They All Fall Down

I've always thought that the season autumn was commonly referred to as fall because it's the time of year when the leaves start to fall off the trees and nature starts to decline. I remember fall when I was 10. My best friend and I would rake a massive pile of leaves in my front yard. The pile consisted of leaves from the tall maple tree and the prominent apricot tree in front of my house. The two trees would be bare but the yard was a sea of yellow and brown. We would make our pile the size of a small hill and take turns jumping into our massive creation. I quite miss that time because now all fall means to me is knit sweaters, boots, fuzzy socks, lots of leaves, and pumpkin flavored everything. That time was simple and innocent. Nowadays, things are much different.

My modernized idea of autumn. Courtesy of tumblr.

Fall is by far my favorite season, however I'm pretty sure my tiny forest isn't a big fan. As the leaves from the trees by the fence fall all around the garden, some of my plants are starting to turn colors and lose leaves as well. It's sad to watch some die, but I appreciate the wonderful produce that I've gained from them. As the temperatures start to become colder and the wind starts to pick up, my garden changes day by day.

It's apparent to me that the tomato plants are going to outlive every other plant. They show no signs of decay and continue to display their bright green leaves everyday. I can say the same for the habanero, cayenne, jalapeño, serrano, and bell peppers. Some of the plants, such as the spinach, snap peas, radishes, and eggplant didn't survive the season and died many months ago in the middle of summer. However, I've noticed that the yellow crookneck squash and the cucumber plants have just recently started to slowly fade away. The cool air has tinged and hardened the leaves while the wind has blown some across the yard.

I noticed my leafy yellow squash first, mainly because the leaves are bigger than my hand and take up a lot of space in the corner. "Instead of being their usual vibrant green color, they are now becoming more pale and yellow/grey. They aren't as soft anymore either. They're becoming more crunchy." Field Notes, 9/26/14. There are still a couple of squash attached to the plant that we haven't harvested yet. They are a very bright yellow in comparison to their faint colored leaves. Also, I would like to mention that the bright green leaves on the right side of the picture below are from the brandywine tomato plant next to it. You can really see how light the squash leaves are in comparison to the tomato leaves.

Yellow crookneck squash plant, 9/26/14.

Directly behind the squash is the cucumber plant. As I bent down to look at the small cucumber still attached to the plant, I noticed how it seemed to be on its last leg. Many of the leaves have browned and fallen off as well as the vine has started to turn from green to almost black. The changing weather impacted the cucumber plant much sooner than the rest. I was curious as to why this happened so I did a little research. According to bonnieplants.com, cucumbers are a tropical vegetable and are very frost-tender. They thrive in warmer weather and don't survive well when the soil is less than 70 degrees. This explains why the plant started to die when the low temperatures reached the 50-60 degree range.

The dying cucumber plant along with its baby cucumber.

From one perspective, autumn is beautiful, but from another it's depressing. The variously colored leaves cover the ground and create a beautiful sight to see. However, at the same time, the leaves are from many plants that have either died or become dormant for the season. As the freezing temperatures rapidly approach and the wind starts to blow, I know my garden doesn't have much longer. The cold temperatures will soon freeze every root in the ground and the wind will blow every single last leaf into my yard. It makes me sad to see them go, but I can't be angry with the winds. They're just doing their part in nature. So for now, I must sit back and watch the autumn winds do their seasonal job. Their light breezes take the leaves on a journey and their strong gusts blow the plants over. I do wish they wouldn't take my plants so soon, but spring will come shortly and the plants will begin to bloom their wonderful colors once again. But unfortunately for right now, they all must fall down.

**The Wind**

The wind it moves in wondrous ways
Through the tree branches it blows and its sways
It takes all the leaves and flies them so high
Then briefly it lets go and they fall from the sky

Its strength is so varied from timid to strong
The length of the blowing can be short or long
Sometimes it tickles the tip of your nose
Sometimes sends shivers to the tips of your toes

It can bring some surprises with each passing day
The wind will surprise you in many a way
The sweet sound of whistling, the roar of a storm
It can bring you some happiness and also bring harm

The next time you see a bag blow down the street 
The next time you feel the wind at you feet
Remember its power, its beauty and grace
For the wind can be anywhere, it can be any place.

                                      --Dee Mcdonald

Many Kinds of Life

Life is an interesting thing. It comes in various forms, some more complex than others. Everyone has some sort of idea as to what life is, but how exactly do you define it?

life, noun:
the condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being  manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to      environment through changes originating internally. 

--dictionary.com

The definition seems a little too scientific to me. I've witnessed many forms of life in my tiny forest and they all conduct their way of living differently. I find that you don't see much unless you have a close look. A lot of the life in my garden is small and would go unnoticed with just a quick glance.

Something my garden has been lacking is bugs. Trust me when I say I am no bug person, so part of me was happy the little creatures had been avoiding the area. However it seemed a little odd to me that a garden would have no bugs. After my second week of observations, I realized I was very wrong. Of course the bugs were there, I just wasn't looking close enough. Ants. I found ants crawling on the tip of one of the yellow crookneck squash. I counted eight, however there could've been more that weren't in my sight. I wondered what attracted the little black ants and I also wondered whether they were beneficial or not. Upon some research, I discovered that they are attracted to the nectar and the dead plant material. The ants harvest it. I also learned that they aren't harmful to the plant. They have many benefits such as aerating the soil, moving around organic material, dragging around pollen, and getting rid of harmful bugs such as aphids.

The ants I spotted on September 22, 2014.

Of course, being that it's a garden, the most obvious form of life is the vegetable plants. They don't move like the ants, but they grow amazing produce that my family and I have been enjoying for the past few months. For years my best friend had been growing a fruit and vegetable garden in her backyard and bragged to me about how much better the produce was from her garden than from the grocery store. I never really understood the extent to which that was true. A tomato is a tomato right? Wrong. All those years my friend was right, and I realize that now. Not only is the flavor of the produce so much better, but something about knowing that you grew it yourself makes it worth it. Recently, we had the biggest harvest of the entire season. It wasn't just large in quantity. It was big in variety too.

26 vegetables in total.

We harvested on September 23, 2014 and it included one stumpy cucumber, 10 bush champion tomatoes, 12 roma tomatoes, one bell pepper, and two yellow crookneck squash. That night we were able to try some of them. "We made a salad using the cucumber and some of the tomatoes. The cucumber was sweet, but the rind had some sour parts. The bush champion tomatoes were sweeter than the romas but both were juicy and better than the previous harvest because they weren't grainy." Field Notes, 9/23/14

It fascinates me how much my tiny forest thrives. Every inch of it seems to be covered in life. I've been pondering the question as to how exactly you define life. However, I don't think theres a need to say that something is exactly anything. You don't need to pin life onto a set of words to understand what it is. Just find it. Watch it. Admire it. Learn from it. But most of all, live it.

First Look

At the beginning of summer this year my parents and I planted a garden in my backyard. When we first moved into our house 4 years ago, we had to have the backyard landscaped. In our design, we added a rectangular, wooden box in the corner for the purpose of growing a vegetable garden. We'd never actually planted a garden in the space until this year, however this is not our first garden. We had a garden in the backyard of our previous house, but it hadn't ever been very successful. We were all excited to start planting our new garden, so one sunny day in May we went down to a shop that sells already grown plants that can easily be transferred into your own garden. The goal of this garden was to be able to grow our own food and because of that we didn't buy any of the flower plants. We bought $100 worth of vegetable plants and planted them the same day. Ever since that day we've had much success. Even though I've been looking at my garden all summer, I've decided to now use this project as an opportunity to look at the finer details and record all my experiences with the tiny forest growing in my backyard.

When we first planted the garden (left) and the garden today (right).

The first thing you notice when walking into my garden is the overwhelmingly large tomato plants. They've grown taller than their supports and are weighed down by the dozens of tomatoes growing on them. It's only the brandywine, bush champion, and roma tomato plants that are growing big and tall though. The beefsteak tomato plant is hidden between them and hasn't produced much. The brandywine tomatoes are noticeably big and I like to refer to them as "pumpkin tomatoes". They're plump, round, and wide, just like a pumpkin. It seems weird to me to have 4 different tomato plants. I've never been one to like tomatoes so to me they're all the same; something I always rip off my sandwich and end up throwing away later. However, after observing them closer this first week, I have a new fondness of how they grow. They strive to live long and grow as much as possible, something I see in myself too.

Brandywine "pumpkin" tomato.

Hidden underneath all the tomato vines are a few different kinds of pepper plants. I'm most interested in the habanero plants. We have two but only one of them has recently been growing two small peppers. Most peppers adopt a green color, however the habanero is bright orange. I've always been one for spicy food, and my dad has also, so you can expect that we're pretty excited about these growing fireballs. They may be small, but they bite your tongue and can leave you in tears. I've seen and tasted many habanero peppers before. My dad and I even make a hot sauce out of them. But I'm anxious to find out if the peppers in my garden are hotter than the ones we buy at the grocery store.

Two habaneros above. One orange, one green.

I've never paid so much attention to something before, but something about this gets me a little excited. Maybe it's the idea of the project. Maybe it's the subject I picked. I'm not sure, but I'm eager to see what's around the corner.