Fall is here!!
Fall is Here!
October 6, 2026
I haven’t posted many updates lately. Summer has come and gone. At last East Tennessee is no longer under a miserable heat dome. Gardening this summer has been difficult because of either flooding rains, extreme heat, and/or extreme drought. Not all my vegetables did good this summer. I finally got some tomatoes. Pepper plants are thriving now. I had a volunteer Chocolate Cherry tomato plant come up and it’s now about 9 feet long and winding over whatever I had available to prop it up on. The tomatoes are delicious. Good friend Angie supplied me with tomatoes early in the season which was much appreciated.
I’ll be making some decisions over the winter about how I want to proceed with gardening next spring. There are some plants I won’t grow again because I just don’t consume enough. I’m going to plant some kale, spinach, and lettuce during this cool weather. I must find ways to protect these plants from critters such as groundhogs and deer. I did place fencing and strung up aluminum pans to help discourage destruction, but there is only so much I can do.
Bumper crop of figs this year! I made 2 batches of freezer fig preserves with the first harvest of figs. The second harvest of figs is coming in now. These figs are just being enjoyed as fresh with 1 or 2 consumed a day. I’ve managed to give away all the fig propagations this year. I saved one for myself, although I haven’t decided where I’ll eventually plant it.
Mint plants thrived this summer. I was able to dry leaves from fig, chocolate mint, lemon balm, strawberry mint, and spearmint. I cut and placed on tables in my garage where my sewing and crafting room are location. The aroma was marvelous as the mints were drying. I look forward to enjoying those this winter.
Flowers were and are still beautiful this year. Such as abundance of colors and varieties in the yard. The colors and blooms made the poor vegetable crops more acceptable to me. I’ll have seeds from Zinnias, Cosmos, Celosia, and Marigolds to share before spring of 2027. Just let me know if you’d like some and I’ll arrange it.
I was plagued with a knee injury earlier in the summer and had to hire someone to mow/trim my yard. I highly recommend Green Truck Lawn and Landscaping, LLC., if you live in Knoxville, Tennessee. Excellent work and wonderful owners/operators. Knee is doing much better. I’ve been enjoying line dancing, bicycling, hiking, walking, and doing more exercise. Green Truck may have me as a customer full time again next year because I really enjoy being able to do all the other activities.
Birds are migrating is huge swarms and swaths now. I haven’t seen a hummingbird in over a week or so. The nectar feeders are not being emptied, so I’m assuming they are all gone. Murder of crows in my back woods has been loud and vocal in the mornings lately. This usually happens when hawks are in the area.
My focus over the winter will be cutting bamboo culms and watching for new sprouts to cut down and eventually stop the spread. This will be a 2-3+ year process to get under control. I’ll also be killing and pulling up English ivy. I’d like to reclaim some of the woods for in-ground gardening space.
No photos to post at this time. Please feel free to make comments. Would love to hear from other gardeners!
Marie
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