17D767DF 06F1 4654 98E1 4E9A1B3D9BAF The new fence

The new fence

Today the farm entered the 21st century. We had the front fence, which has been made of wood for as long as I can remember — possibly back as far as 200 years — replaced with a brand new vinyl fence.

We kept the old-fashioned four rail look even though the subdivision across the street put in three rail. It is such a relief to not be worrying about that eyesore any more. My Christmas decorations will look so great up there! I think the new fence is a good bit longer than the old one, which means that I will have to buy more garland and wreaths, but it’ll be fine.

Today’s garden harvest looks great! I spent about an hour shelling beans this afternoon and ended up with about 3 cups of fresh Lima beans. I can’t wait to have them for supper, if there are any left — I keep snacking on them!

I took a few more pictures, but the garden is starting to look as tired of itself as I am. I missed a couple of days watering after a rainy spell, and the kohlrabi and onion seedlings died off. I am jusst going to buy some plants from Lowe’s and call it good. The squash plants look horrible and keep turning out deformed immature fruit. The delicate squash that were coming are gone — I don’t know if that means a critter got them or what, but I’m about ready to give up on squash for the year. That was a total bust. Maybe next year I’ll just put squash in containers and keep it away from the tomatoes.

I have to admit that Early Girl has been great in the final stretch. I pulled 8 or 9 tomatoes off it today. Maybe it will find a way into my garden again next year.

Planting tomatoes in the asparagus has worked fine, too. I single-stemmed them at the beginning and pulled all the suckers a couple of times so that I could stake them which decreased production, but overall I am happy with putting the plants there. No more bush beans for me. I’ll stick with the pole beans. Some of the peas sprouted. I didn’t water, as I said, so I hope more will sprout if i water better. There’s also a possibility that the deer got them since they were not in an area protected by the water. The camera isn’t saving recordings anymore, so there’s no way to be certain what happened.

Anyway, I will happily eat my tomatoes and beans and squash tonight. It’s cooling off, and even though it is’t quite the season yet, I will say it: happy fall, y’all.

Posted by Jenny Smith

I'm Jenny Smith. I blog about life on the 300+ acres of rolling farmland in Northern Virginia where I live. I like tomatoes, all things Star Trek, watercolor, and reading. I spend most days in the garden fighting deer and groundhogs while trying to find my life's meaning. I'm trying to be like Jesus -- emphasis on the trying.