We returned to our favorite Ashe County B&B for a 24 hour getaway.  It was well worth the drive - after a 3 mile hike at Moses Cone off the Blue Ridge, and a peaceful night at the Buffalo Tavern B&B, we did the 20 mile Todd Railroad Grade bike ride....

And now back to reality - book writing, 2011 garden wrap, and looking ahead.

A few pics - 

The curse of our yard seems to be Japanese stilt grass.  Although there are plenty of other yet-to-be identified weeds that move in quickly - another is a grass that spreads on runners (both above and below ground) that seems to love our front natural area. So this week I've attacked a few yard areas that were invaded voraciously this summer....it is amazing how quickly nature takes over!  Somehow, the front natural area, back heat pump area and side Iris garden are now mostly weed-free.  Next comes the shade garden and rear iris garden - the biggies will be the main veggie garden (which mostly bare a few weeks ago is now the stunning, vibrant green of grass, chickweed and who knows what else) and edge flower gardens in the back yard.  All in good time.

Somehow, our row of bush beans is still bearing.  The back two rows of lettuce, beets, chard and spinach were severely beat up in recent rain storms and mostly a total loss.  I am going to plant a few large pots of mixed spinach, lettuce and arugula today in hopes of having a portable salad garden in our driveway until the killing frost.  Also on the agenda is a planting of snapdragons and pansies, so we can get our early spring flowers going slowly now.  We shall see how it works out.  

Still thriving are hot and sweet peppers and eggplant, though they are looking tired - and the coming cool nights will start shutting them down on their way to the inevitable killing frosts to come.  Best of all, though, are the 20 or so Brussels Sprouts plants in the garden.  We just may get an early winter crop of what has become one of our very favorite vegetables.

Aside from the outdoor activities listed above, I am working my way through the plethora of information that the Dwarf project generated this summer.  Some reports on that will follow soon.

I realize that death in blog terms is silence.....so for those of you who have hung in there, I promise to be better (and more prolific) about updates - there's certainly lots to talk about.....my various eggplant, pepper and tomato projects and plans for next year for sure.

This is pretty typical for me after a very hectic year.  And what a year it's been - with the consulting contract ended in late March, life has certainly changed.  I bit off more than I could chew with respect to the garden. Starting on the book and trips to the SSE certainly spiced things up a bit.

So I am coming out of my typical end of season, turn-away-from-gardening sabbatical - first up will be tidying up the results from this year's Dwarf project efforts, then planning for what comes next.  See you again...sooner!