Still Gardening

Nineteen years ago my family and I moved from Texas to northeast Minnesota, where we lived for about three years. A month after we moved to Minnesota, I was shocked to look out the picture window of our living room to see snow falling on the first day of October. We had to cover our tomatoes in June to protect them from frost.  Yet we learned to love the area, and we adjusted to a short, cool gardening season. We hated to leave.

Now, here in southeast Louisiana, we're already in the second week of November, and my garden is still green. The tarragon and the heat-loving basil are still alive. I've planted pansies and snapdragons, but the lantana has put out new blooms. There are even very small tomatoes on the tomato plants we planted in August.

While I miss the seasons of northeast Minnesota (around Cloquet and Duluth), I love the fact that I can garden through the fall, and even through the winter, in southeast Louisiana. The cilantro that went to seed in the spring has re-seeded, and the greens and salad mixes I planted in late September are ready for the table. This week, I picked a satsuma from one of our satsuma plants and peeled it there in the sun, savoring its sweetness.

Soon I'll need to cut back the lemongrass and pile up straw around it to protect it from the cold, and we'll have to wrap our banana trees. But I'm enjoying still the bounty from my garden.