The Countryside Companion

I found a hard cover copy of this great collection of essays, first edition, 1947, in an English open air market. It's edited by Tom Stephenson. One chapter is entitled "Stiles and Gates." Thomas Hardy refers to stiles in his novels; authors today probably refer to interstate rest stops. Today my mail box contains a notice that my copy of Toby Hemenway's book has arrived from Amazon. You can find copies of The Countryside Companion on Amazon.

December 2009

I saved this post two years ago. It's been fallow with no ideas planted or harvested.

Tobias Hemenway's New Book

Gaia is on my wishlist. I like the diagram about evaluating the drainage that runs downhill, then planting trees in a diamond pattern to trap the runoff and divert it to watering the trees.

Farm Incubator

Last Thursday my application for an organic farming class was accepted. When I complete the course, I'll have access to a quarter-acre in a nearby county. After that comes a stall at a farmers market.

Last year I didn't have a garden and didn't even compost anything. This year a few plants did extraordinarily well, consider the composting was interrupted for one year.

Rose Dead Head

On 28 December 2009, I snapped off one as described in the title. The package container stated "Blaze Rose," but I don't think Blaze is the species I purchased. I have deep pink blossoms usually by the first week in April. In 2009, I had two small roses growing through November. However, the air has been brisk and breezy, almost freezy, through December.

In December 2008, on Christmas Day, the daffodils had green shoots pushing through the summer season's tomatoes and green peppers. This December, I don't see a single green shoot.

Microclimate Watch

On Thursday, I inspected the last plants standing, the green peppers which thrived in their microclimate location this summer. The joints and several stunted green peppers were stunted and tinges with black streaks, victims of colder weather.

Today, Saturday, after an overnight low in the twenties, the last of the green pepper plants are frozen and in mourning, heads and leaves lowered to the earth as if in saturnalian prayer. The dill is still standing.

December 2009

The twelfth month deserves an update for this blog. In May, we volunteered for our local CSA Farm Tour. We were greets at Castlemaine Farm near Liberty on a Sunday afternoon. The farm put my microgarden to shame; however, my microgarden has been a good trial. In 2010 I hope to have a larger space.