Summer has come to an end. You can smell fall in the air. It's a little cooler and crisper in the evenings. A frost even visited my garden plot 509 several days ago, a frost cool enough to snatch the life out of my heat loving squash plants, my peppers too.
     The frost didn't come too soon though, not before I was able to enjoy quite a harvest for my family and friends to feast upon. We shared organic zucchinis and got some delicious zucchini bread in return. I learned a new recipe for chili rellenos and made real spaghetti sauce with the gadzillion tomatoes we grew. My brother also made some spicy salsa with the peppers we shared with him.
     With two young children in tow, I kept the garden simple, with fewer veggies and with more time to put into the things that counted. My older son who will be four soon helped with the planting, the weeding, and the watering. He learned how, with a little everyday effort, we can grow our own food. He also learned, as we shared with our many friends, the virtue of giving.
     It has made me feel especially good knowing that this food has helped nourish the bodies of these good folks. Also, perhaps keeping in constant contact through sharing with our friends and family has helped bear the fruit of friendship and camaraderie. I do know that we all are going into the fall a little more secure and closer with one another.
     It's time now to bring my garden to a time of rest, readying it for possibly a very cold winter. My perennials will need reassurance that spring will come again, so I'll cover them lovingly with the compost that we have creating all this year and leave them to sleep through winter's cold.
     Sometimes I feel sad that the annuals have to die, but I realize that, in reality, they are just changing form. They are becoming rich organic material, ready to gift their nutrients to the ever waiting and always working compost pile, completing a cycle that will go on forever.

Aspen Marks