November & December 2024: The Last Of The First & The First Of The Last
Frosted Echinacea:
I forgot to mention in my previous post that the gravy my queen made for the turkey & dressing was amazing. She used a base of homemade chicken broth & store-bought turkey broth and infused it with homegrown lemongrass & lemon thyme. You'd think that would make the gravy lemony but, instead, it just added a nice brightness:
Sunday's sweet potato harvest. This is what two roughly five gallon sized pots can produce so definitely a productive crop if you are growing in a small space like an apartment balcony. As a bonus, the leaves are edible (raw or sauteed like spinach) and, though they aren't prolific bloomers, their blossoms are similar to morning glories. This year's plants had beautiful pale purple flowers with deep purple veining. We planted Beauregard starts but, looking at the coloration of some of the tubers, I think we had some volunteers from previous years:
I drove around the neighborhood collecting bagged leaves on Friday & Saturday.
We are storing some to make leaf mold with. That will take time & moisture. I imagine by Spring time some of the bags will have broken down sufficiently:
The rest was spread around the front & back garden beds as cold weather protection that will eventually break down to amend the soil & build up the soil level. We're basically trying to emulate what trees do in the forest. It is a kind of regenerative agriculture for the home gardener:
This would have been a great shot (well, great to me anyway) if only that white-throated sparrow had cooperated. There was this strand of light just to the left of that shadow that would have made the white & yellow on its head shine but it either had its head turned the wrong way in the light or the right way but in the shadows. This was the best out of the bunch that I took. I still like the lines & colors in the photo:
