Putting the garden to bed.....

I love gardening. 

There is nothing like turning a brown patch of earth into lush greenery that I eventually harvest into delicious, nutritious, organic food. 

I love the sunshine and breathing the fresh air while I'm at it. 

I love the hard work, and even the weariness that I take to bed with me at night that sends me into a deep sleep. 

I love wrestling with the tiller and feeling the strength of my muscles. 

I love the heat soaking into me and the sweat cleansing me. 

I love sitting in my chair and relaxing as I wait for a tree to be watered and then moving on to the next. 

I love talking to the plants, admiring them and encouraging them. 

I even love picking off the squash bugs twice a day and feeling like a mama protecting her charges, until they are big enough and strong enough to survive.

I love planting a fruit tree and feel great satisfaction when the leaves start to bud in the weeks that follow. I love the feeling of faith and hope that one must have in planting a fruit tree.

I love eating my lunch on the move; picking ripe cherry tomatoes and popping them into my mouth for a burst of deliciousness, munching a green bell pepper, a few green beans, even a ripe ear of corn. Have you ever eaten a raw ear of corn? It is a sweet treat!

I love picking the eggplants, until I have bags and bags of purple beauty. 

I love digging up potatoes, a first for me this year, and feeling like I'm digging for treasure--what fun! 

I love discovering that I did something right, and wondering if anyone else in the whole world already knows about what I just learned. 

I love it when people stop to admire my garden and we chat about our gardens and sometimes swap tips and produce. 

I love the challenge of finding a better way to do something than I did it before.

I love finding ladybugs and their babies, and I invite them to stay. 

I love the bees. My dad kept bees when I was young and I was fascinated by them. In my garden, I talk to them and thank them for their work. I tell them to carry on, that I won't bother them if they don't bother me. And they don't. I talk to the grasshoppers too, after I have caught them. I tell them to stop squirming because they have been invited to lunch with Chance's salamanders today.

I love having my sons out there working beside me, contributing. Hoping that even though they grumble, maybe someday they will be grateful that I taught them to work, and maybe they will even love to garden as much as I do.

And I love the fall, when its time to put the garden to bed. When the season's work is done. When you think you don't ever want to see another tomato in your life. When the produce has all been picked, processed, stored or eaten. When its time to rest.....

and dream about and plan for next year.