fall garden’s approval.\u00a0 Flowers are sooo overdone.\u00a0 Instead, he fills the woods and fields with a plethora of mushrooms to get her attention.
\n\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And, although, I can appreciate a different type of guy as much as anyone else, I do think he went a bit overboard with these mushroom that ooze slime:
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Oh, the crazy things we do for love.
\nSo although I’d like to say I haven’t posted in a while because the garden is keeping me busy, that would be a fib.\u00a0 Instead I was busy with this:
\nCutting out bats.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And carving pumpkins.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Then there was this:
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Not to mention all the eating.\u00a0 Oh, the eating!
\nMeanwhile the fall garden chugged along making carrots and celery…
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

spinach…
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

onions…
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2 types of radishes…
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

brussel sprouts…
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

mesclun…
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

garlic…
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

swiss chard…
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

cabbage…
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

snap peas…
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

broccoli…
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and a million types of lettuce…
\n\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rain and the fall garden are really a hardworking pair.\u00a0 Not to mention the trees who put on this display:
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Other Half, who put up the greenhouse:
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And the boys, who cleared all the leaf debris off the barn roof:
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Really, it was exhausting watching all the work going on around me.\u00a0 Now that I think about it maybe fall isn’t so restful after all.\u00a0 I think I need a nap.\u00a0 How ’bout you, Little Bit?\u00a0 Little Bit?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve heard people say, “Summer time and the livin’ is easy.”\u00a0 Which just goes to show they didn’t have weeds to pull, cucumber beetles to pluck off the vines, and 100′ of hose to drag down to the garden when the drought set in.\u00a0 Around here, fall is the season for putting your feet up.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[156,159,157,163,164,77,158,155,162,165,160,161],"class_list":["post-2899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-broccoli","tag-brussel-sprouts","tag-cabbage","tag-carrots","tag-garlic","tag-lettuce","tag-mesclun","tag-mushroom","tag-onions","tag-potatoes","tag-radish","tag-spinach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2899"}],"version-history":[{"count":47,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3155,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2899\/revisions\/3155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}