Autumn in the Great Smokies!

Morning comes to the Great Smokey Mountains.

After four months of car travel from Albuquerque, NM to my roots in the midwest, my youngest daughter’s wedding in St. Louis, a trip to Appalachia, down through North Carolina, up to Gloucester, MA and a few days at Occupy DC/Freedom Plaza, I’m now “home” in Whittier and Sylva, NC. It feels good to stop driving and not use a milk crate for a dresser anymore.

Mostly it just feels good to be HERE, in these ancient mountains as Gaia cycles into an almost fanciful state of raucous color, chasing leaves down rivers and streams, and making squirrels frantic to collect those amazing acorns that sling themselves all over the forest floor. For a gardener, the sound of rain a few nights back (and the occasional walnut thud) gave me such a sense of peace. I realized that after 20 years of self-imposed hyper-vigilant gardening in Albuquerque, I can let down my guard. I don’t have to worry about consuming too much water or not collecting enough or fearing the endless days of sunshine and needing to protect tender seedlings from premature death. Here, life seems to be much more in balance. And so do I.

Enjoy some photos of what I am privileged to view each day. More to come from this maverick gardener as I settle in, get to know my neighbors and make my way to the nearest community garden.

Mainstreet Sylva, NC.

My new home--cabin in the woods.

My driveway in autumn splendor.

This is how these mountains got their name--enveloping morning mist rising up through the trees.

And finally my garden of course! First thing I did when I moved in was to clean out this old black plastic container, dig up some transplants from my friends’ garden and add them to my leaf mold, compost and topsoil blend. They are going strong!

My fall "garden" in North Carolina. Yum!

The book is progressing, life here is simpler but full of great organic food of every type! I feel so blessed to be surrounded with friends, a great job in the best little spa in Sylva, and the promise of meeting and learning from the many fine farmers and gardeners who seem to populate every square inch of western North Carolina. More to come…

And now from Farmers’ Almanac for November, 2011:

November 2011
3rd-4th Kill Plant Pests On These Barren Days.
5th-7th Favorable Days For Planting Aboveground Crops. Extra Good For Vine Crops, Where Climate Allows.
8th-9th Neither Plant Nor Sow On These Barren Days.
10th-11th Plant Root Crops, Where Climate Permits. Good Days For Transplanting.
12th-13th Any Seed Planted Now Will Tend To Rot.
14th-15th Best Planting Days For Fall Potatoes, Turnips, Onions, Carrots, Beets And Other Root Crops, Where Climate Is Suitable. Also Plant Seedbeds And Flower Gardens. Good Days For Transplanting.
16th-19th Poor Period For Planting. Kill Plant Pests, Clear Fencerows/land.
20th-22nd Favorable Days For Planting Root Crops. Fine For Sowing Grains, Hay, And Forage Crops. Plant Flowers.
23rd-24th Plant Carrots, Beets, Onions, Turnips, Irish Potatoes And Other Root Crops, In The South. Lettuce, Cabbage, Collards, And Other Leafy Vegetables Will Do Well. Start Seedbeds. Good Days For Transplanting.
25th-27th Poor Planting Days.
28th-29th Good Days For Planting Peas, Squash, Corn, Tomatoes And Other Aboveground Crops, In Southern Florida, Texas, And California.
30th Kill Plant Pests On This Barren Day.