Over the past few months, there have been many gardenly things happen around here that are worth writing about. It just seems that there is not enough time to post anything. We are almost never home these days. Then when I am actually home during daylight hours, I have a difficult time accomplishing even the smallest task outside. I am actually home on Saturday for once and as I sit here and write, it is raining outside. I'm not saddened by the rain. We do really need the moisture, but I think it's a little odd that it would rain today of all days. Still, I like to be able to have the time to look out the window and watch the shower and know that I don't have to water the garden or the flower beds. That's God's job and today, well, He's working overtime.
Without making this post too long to read, I will update a little about what is going on around here outside. My bees seem to have done very well through the summer and have slowed down a lot to prepare for the long winter ahead. I don't really know that I am a successful beekeeper because I've never had any experience with bees. I just really let them do what they do and leave them alone. I didn't get to share any honey with the bees and I really wasn't expecting to. Everyone I have talked to has said that for the first year, the bees try to stock up enough food for themselves for the winter. And besides, I really didn't want to have to figure out how to extract the honey this year anyway.
This is the first year that I have planted a fall vegetable garden and I have to admit, I like it. And it seems that I am a little better at it than a spring garden. I have planted green beans, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage and lettuce. The bean seeds were a couple of years old and only about 10% of them sprouted. The lettuce and cabbage is still pretty young but look very healthy. My pepper plants are the best of all. They are really growing well, and some are almost as big as you get in the grocery store. I did, however, plant the peppers and tomatoes a little too early and I nearly lost them to some late 100 degree days. But now they seem to be happy and I have lots of blooms and fruit on the tomato vines.