Reflections With a Samhain Bonfire

            Reflections with a Samhain bonfire. The madman was so excited – a nice rainstorm and a bit of snow hit us late last week. Sure, he was glad to see the drought begin to ease. But, more important, rain meant he could have his Samhain bonfire without burning down the woods. And, a wonderful fire it was!

            For ancient Celts, Samhain celebrated the bringing in of the harvest and the start of the dark days of winter. For us, the Samhain fire signaled the end of the strangest gardening season ever. Interestingly, it was also the night of a Blue Moon, the second full moon of October. We used the warmth of the fire to protect us during the coldest night since back in spring. In its glow, we reflected on the events of the past year.

Masks Allowed

            “Who would have ever thought it was ok to wear a mask into a bank lobby,” the madman mused. As an afterthought he added, “I remember seeing signs at the bank on October 31 that said No Masks Allowed.” This year has definitely been a strange one.

A Normal Start

            January was pretty normal. Seeds were started, orders were placed and we had started to talk about the changes we had planned for the garden. By February, COVID-19 was beginning to enter everyone’s vocabulary: we started talking about the Connecticut Flower and Garden Show. Do we go? Do we not? We went with a worried attitude. As usual the madman had a ball at the Maine Garden Products Booth, talking to fellow gardeners and anyone else with an interest in a greenhouse. He loves his greenhouse and likes to share his experiences with anyone who will listen. Except for a couple of trips to the Horticultural Exhibits to look at his blue ribbons and the other entries, we didn’t stray far, preferring the relative safety of Pike’s greenhouse.

How Things Changed!

            That was the end of normal as we knew it. Shortly after the flower show ended, we heard that the Connecticut Master Gardener Association‘s Symposium was cancelled. Then, almost immediately, the Connecticut Cactus and Succulent Society’s Annual Plant Show and Sale was cancelled. UConn closed the County Extension Centers and the Master Gardener program went virtual, no in-person office hours to look forward to. No big work days at the Middlesex Focus Garden. And, the news got worse. No possibility of any Road Trip in the near future. Thank goodness we had our gardens and some new ideas to keep us busy.

            As the madman stoked the Samhain fire and threw in another log, we talked about the good, the bad, and the ugly. In 2020 we experienced all of these.

Something Good

            Because of the year, we need to talk about the good things first. We are so fortunate to have our garden. In past posts, we’ve talked about how we garden for the wildlife. This year, our first priority was to garden for us. Thanks to the pandemic, this was easy.

            First of all, travel restrictions kept us home. No March-April Road Trips this year. Instead, every day, the madman travelled to the greenhouse to check his seedlings. Nothing dried out this year. Nothing froze due to an unexpected cold snap – he was here to turn on the heat. Our seedlings flourished. So what did we learn? Either we change our Road Trip dates or we have someone who will watch the temperature forecast as well as water the tender plants.

Keeping Temperature Swings at Bay

            The madman still remembers last year’s Road Trip to Death Valley. The forecast looked great when we left and Greg, our gardening helper, carefully watered the hot pepper seedlings. However, he was never told to watch the temperature and one surprise drop in temperature destroyed half the precious seedlings. Not his fault, but he felt almost as bad as the madman.

            Speaking of temperature drops, mid-May 2020 saw two nights with temperatures well below freezing. So where was the good in this? I consider it a good lesson learned by the madman who claims he uses May 15 as the last spring frost date. After these two cold nights he says he’ll never rush the season again – we’ll see about this. If he had rushed the season like he normally does, he would have lost a lot of transplants, and, believe me, this year replacements would have been hard to come by.

Second Plantings in Mid-Summer

            Next on our list of good was second plantings. In the past I think the madman was half-hearted in his second planting efforts. This year, he really had to make them count. Both tomatoes and zucchini were planted in July and gave us well-appreciated produce in mid-September. In fact, we finished the last or our fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes yesterday. The August plantings of beets, radishes and turnips are still going strong.

Hot Peppers and Heat

            Hot peppers, and even the sweet peppers, produced beyond expectations. Our freezer is full of cut up sweet peppers ready for winter soups and stews. And, every place I look, I see hot peppers hanging to dry. We even made hot pepper infused olive oil, one of the madman’s better ideas and a good use of the peppers he is not allowed to cook with.

Although we credit the heat of the summer for the success of the peppers, the madman noticed an interesting phenomenon. In late June we had five days in a row above 90˚, and in July we had 16 days where the temperature topped 90˚. During this stretch of heat, the hot peppers seemed to go into the doldrums, but in early August lower temperatures seemed to spark a resurgence in plant energy. Interesting side-note, this season we had 35 days with temperatures above 90˚ in June, July and August.

Making Due With What We Had

            The vegetables kept us fed all summer, but the flowers kept us happy. Since travel was limited this year, we couldn’t visit other gardens. Nor could we visit our local nurseries, greenhouses or garden club plant sales. We had to fill our garden beds with what we had available. Fortunately, we always order our favorite seeds early, so we were good there. But we like to fill the empty spaces with “eye-candy” we find when we are out and about. Guess what? No eye-candy this year. But, the good thing is that I made the madman clean out his seed collection to fill in the spaces. And, we learned to use potted plants, excess hot pepper plants and things like millet from the bird food as fill. We didn’t have as much variety this year, but the wildlife didn’t seem to care. They kept us entertained all summer.

The Moon Garden Was a Great Idea

            And, when the stress of living in the COVID arena started to get a little too much, we sought refuge in the moon garden. This was definitely a good idea. We enjoyed relaxing there as the light began to fade and the white of the flowers began to pop. Throughout the summer, we spent a lot of time making sure that the plantings were well taken care of – sometimes at the expense of other areas of the yard; you know, a good thing/bad thing situation. Some of the moon garden plants got off to a rocky start, but with a lot of tender loving care during the growing season, the overall effect was awesome. Of, course, not everything was perfect: some modifications have to be made, but we’ll talk about those when we discuss the bad and the ugly.

            But right now, the madman wants cocoa and come to think of it, so do I.