Temperatures have been dipping down into the low 50s and high 40s at night, and there’s been a crispness to the air that says Autumn is on her way here. 

Many plants are waning, having set seed and beginning to shut down for the year.  So, this afternoon, in the bright sunshine, we cleaned up many, many wheelbarrows full of biomass for the compost. 

Cosmos and sunflower stalks have to be chopped into small pieces to break-down well, but the chickens feasted on heads full of sunflower seeds. 

Most of the sunflower seeds were set out to dry on the picnic table, so that the chickens can have them for snacks throughout the winter, and we’ll have seeds to plant next year.

As we pulled up spent flowering plants all over the yard, we carefully collected their seeds as well, so we can replant them in the spring, and share them with friends:

Calendula seeds, still in the seedhead.

A bucketful of nasturtium seeds, in various stages of drying out. 

Coriander seeds.

Sadie’s Horse Beans (a rare heirloom similar to a Scarlet Runner Bean, but with immense beans – I purchased them through Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds many years ago, and have been saving the seeds each year.)

The patches of amaranth are almost ready to harvest as well – there isn’t enough for chicken treats this year, but we’ll save the seeds and plant a large patch next year just for the hens. 

We’ll continue to harvest green beans, summer squash, tomatoes and tomatillos as long as the weather holds, and look forward to bringing in the winter squash, kale, chard, leeks, and some remaining herbs. 

Are things winding down in your garden?  Or still going strong?

The garden has really taken off  after a week of hot, sunny weather, followed by lots of rain. (although, the cold nights and wind the past few days haven’t done us any favors).  Volunteers have been able to start taking in a few baskets of organic produce to BCS, mostly radishes, mustard greens, lettuce, chives, tarragon and baby beets, bok choy, and kale.  The teeny harvests thus far just begin to hint at the bounty of the coming months.

Between slug-picking and weeding and rain showers, we got a few pictures this morning – (above) The boys in the front yard behind Alderman Tall Telephone peas, mesclun mix lettuce, with more lettuce mix and Oregon Sugar Pod II peas in the background.

- the tomatoes are really taking a beating with the cold (40s and 50s) and hail and driving wind this week.  We wrapped about half in plastic (and then ran out of plastic!) but can’t see that it is helping them out much – the hail damage is the worst.   Surprisingly, the tomatillos don’t seem to mind the dreary weather as much and are growing nicely

Despite a little slug damage, the cardoons we planted back in February are coming along nicely – the largest are nearly two feet across already.  (They were planted closely, because about 20% of the seed stock are infertile – they are smaller and weak and I keep thinning them out.  The hassle of starting them from seed is well worth it – I only used half a pack (@ $2.45/pack), and have 8 strong seedlings, versus paying $7.49 each for large starts from the garden center.)

The Vulcan Red Chard is doing quite well – just a few more weeks until it will be able to be harvested in any quantity.

The mustard greens and bok choy bolted in last week’s heat, but the bolted stalks were fed to some very happy chickens  and in the gaps I have planted summer squash (a total of 6 in the front yard, and 19 in the back – a mix of crooknecks, zucchinis, and patti-pans).  I may eventually need to thin them down, but a few are compact varieties, so we’re hoping they won’t get too crowded.

This is a Golden Hubbard seedling, coming up in the bed closest to the street.  Winter squash are such a treasure – beautiful rambling vines all season, tasty blossoms to stuff with ricotta and deep-fry, and finally, vitamin-packed, long-shelf-life squash in an amazing variety of shapes and sizes to eat throughout the winter.  (Since there is limited space, I have only put in my favorite eating squash – Buttercups, Butternuts, Hubbards, Delicata, except along one side-yard, near the house, where the gorgeous – if largely inedible – Rouge Vif D’Etampes has been planted for harvest decorations.)

For everything you could want to know about nearly every variety of winter and summer squash, I highly recommend Amy Goldman’s book, The Compleat Squash.

To keep the neighbors happy, I have planted misc. wildflowers, sunflowers, daisies, and about 50 dahlias in the front beds.  Add to that those dozen winter squash (to trail out of the beds and along the path), bronze fennel and artichokes, and for good measure, a whole jumbo packet of nasturtium!  If that doesn’t make for a pretty (but still mostly edible!) street-side bed, I don’t know what will!

(Eventually, the front bed will be mostly perennial flowers, currants, a dwarf plum, and a low fence with a grape arbor and a gate across the path, but it needed something to make it attractive this year, especially with so many folks in the neighborhood stopping by to ask what in the heck happened to our front yard!)

And with that, I’ll save the backyard and the chicken update for tomorrow!

Preparing for our celebration of the Resurrection tomorrow:

The children’s baskets may be put out awaiting little treats from a certain visitor, but our hearts and minds are fixed the redemptive joy of tomorrow.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. – I Peter 1:3

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. – Hebrews 12: 1-3

Happy Easter, from our family to yours.

We’re working on a converting our front lawn into veggie beds, and the unseasonably warm and dry weather has helped us get a jump start on sheet mulching.  Goodbye lawn, hello permaculture landscape!  While Tum Tum and I spread cardboard, straw, manure and compost, Little Hen and her Daddy were busy building cold frames out of scrap wood and old windows from the ReStore. (Firecracker was either resting inside, or resting curled up in a nest of blankets on the driveway, since she not only had strep throat, but then a head-to-toe reaction to the amoxicillin meant to cure the strep.  Poor kid. )

(Collage posters Little Hen made calling for Garden Volunteers – I wrote the words, but she went to town with the scissors, a stack of old issues of Mother Earth News and a glue stick.)

Last year we worked at Penelope’s Garden, but this year, we’ll be hosting a community-building garden of our own.   It will be years before our seedling fruit trees and berry bushes obscure many sunny patches of our yard, so we thought we’d make good use of it all and put in veggie beds to grow fresh, organic produce for families of limited means.  This weekend, a team of volunteers will help us finish installing the front yard beds and create many more in the backyard, so that the organic veggies grown here and cared for by volunteers can be delivered to the families at Birch Community Services, a local non-profit serving needy families in Portland.

We saved a little time for planting poppies and sweet pea seeds, rhubarb and asparagus crowns.  We also started tomato, artichoke, and cardoon seeds in pots in the basement.   The dry evenings allowed me to plant blueberry bushes, dozens and dozens of strawberry plants, and a red currant after dinners last week.

As Little Hen’s sign (which she hung on the front door) says -”Gardening – You want to sign up?”  If you’re interested in volunteering to grow food for needy families in the Portland area, and teaching those families to grow their own nutritious, organic produce, please e-mail me at

angela(dot)baker(dot)knits(at)gmail(dot)com

I’m working on setting up a little blog dedicated to the garden this year.  More on that soon.   If you have any ideas on a name  for the Birch Community Services’  educational and food producing organic garden hosted at the Baker’s house, I’d LOVE to hear them (short, sweet and whimsical is best).

Happy gardening!  The rains and cold weather are on the way, so I’m sure I’ll be posting more from indoors later this week!

The intense sunshine this afternoon has all of us anxious for spring, but this morning’s hard frost was a good reminder that winter hasn’t left us yet.  It’s clear we’re moving toward spring, though – we opened the kitchen window to get a better listen to the a few birds singing this morning.

Our nature table had been empty since returning home from Florida, so after lunch, the girls spent a while reworking the shelf with me.  I realize we have so few “late winter” items, but we had fun going through our box of objects and choosing things to put out – things that reflect the lingering winter and anticipate spring.

I am looking forward to adding more and more items that direct us toward the coming spring as the weeks pass – we brainstormed a list of things we might like to put out – seed packets when they come from Baker Creek (until they are planted), a dish of moss taken from the back stoop.  There are  needle-felted eggs and butterflies we’d like to make, books on the spring equinox to pick up from the library.  And then, if we’re brave enough, asking lovely neighbor for a small branch from her cherry tree that we could force into bloom.  And eventually, our Easter goodies.

Hope you were able to enjoy a piece of sunshine today, and get a glimpse of the light at the end of winter’s tunnel.  Spring will inevitably be on her way soon.  What does your family use in your nature table to signify winter giving way to spring?

I found these other-worldy fungi while mulching our future veggie garden on Saturday (these are a species of Inky Cap).  The children were resting, and the sun was shining, so I dashed out to work on our sheet-mulched, mounded rows that will be next year’s kitchen garden (the garlic, shallots, onions, leeks are already in the ground, hiding out until spring under thick blankets of straw mulch).

In the unplanted rows were whole villages of  mushrooms covering about 30 sq ft in total, busily converting the manure and kitchen scraps into black gold.

My friend, Sara, who is passionate about mushrooms,  says that these little guys are a type of cup fungus.   There are hundreds, and range from the size of a nickel to the size of my open hand.

They’re not the quaint little toadstools in gnomey tales, but they are definitely strange and fascinating beauties.

The two younger children are still sick, but Little Hen is perfectly healthy, so we dropped her off at homeschool co-op this morning.  On the way home, the rain was pounding and the wind was whipping the trees about.

We came home and curled up on the sofa – me with a mug of coffee and Firecracker with a tangerine and some hot cocoa, and we watched the rain pound, and the wind blow the leaves off the neighbor’s walnut tree.

As we snuggled together looking out the window, I was reminded of something John Muir said -

“A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship.”

Firecracker said, “It’s pretty cool to think that the trees worship God when the wind blows.”  I can’t see a stormy day and not think how the trees can offer up worship in the midst of being battered by the wind – I am reminded that in all things we are to glorify God.  No matter what storms toss us about, we can still praise the Creator, who is the Father of Lights, who delights in us and will light our way through the darkest, most turbulent times.

The wind and rain have settled in, and the nights are getting pretty chilly.  It is finally feeling like fall, so this morning the girls and I did some dusting,  got out a few fall decorations, and put the autumn cover on the duvet.  I hope to get the window hangings and more decorations out by the end of the week.

Many of these items would normally go on the nature table. We are still figuring out how best to have a nature table with a toddler in the house.  He puts everything in his mouth, and loves to “deconstruct” things with glee.

Our current compromise is to put all of the chokeables and breakables on “high shelf nature table”, where the girls can reach if they use a step stool, but the baby can’t.    So, here is the first incarnation of our fall nature table, and as the leaves continue to fall and we do more autumnal crafting,  I’m sure it will grow and change and reflect more of the girls’ creative character.

How is your fall nature table taking shape?

Yesterday afternoon, while Firecracker played with her magnet dolls, and Tum Tum slept, and I was mopping the floors yet again, Little Hen was a very busy girl – running upstairs, to her room, getting into the kitchen cupboards, and heading back upstairs again, gleaning items from around the house to remake the nature table.

Even though it has been warm and sunny, the nights have been chilly, and the air has that autumn crispness in the morning.    It is September, afterall, so Little Hen remade the table with a “summer into fall” theme.  Looks like she has a bit of a “green with a touch or orange” color scheme going on – like fall is edging in on the greenness of summer. 

Mr. Emerson’s Cook is a book we’ve really been enjoying the past two weeks.  We made sunshine pie one morning, just like in the book! (Maybe there’ll be a post on it soon.  It was a really fun activity.)  If you haven’t read it yet, we really recommend checking it out.

Please join in the nature table sharing at The Magic Onions.  We look forward to reading everyone’s posts on Fridays!

Some pictures from our nature hike at Mt. Tabor Park (which is fast becoming our favorite day hike – right in the middle of the city, great hills, great hiking, lots of nature to examine and exlpore!).   Check out those helicopters!

Firecracker stood for a long time and watched the water pouring in at the reservoir.

Little Hen picked me a bouquet of wild pea blossoms.  Sweet girl.

Firecracker got pretty tuckered out in the middle, so it was Daddy to the rescue!

Stop in at The Magic Onions for more Friday Nature Table sharing.  Follow some other families on their nature hikes at It’s a Wild Life, Living and Learning, Garden Mama, and Ordinary Life Magic.

Have a blessed weekend.