“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald
We haven’t had a lot of crispness yet as I write this towards the end of September. There were three or four cold nights when I wrapped up the hot peppers at night. But after that it seemed that the heat returned and the hot peppers are finally turning red. Eventually, probably on the eve of the first serious frost warning, I will harvest them and dry them for the winter. If it’s sunny they will dry in a few days on a baking sheet in the sun. If it’s cooler and rainy then I will have to string them with a needle and thread and hang them above the wood stove.
In the vegetable garden, the tomatoes have given up long before I had to worry about frost. The early tomatoes didn’t taste that great. I don’t think that they liked all that rain. Other gardeners have told me the same thing. They did improve a bit as it got a bit hotter and drier.
The cucumbers looked like they were done but a recent heavy rain seems to have given them a new lease on life. They have new flowers and tiny cucumbers forming. Anything new at this time of year is a gift.
And what of the prolific zucchini? They have slowed down but are still producing at the end of September. I know that all of you zucchini haters out there are wishing for frost.
I’d like the frost to hold off for a bit longer so that the pole beans give me enough seed for next year. Most years I can save enough seed to replant. If we get early frost then I use seed saved from previous years. Unlike the tomatoes the pole beans did very well with all the rain.
The most surprising thing that happened this year in the valley had to do with the messy overgrown pine plantation north of the house. This was a problem that I inherited and had no idea how to resolve. I had been told many times by many different people that it was worthless. I was even told to girdle the trees with a handsaw to kill them. Fortunately I didn’t do that.
I was shocked not to mention pleasantly surprised to learn that some of it had some value. It hadn’t been touched for very many decades and messy doesn’t even begin to describe it. But I was able to sell a significant part of it which I never expected would ever be possible.
Both Scots pine and red pine plantations were planted on marginal farmland after the war. On this property Scots pine was planted in what used to be an open field. I’m sure it wasn’t very good for farming as it’s mostly sand like the nearby Ganaraska.
Scots pine is now considered to be an invasive species so it was good to see it going down the road in the big truck. A significant amount of my old plantation was cut and now there are spaces for native trees to return. Nature will take care of it and eventually the native trees will out compete the remaining Scots pine.
On my neighbour’s property a lot of red pine was harvested. Red pine is native but in a plantation it forms an unhealthy monoculture.
I learned that there is still a lot of plantation pine in Ontario. But no new plantations with those straight rows will be planted. All of it will eventually be cut and the native forest will return. The people who planted the plantations did the best they could with the knowledge they had at the time. Some of them were planted to control erosion as happened here in the Ganaraska.
I’m still getting used to the new spaces in what used to be a solid mess of Scots pine. That part of the property has a much brighter future now. I’m looking forward to seeing it return to native forest in the coming years.
I’m sure that the crispy cooler days will be here soon along with all the traditional tasks of fall.
I have garlic to plant and lots of clean up to do.
There will be firewood to pile and I look forward to using the kitchen wood stove again.
Fall is, of course, the real new year.
By Jill Williams