Here we are in early December, and I have to pinch myself. The weather has been, well, it's been sublime. The bees have been flying like it's springtime. (There is honeysuckle blooming.) I've been using this bonus time to put the gardens to bed.(Gardens...bed...get it?) Normally, by this time of year, we are wearing thermal gloves and ear muffs. The other day, I was outside in a tee shirt. (And a pair of pants, naturally.) The extra-warm weather and extended harvest time has allowed me to reap amazing rewards. Within the last week, I've harvested squash, peppers, tomatillos, the last of the eggplants. Found a few extra potatoes when the tubers started sending up leaves. Dug the last of the Jerusalem artichokes. Still plenty of carrots, beets, parsnips, daikon radishes. And, of course, the arugula will be providing greens throughout the winter.The garden is becoming truly self-sustaining, with much of it perennial, and much more seed-producing. This past season, for instance, all my eggplants came from seed saved from the previous season. They flourished. Most of the tomatoes I grew came from saved seed as well. And several squash varieties. It's kind of thrilling. Of course, the asparagus and rhubarb will keep on giving, year after year, as will the tubers, like horseradish (though I think that's technically a root) and sunchokes. I don't know what the potatoes will do. Will the undug tubers continue to live and reappear in the spring? We shall see.
A few leeks that had gone to seed were an absolute vision of loveliness in the garden - stately, 5 ft. spires topped with beautiful purple globes of blossoms. Each flower head was perpetually blanketed by winged pollinators. All kinds of wasps and bees. Finally, when the flowering ended, I cut them and laid the whole stalks in a disused part of the garden. Now, there is a veritable carpet of thousands of leek seedlings emerging. I will dig these up and bring them inside, to transplant in the spring. Garlic has been wonderful. Every year I seem to miss harvesting a few heads. As a result, a few days ago I dug up a couple hundred garlic sprouts and transplanted most of them in neat blocks. It will be a good harvest next summer of at least 160 heads of garlic. The big question is what to do with my globe artichokes. I grow them in California as a perennial border plant, and they expand every year and send up more and more buds with each passing year. But here on Montauk? I don't know whether to mulch them heavily and hope for the best, or dig them up and overwinter them in the cellar.
 |
| Globe artichoke in December. One week from harvest. |
This past Wednesday night we had quite a storm. Violent winds that kept me up all night. Rain. Stuff outdoors flying all over the place and banging around in an alarming fashion. Driving rain, but that wasn't a worry. I lay awake in the middle of the night thinking about the bees. I hadn't weighted down the hive covers, because I still have to remove the feeder boxed before I truly bed them down for the winter. I was imagining pieces of hives strewn around the yard. As dawn arrived and the worst of the wind was behind us, I rushed out in my robe to the hives. And, unfortunately, I was right. The hive covers had blown off all 3 hives. Thankfully, the inner covers were intact on two of them, meaning that the bees still had good protection. The vicious yellow hive, however, had the inner cover blown off as well, so the tops of the frames were exposed. I rushed to gather the covers to start protecting the colonies. Well, as soon as I approached the yellow hive - you guessed it: I got attacked by a guard bee who flew at me and got caught in my flowing locks. It couldn't have been much over 40 degrees, so it never occurred to me that the bees would be actually be flying, but that yellow hive...Anyway, I ran at full speed towards the house, looking like a complete madwoman, I'm sure, night clothes flapping behind me, and into the house. I didn't realize that the bee was still in my hair, and somehow she wound up on the living room floor, only to sting Tiki, my puppy, who ran around the house madly for a few minutes, and then was totally okay.
Now we've returned to mild weather again. Nary a breeze, and it was almost tee shirt weather again yesterday. But the brutal wind the other night was a harbinger. Winter is now truly on the way.
