Avoiding the Comparison Pitfall & Being Comfortable With Slow Progress

Something I struggle with is not falling into the trap of comparison. Whether it’s people I know or people I’ll never meet, I find it easy to compare myself to them if there are any similarities. And I think social media is a major factor in creating an environment where we compare ourselves to others. Now, comparing yourself to others isn’t always a bad thing. It can help us set goals for ourselves when done in a healthy manner. However, too often, when it comes to social media, it’s rarely healthy. Social media platforms, such as Instagram, are designed to only tell part of the story. We either don’t get to see the entire story and all the work that goes into achieving something, or the achievement itself is misleading. Either way, it’s not good.

Unfortunately, two of my favorite hobbies, gardening and woodworking, tend to be full of comparison and even being bad about yourself. With woodworking, you can get caught up in the size of a person’s shop, the quality (and price) of the tools they have, and the type of wood they can work with. I don’t remember my dad or grandfather ever working with quarter-sawn white oak, but that’s the bulk of what you see YouTube, HGTV, and Instagram woodworkers use. Most people can’t afford that quality of lumber. When it comes to tools, I don’t know many people who can afford to outfit their shop with Festool, whose most basic sander will set you back $300, but that’s what you see a lot on TV and the Internet. It’s easy to tell yourself that you don’t need those tools, but when a project doesn’t turn out as well as the media personality’s does, you can quickly point to your cheaper tools as the culprit. The reality, though, is that the tools don’t maker the woodworker; the person does. We don’t see how many failed attempts went into a project before the successful final product. We also don’t know all the years a person put into the profession or hobby before working up to the expensive tools and materials.

Gardening is the same: If you want the best results from the start, you’ll want to pay to have all new soil brought in to amend what currently exists or buy the best materials to create an above-ground garden. You’ll also want to have the strongest and tallest fence to prevent animals from gaining access to your plants. And don’t forget to have an automatic watering setup that measures soil moisture and waters the plants as necessary. And when you look at Pinterest or read a gardening magazine, you’ll find the most beautiful gardens that are absent of weeds. If you’re like me, your first thought will be “Why doesn’t mine look like that?” Rationally, I know it’s because that garden that probably existed for years and has been the result of small improvements on an annual basis. But still, we don’t know that, and the standalone image is unlikely to tell that story.

Focus on the Successes

I don’t know where you’re at with your garden or other hobbies, but please know that you are doing very well and should be proud of everything you’ve accomplished. If it was your first year gardening and all you harvested was a single tomato, celebrate it. Feeding, watering, and caring for a tomato plant long enough to reach maturity isn’t easy. If you’re a mature gardener who’s struggled with carrots and finally got to eat one out of your garden, be thrilled. You put in a lot of work for that one carrot, and that shouldn’t be taken lightly. In your mind, it may not be as impressive as Instagram handle 123’s harvest, but who cares? They aren’t you, and you aren’t them. Both are okay. We don’t know the background that’s allowed them to achieve their success. They could be veteran gardeners with years of experience. They could also be commercial gardeners with a personal page. Or, they may not be gardeners at all and are simply posing with someone else’s harvest and garden. I never want that to be the case, but the sad reality is that it does happen.

Be Comfortable With Small Improvements

After you begin to appreciate the successes you have each year, I think it’s okay to start focusing on improvements that can be made moving forward. It can be an achievable goal, such as trying a new vegetable or seed variety that you’re curious about. It could also be finding ways to improve your soil drainage or become more efficient at watering. Perhaps you can work toward buying a new piece of equipment each spring that will lead to more success.

We’ve been working to put all these into practice. We had pretty good success with our plants this year, but one of our goals for next year is to have more melons and pumpkins reach maturity. I also want to find a way to make watering more seamless and efficient. The majority of our watering was done with cans, and it would be nice to have a setup that used soaker hoses attached to a single hookup. Finally, we want to improve our fence system. Ours worked pretty well for the first year and was never meant to be a long-term solution. But we also know that we likely won’t be able to upgrade all of it for next year, especially if we do want a forever solution that doesn’t need to be upgraded again in five years. That means upgrading it a little at a time. Maybe, we’ll upgrade one or two beds at a time so that in a few years, the entire garden will have a fence that is deer-proof and structurally sound.

Reaching that decision and mindset hasn’t been easy. I’ve mentioned before that I’m an impatient person by nature and struggle to take things slowly. My default is to find a remedy for the failed fence immediately, but that isn’t feasible. To upgrade all the fence for next year would be a substantial investment or would mean buying another short-term stopgap that would result in failure again. Instead, I’ve focused on what will be the best long-term investment and use the fewest resources while not spreading ourselves too thin. That means upgrading the fence little by little until it’s all improved. It will also mean that we’ll have some breaches in the fence until it’s all upgraded, but that’s okay. We’ll navigate that just like we did this year.

Find Joy Where You’re At

To wrap it up, I want to circle back to being happy where you’re at. It’s important to find joy in our current situation. Sure, it’d be great to have all the best tools at the start of something, but there’s little gratification in that. Working with what you can afford at a given time will help you appreciate the higher quality items when you can upgrade in the future. You can also be amazed at how much ingenuity you have when you are working with “starter” tools.

For example, I began woodworking with a used compact Craftsman table saw. It had a plastic basic that twisted when I ran a board through it. It was a bit scary, but I was able to build a serving tray with it that Magz still uses. I’ve since upgraded to a larger, more powerful Rigid saw that is capable of doing a lot more work, but I wouldn’t have appreciated how nice it is had I not used the Craftsman saw. Eventually, I want to upgrade to a cabinet table saw that can do even more, and I know that I’ll appreciate that one because I’ve worked with my current one for at least three years.

Squeezing everything you can out of what you have is an important mindset to have even though it’s in sharp contrast to the current mindset of many people. It’s fun to be countercultural in that way. It’s also why we aren’t rushing to spend a bunch of money in our garden when what we have serves us well and instead can slowly upgrade things.

October 6, 2025 3

Reflections From the Garden: Focusing on My Mental Health

I’ve written a few times about how peaceful gardening and being in the garden can be. Escaping from technology, surrounding yourself with nature, and being fully present with your plants has nothing but a positive effect on your life. But that doesn’t mean it is a perfect prescription for everything in life, and this summer, I found myself battling mental health problems that the garden alone couldn’t solve.

This post will be a bit different from what I typically write here, but I think it’s important to share. As a guy, there’s often a stigma surrounding mental health and attempting to get help (or at least that’s the case in the United States). This is a little bit about recognizing that I needed help and how it’s going so far.

Owning a House & Having a Garden Were What I Always Wanted

Buying our own house and having a yard big enough for a large in-ground garden were two goals I’ve had for a few years. When we were in the house we previously rented, I always said that it was going to be the last place we rented. I knew that only so much of that was in our control, but I was hopeful. The opportunity presented itself after three years, which was earlier than we would have liked, but with much prayer, help, and perseverance, we stuck with it. After signing all the paperwork and moving in, there was great excitement, but I still didn’t feel as happy as I probably should have. When last winter arrived, I was very happy and excited to be planning our first garden. I was also happy early in spring to be digging new garden beds, which I wrote about in great depth. But something still wasn’t right.

Feeling Off

Even in the midst of all the excitement that comes with gardening, I found myself being frustrated, irritable, and angry at the drop of a hat. Even in situations where I should have been happy, such as planting seeds, I was getting overly upset at little things. For example, if I put too many seeds in one area, I would beat myself up. That alone isn’t the worst thing; however, it affected my mood and how I interacted with those around me, including Magz. I would be short in how I communicated with her and have an edge to my voice.

I also began putting unnecessary pressure on things. I constantly focused on what was going wrong with the garden or what work needed to be done next instead of enjoying our successes or taking breaks. Weeds needed to be pulled and fertilizer needed to be added regardless of the temperature or UV index. This led to me being outside in the afternoon on hot, sunny days when the temperature was above 90 degrees. That work didn’t need to be done at that exact moment, but I felt like it had to. Worse yet, was that I passively applied that same standard to Magz. She asked me if I needed help or would be disappointed if she didn’t help (even though I know that she doesn’t do as well as I do in hot weather). I would tell her no, but when I came back inside, I would either act like I just did the hardest work anyone has ever done or would hold a grudge over it.

The last things I noticed were regularly being tired even after getting a good night’s sleep, no longer being interested in hobbies or activities I like, being moody, struggling to make decisions, and feeling as though I couldn’t hold conversations. In general, I felt depressed and down. Magz regularly asked me what was wrong, but I couldn’t pinpoint anything and just said that I felt off. Eventually, this led to us fighting pretty regularly and me not feeling confident in my ability to get out of the fight. I just felt paralyzed in my own mind and body. Finally, in July, I realized that I needed help. Mentally, I was at rock bottom, but I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t interested in doing in-person therapy because I struggle to open up to people in person right away. Through our insurance, I found numerous services that provide virtual therapy, and the best part was that I could apply filters to find someone I was comfortable with.

Finding a Therapist, First Sessions & Progress

I wanted a therapist who is a Christian and a man. I didn’t feel comfortable talking to a woman in that situation, and I wanted a Christian counselor because I felt that it would be important to have a similar faith background. Within an hour, I found someone I was interested in, scheduled an appointment, and filled out the initial consultation. In a week or so, I had my first session, which was quite awkward.

Prior to this, I had never sought help from a therapist, although I should have. My parents’ divorce, multiple traumatic incidents, and some general emotional events that I never dealt with were all examples of times that I should have spoken to someone. Because of that, I had no idea of what to expect. I originally thought that I’d be “healed” in five or so sessions and didn’t want to drag this thing out. Boy, was I wrong. The first session was a basic “get to know” Kyle meeting where we went over my expectations and goals, and I began to tell him about my background and why I was there. Besides the goals and expectations, that’s actually how my first few sessions went, and I’ve only recently started to move beyond the intake portion of therapy, but I’m seeing real progress.

My therapist has given me the tools needed to process and react to situations and events that trigger me. I didn’t know it, but my ability to handle triggering situations in a healthy manner was basically stripped down to zero. I would overreact to everything and be unaware of how my body and mind were reacting to situations in the moment. Not recognizing this, I would respond to lies that I was telling myself, and situations would blow up. These new tools helped me slow everything down, recognize the emotions and bodily reactions I was experiencing in a given moment, and process them so that I could have a healthy reaction that was rooted in reality instead of falsehood.

What I’ve Learned

I’ve learned so many things from therapy. One is that it’s okay to admit that you need help. That’s a cliché, but it’s true. Not being okay is okay, but you don’t want to stay there. The second thing is that it’s really easy to fall into bad patterns of mental health. I never intended to develop poor reactions to events. It was a slow process that happened over time. The third thing is that developing healthy patterns takes a lot of work. You have to rewire how your mind responds to situations. You’ll have setbacks, which can be disheartening, but it’s important to stick with it. And the last thing is that it’s all worth it. It’s a time and financial commitment, and it’s also going to hurt if you allow yourself to be transparent with your therapist, but being healthy again is completely worth it.

And one more thing. Let’s call it an honorable mention. And this is for my fellow Christians who are having mental health struggles: Don’t let anyone tell you that your struggles are the result of not praying enough or that you don’t have enough faith. God is able to do anything and can solve a person’s struggles without any effort from us. But sometimes, it’s important that we put in the work, meet with a professional, and be able to process what’s causing our struggles.

Don’t Be Afraid to Get Help & Learning to Love Life Again

I started this post by talking about the stigma surrounding men and their mental health. Society is a much safer space for guys to have serious conversations about their mental health, but the sigma is still present. There are plenty of men (and women) who think guys are weak for seeking help with their mental health. If you’re struggling with mental health and would like to speak to someone but are concerned about how someone would view you, you owe it to yourself to get yourself help. Oftentimes, people aren’t as abrasive as we think they’ll be. But if you have a friend who would make fun of you or speak negatively of you wanting to get yourself help, you deserve better friends.

Now, let’s get this back to the garden. I struggled to find joy in the garden in spring and early summer. That began to change after talking to my therapist. It wasn’t instantaneous, but in August, I began to feel like myself again. I began to let the little things that went wrong in the garden go. We could only do so much to prevent the deer and other critters from getting into the garden, and it was wonderful to walk the garden and see the progress of our pumpkins. I also began to find joy in my favorite hobbies. I started the coffee table project and finished it in a (personal) record amount of time. Things are really beginning to look up, and I feel optimistic for the first time in a long time. I hope that if you are struggling with your mental health that you find someone you feel safe with and help yourself. You owe it to yourself. Your life is invaluable, and you deserve to live it to its fullest.

September 29, 2025 0

A Study in Coffee Tables

There are a few woodworking projects that are on my bucket list to complete in my life. My list includes a Morris chair, a dresser, a lamp, a bed frame, and a coffee table. For the past couple of months, I worked on crossing one of those off my list: the coffee table.

Why We Needed a Coffee Table

Before going into the details of the coffee table I designed and built, let’s first cover why we needed a new coffee table in the first place. Prior to the new one, we were using a gate leg dining room table that I had previously shortened the legs on to make it a more comfortable height for our couch. That had been our setup since May 2021, and it had worked for the most part. We were able to eat at our couch, and we could always put up both ends of the table if we needed the extra space. However, there were also some flaws that had always been present but were getting more annoying the longer we used it.

The first is that the table is really old and wasn’t maintained by the previous owners, who also happened to be the people Magz’s mom bought their house from. The table had also been stored in the basement for years, and the result was that the joints were loose, the top had scratches and scrapes in it, and the ends sag if the gate leg isn’t at a perfect 90-degree angle.

The second is that the table’s shape made it difficult to move around. We had to walk all the way around to access the other side of the couch rather than walking between the table and the couch. The gate leg also meant that we would bump into it on a daily basis, which caused anything on top of the table to spill due to the loose joints.

I had considered fixing and refinishing the table, but I think it would have been more hassle than it was worth. It quickly became evident that replacing it was the best option, and when there’s a choice of building vs. buying something, I will always build it.

Picking a Style & Designing the Table

Unless I know exactly what we want before I start designing a piece of woodworking piece, I turn to various books and online resources to determine the style. This usually means starting with craftsman or mission-style furniture. I love everything about these styles, including the warm tone of the wood, clean lines, and function over style. Think Frank Lloyd Wright or the famous Morris chair. I found many examples, the bulk of which had some form of storage, either immediately below the table-top or near the legs. There was a lot to like about a coffee table with built-in storage because we knew that we would be losing a drawer of storage in the gate leg table. However, we also wanted the option to sit at the coffee table with our legs underneath it, which made it difficult to also accommodate built-in storage. So, my search continued.

And here is where my study became interesting. I also have a book on Shaker furniture. Shaker furniture is named for the United Society of Believers in Christ, also known as Shakers, which was started in England in the 1720s and became organized in the United States later in the century. Shaker furniture is known for its durability and simplicity. You can still see well-preserved examples of this furniture at various Shaker museums in the New England region of the United States. Also, Shaker furniture was put on the radar of modern Americans thanks to Norm Abram’s New Yankee Workshop, where he visited several of the Shaker villages and replicated pieces of furniture. What surprised me, though, is that there were no coffee tables in the book I have, nor did Norm Abram recreate one on his TV program. And the reason for that is that coffee tables didn’t actually become a “thing” until the early 20th century. There were examples of low tables placed in the middle of sitting rooms that dated back to the late 18th century and the Victorian Era, but they weren’t called coffee tables until the 20th century.

Striking out here led me to begin looking at Japanese furniture. We love Japanese culture and design, and the floor tables they use would perfectly fit our needs for a coffee table. They’re close in height to what’s considered standard for coffee tables and are meant to be sat at with a person’s legs underneath. But what was still proving difficult to pinpoint was the exact style we wanted the table to have. Japanese woodworking is quite different from what is common in Western cultures. They use a lot of hand tools and feature carvings and intricate joinery in their projects. The design is exquisite and is tough to replicate. I’m certainly not at a place where I can confidently replicate something like that. That led me to finding this table and using it as my inspiration:

After determining the style of a project, I turn to SketchUp and create a 3D rendering of the item. If you don’t know what SketchUp is, it’s a web-based program that allows you to design 3D models. Once it’s designed, you can label the dimensions and print everything, which makes it really easy to use in the shop. There is a free and paid version of SketchUp. I use the free version, and it always fits my needs. From there, I like to transfer everything over to a piece of paper and draw specific portions of the project with a pencil. It helps me to see a specific joint or something that is hidden from view and would be difficult to see in a printout of the rendering. I’ll also use these sheets of paper as an opportunity to take any notes that I want to make sure I remember. It could be the size of a dado slot or the type of joint I’m using. The final thing I’ll jot down is a cut list. It includes the quantity I’ll need for each cut. This helps me to make all the same cuts at once, reducing the chance of unequal cuts.

The Materials

Going into this project, I knew that I wanted to incorporate two heavy planks into the table. They were originally used to move and store heavy pieces of equipment in an aircraft hangar, and we’ve had them for seven years since they were gifted to us. We originally had six of them, and four of them are currently being used: one acts as a shelf for us, and I made three of them into a mantle that is in our living room. The remaining two were originally used as the “hearth” for the mantle I built, but we haven’t used that piece since we bought our house and the mantle has been anchored to the wall. I disassembled the hearth piece, ran the planks through the planer, and was left with two pieces that were roughly 3 inches thick, 40 inches long, and 5 inches wide. Only having two pieces means that I couldn’t use them for the tabletop, so I was always planning to use them as the legs in some capacity.

For the top, I turned to my stash of red oak and pulled two 4/4 x 6-inch boards. In 2022, I bought a bunch of lumber that was earmarked for a few projects. I’ve since completed those projects (bookcase, guitar stand, and kitchen cabinet) and still have a few full-length pieces left. The last thing I needed was fasteners to attach the top to the frame. I was unsure how to do this, but eventually found figure-8 clips, which are brackets that attach to the frame and underside of the top, but no screws run through the two pieces, preserving the integrity of the wood.

Building the Table

At its root, this was a simple table build. It has legs and a hidden stretcher under the top, but there were two aspects that were initially confusing and had the potential to trip me up. The first was the shape of the legs. When you first look at the inspiration picture above, the tops of the legs look as though they are bent, which is a skill that I don’t currently possess. However, when you look more closely at it, you can see that only the vertical pieces of the leg frame are curved, where the joint with the horizontal pieces is. This creates the illusion of bent wood, but it’s much simpler. I decided to cut half-lap joints for this and then round over the outside pieces to give it a seamless look. I can’t tell what joint the inspiration piece uses, but I’m guessing it’s a mortise and tenon joint. I didn’t want to do that on such an important joint, and it needed more strength than what a standard butt joint delivers. A half-lap joint allows the weight and force of the tabletop to be shared across the vertical leg pieces rather than all being focused on the joint.

The second aspect that was a bit confusing was how much framework to have under the tabletop. My original design only had a stretcher piece that connected the legs with spacers placed on top of it, which the top would connect to. As the piece came together, though, I wasn’t confident in it being strong enough, especially as we put our feet up on the table (it’s a coffee table, after all), ate at it, and played board games on it. I saw a scenario where the sides would sag in the future without support below. I addressed this by building a ladder-shaped support system that is placed on top of the stretcher and gave me roughly a dozen attachment points for the figure-8 clips.

With those design decisions made, building the table went smoothly. I limited the number of nails I used by only adding them to the leg joints, but even then, only on the top joints. Elsewhere, I drilled holes and used dowels to strengthen joints. I’m a big fan of how this looks. I also used biscuit joints to connect the four pieces used to create the tabletop. Biscuit joints are great because they’re much stronger than a basic butt joint, and biscuit jointers are easy to use once you get the hang of them.

Finishing the Table

Deciding how to finish this project wasn’t easy. In the inspiration picture, you can see that the top is very dark, while the legs appear to be finished naturally. At first, I thought that the top was a dark blue, but I now think it’s black. Either way, I had no intention of painting the top. I have a pretty rigid rule that prohibits me from painting woodworking projects built from hardwood that has beautiful grain patterns. My opinion is that if you want to paint a woodworking project, you should use a cheaper wood, like pine or poplar. The problem that arose was figuring out how to reach the level of saturation needed to get that dark color without turning to paint.

Milk paint was a possibility because you can thin it to still see the grain, but with Magz’s food allergies, we didn’t want to take a chance. You can also thin latex paint, but it’s difficult to create a consistent product and have an even finish. They also make solid stains, which sounds great in theory, but the product has very questionable reviews, citing a short working time, difficulty removing excess stain, and an uneven final product. Eventually, I’d like to give this a try, but I wasn’t going to use this project as a tester. Wood dyes were also a possibility, but like the solid stain, I don’t have experience dying wood and didn’t want to risk ruining this project. Plus, it was going to be expensive. That led me back to traditional wood stain, since they have several really dark tints, including ebony and true black. This stain isn’t perfect because it’s technically transparent, but I have experience layering coats of it to create a more saturated final product, so I was confident. With a half-pint of stain, a quart of oil-based polyurethane, a can of mineral spirits, and a fresh oil-based brush, I was ready to start.

Staining the table proved to be easy. With the surface sanded with 220-grit paper and tacked off, I applied a thick coat of stain before wiping off the excess. The wood absorbed the stain nicely, but it wasn’t dark enough. With the second coat, I let the stain sit for 10 minutes before lightly wiping the excess, which gave us the dark color we wanted. I then let the stain sit for 24 hours before applying the first coat of poly. In total, I applied four coats to the tabletop and three to the frame, lightly sanding between coats, and got a beautiful, glossy, hard finish. After letting the project sit for 48 hours, I attached the figure-8 clips and secured the top to the frame, and finally, it was done.

Reflecting on the Project

In general, I am very happy with this project’s outcome. I started on it in August and had it finished by mid-September. That’s very fast for me. There are several reasons for it, but I’m not the fastest woodworker, so I was thrilled by how quickly this one came together. The most time-consuming part of the project was finishing, as there’s always a lot of downtime while the stain or finish dries.

I’m extremely happy with how strong the table is and how beautiful the table is, especially the legs. It accomplished my goal of resembling Japanese woodworking, but I made it unique. I love how simple everything looks, while still being incredibly strong. That said, it’s not perfect. Some of the joints aren’t as tight as I’d like, and the curves on the legs aren’t perfect. With a bandsaw or scroll saw, this would be easier to achieve. It’s also not perfectly square, but then again, what is?

Ultimately, we love this table, and it perfectly fits our needs and our living room. We’re able to sit at it and eat dinner or do work, which is very comfortable. If we don’t feel like sitting on the floor, we can pull it closer to the couch or sit on a footstool. The table’s height allows us to prop our feet on it, which was a goal. Unintentionally, the table’s height also allows us to stow stools below it, which was a wonderful surprise. Finally, the table is easy to move and clean under. While it’s very strong, it’s pretty light and slides on the carpet. For the first coffee table I’ve made, I couldn’t be prouder.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my journey of building a coffee table. Even more, though, is that I hope it inspired you to build something if you’re considering it. It can be daunting, but it’s okay to make mistakes and take risks.

September 26, 2025 0

Reflections From the Garden: The Sadness of Saying Goodbye

Our garden is on its last legs, with only our pumpkins left to grow. It’s weird to look outside and see our dried-out corn stalks that are now tan and rustic-looking, squash plants that are withering because there are no more fruit to produce, and Queen Aliquippa tomatoes that have turned a warm yellow color. Last week, I wrote an article about learning to appreciate all the seasons and all that they offer, but even in that appreciation, I’m feeling immense sadness knowing that we’ll be tearing down this year’s garden in the coming weeks.

This Garden Will Never Exist Again

There will always be some common threads across the different years’ gardens. We’ll always grow tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, melons, and corn. We’ll even grow some of the same varieties each year. Despite that, future gardens will never be the same as this year’s. Plants won’t be in the same spot even if they’re in the same bed and growing conditions will mean that plants will grow faster or slower in future years.

Something that surprised me this year is that gardens and plants take on unique characteristics. For example, we learned which sections of the garden will quickly flood if there’s a lot of rain and which ones dry out the quickest. We also learned which vines went to which plants, even as they overlapped and tangled. Finally, we learned when it was time to be concerned about a plant’s leaves wilting due to disease or lack of water and when it was because of afternoon heat and sun. Some of these characteristics will be repeated in the future, but we’ll have to approach each garden with fresh eyes and be willing to learn.

Memories

Something that surprises me is feeling sad about the memories made in this garden going away. It’s similar to a trip or time period that you didn’t want to end. It could be a great vacation that you looked forward to for a long time or being in college with friends that you won’t see as often after graduation. Because this was our first in-ground garden, as well as the first one at our own home, we made a lot of memories in it. Magz and I spent so much time working side by side, prepping it and then planting in it. Here are a couple that stand out.

The first goes back to winter when our seed catalogs arrived. There was one night, in particular, when we were both lying on the floor of our living room with our rabbit, Mia. The TV was off, and only the minimum amount of lights were on. We both had a pen and were circling seeds we were interested in as we were reading them to each other. We’ll likely do that every year, but there’s extra importance because this was our first year doing it. And there’s always something special about the first time doing anything, just like the Kenny Chesney song said.

The second memory is working beside each other as we planted seeds outside. While I’ve fallen down the path (or dark well) of taking everything too seriously, Magz has always been great at having fun, no matter what we’re doing. That was the case with planting seeds. I would fuss over making sure that the holes were all the same depth and were spaced correctly, while she was much more relaxed about it. Ultimately, the seeds she planted grew just as well as the ones I did. It taught me a lot, and that memory will stick with me.

The third memory is a joint one. It’s the first vegetable we harvested from the garden and the first pot of pasta sauce we made solely with our tomatoes. I believe that the first thing we pulled from the garden was a burpless cucumber. It was from a plant that was gifted to us, and we didn’t think it would reach maturity, but it did. We simply sliced and ate it by itself, but it was delicious. Then, in August, we finally harvested enough tomatoes at the same time to make a pot of pasta sauce for spaghetti. That was the proudest I’ve ever been in a garden. I know that I’ve talked about being proud of the melons we grew, but being able to eat 100 percent homemade pasta sauce was amazing. In that moment, I felt such relief, knowing that all the work and effort had paid off in something. We made two or three more pots of sauce after that first one, but none tasted as good as the first batch. And I don’t think another batch ever will.

Hard Work

The last reason that saying goodbye to this year’s garden is proving to be difficult is because of all the hard work we put into it. As I mentioned above, the hard work was absolutely worth it, but knowing that we have to tear it down and put in more hard work next year is definitely sad. While we don’t have to start over from scratch, we still have to address the grass problem and upgrade our fence. Ideally, I think we’d love to not have to repeat some of the same hard work moving forward, but that isn’t the case. It’s not a big deal, but it’s still a source of sadness.

Looking Forward to Next Year’s Garden

In spite of the sadness, I’m already looking forward to next year’s garden. I can’t wait to apply the lessons learned this year to future gardens. I’m also excited to make more memories and in general, be in a healthier headspace to start the garden than I was this year. We accomplished so much this year, and I know that the future only holds more, yet we still mourn this year’s garden going away.

September 22, 2025 0

Learning to Appreciate Every Season

In the past, I have always looked forward to fall, so much so that I would wish for an early end to summer. In fact, that was the case with every season. Toward the end of fall, when all the leaves were off the trees, I wanted snow on the ground. When the bitter cold and iciness of February arrived, I couldn’t wait for the first hint of warm spring days. Then, after several months of rain and muddy ground, it was time for warm summer nights. In general, I have always been someone who looked to the next thing and struggled to appreciate the present moment. But that all changed this year, and the garden is a big reason why. Here are the reasons I’ve learned to appreciate each season, along with lyrics from songs that remind me of the season.

Spring

Let “hallelujahs” flow like a river
We’re coming back to life
Reaching towards the light
Your love is like springtime
Chris Renzema, “Springtime”

Spring has always been a season of excitement for me. When I was a kid, it meant getting back onto the baseball diamond. As an adult, spring has taken on a deeper meaning, but the first hint of warmth in the air still lets me know that baseball season is upon us. In general, the first February or March day when the sun simply feels warmer than it has since October or November is welcomed. The length and intensity of winter will determine just how happy I am for that first hint of warmth. Last winter was a harsh one, so spring felt like a long-lost friend.

Along with the warm temperatures come rain showers and longer days, which soon give us the first signs of life from the soil. Typically, the first flowers we’ll see are the crocus and daffodil. Ironically, neither of these is native to North America. These flowers indicate that gardening season isn’t too far away, and that it’s time to start seeds, either outdoors for the hardiest of plants or indoors for the tender ones. Spring is a time of renewal and looking forward to what’s ahead.

For my song, I went with Springtime by Chris Renzema, who is one of my favorite Christian music artists. It’s a song about the renewal that Jesus’ sacrifice brings. Earlier in the chorus, he sings: “‘Cause death is dead and gone with the winter.” Is there anything more relatable in spring than that?

Summer

Still we sing with our heroes, 33 rounds per minute
We’re never going home until the sun says we’re finished
I’ll love you forever if I ever love at all
Wild hearts, blue jeans, & white t-shirts
The Gaslight Anthem, “Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts”

Summer has been both a season I despise and one that I love. I’ve despised the heat, humidity, lack of air conditioning, and oppressive sun at various points, but I’ve also loved what comes with summer: beach trips, campfires, being outdoors, and fishing. This summer has been the first one where I think I’ve cherished every moment of it and haven’t been ready for it to end.

To me, summer represents the continuation of warm weather that starts in spring. It brings with it sunshine and warm nights that are perfect for sitting on the porch late into the evening. I’ve also (re)learned to love thunderstorms. I’m not a fan of the intense thunderstorms that bring a lot of lightning and wind, but I love the ones that produce steady rain and rolling thunder. It is one of the most peaceful weather events we get. In the garden, summer is a season of rapid growth. Plants will double in size in a week, and blossoms will produce fruit that will display each variety’s unique qualities. Eventually, this will lead to harvesting, and there’s nothing better than eating entire meals from the garden.

In general, summer is a time of production, which can be beneficial and problematic for me, as someone who loves being busy. I love being outside in the garden or in my shop woodworking. But by the end of summer, which is where we are as I write this, I’m ready for some rest that we find in fall and winter.

Picking a summer song wasn’t easy, as there are plenty to choose from. Take country music, for example, where nearly every song during the 2010s was summer-focused in some manner. I ultimately went with “Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts” by The Gaslight Anthem, which is a rock band from New Jersey. A lot of the songs from their ’59 Sound album focus on summer, the beach, and the boardwalk. Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts perfectly encapsulates the feeling of summer, and the final lines of the song are:

Sleep on the beach if we ain’t got a ride
Sleep on the beach all night

Fall/Autumn

When I close my eyes I see you
No matter where I am
I can smell your perfume through these whisperin’ pines
I’m with your ghost again
It’s a shame about the weather
But I know soon we’ll be together
And I can’t wait ’til then
I can’t wait ’til then
Zac Brown Band, “Colder Weather”

Autumn has regularly been my favorite season. It represented a return to my college campus, friends, football, and general happiness. And while some of those items have changed, fall is still my favorite season. For me, it now means a slowdown after the busyness and productivity of summer. With shorter days, plants and the lawn don’t grow as fast and need less maintenance, which creates more time to work on hobbies and do fun fall activities, like apple picking and pumpkin carving.

Other things that make me think about fall are cool weather, jackets, sweaters/hoodies, jeans, and boots, which are my favorite clothing items. And I certainly can’t overlook fall foliage and drives to see the leaves. Pennsylvania is one of the best states in the country for leaf peeping due to the diverse tree species we have. This leads to red, yellow, and orange leaves peaking at different times.

Even though autumn is my favorite season, it was not an easy season to pick a song for. There is only one song I like that specifically mentions autumn or fall in the title, and it’s by The Gaslight Anthem, and I didn’t want to repeat artists. Instead, I went with the Zac Brown Band’s Colder Weather. I think the song is meant to be more about winter than fall, but the line “I can smell your perfume through these whisperin’ pines” always reminds me of fall and the quiet sounds that come with it.

Winter

And in the winter night sky, ships are sailing
Looking down on these bright blue city lights
And they won’t wait, and they won’t wait, and they won’t wait
We’re here to stay, we’re here to stay, we’re here to stay
Of Monsters and Men, “King and Lionheart”

A lot of people in Pennsylvania hate winter and see it as something that must be endured to enjoy the other seasons. I choose to enjoy winter. I have always loved snow and enjoy pretty much everything about it. I also don’t mind the cold weather and find it refreshing. There’s nothing like the crispness of winter air and just how fresh it feels compared to the other seasons.

Winter is a time of rest for me. Aside from clearing snow, there often isn’t a lot that can be done outside. I usually try to do some woodworking, but even that takes a pause if it’s really cold out. The time of rest is so nice, and after working hard from spring through fall, it’s earned. I also love the quiet of winter. Everything about it is quieter than in the other seasons. Snow makes very little noise, and when there is a snowstorm, people are less likely to be on the roads, so that noise is reduced as well. One noise I do like in winter is the squeaking of footsteps in the snow when it’s really cold. If you’ve never experienced it, here’s what it sounds like:

It can only happen when the temperature is below 14 degrees Fahrenheit, as above that temperature, your shoes will melt the snow as it’s getting compressed. I have many memories of being outside in winter and that being the only sound. It’s peaceful, eerie, and wonderful.

I would be remiss if I didn’t include hot chocolate and baking among my favorite things of winter. I love drinking hot chocolate on cold winter nights, and baking is one of my favorite activities. My preference is cookies, but I’m a fan of baking all kinds of goodies. We recently found an older Betty Crocker cookie book and plan to bake our way through it this fall and winter. Finally, winter is when we begin looking forward to the next year’s garden. We’ll request new seed catalogs, plan out our garden, and order seeds. The break helps me to appreciate all that the garden provides, and I start to get excited for the upcoming garden in January when the cold really starts to set in.

For winter’s song, I didn’t want to go with a Christmas song. Instead, I went with a song from Of Monsters and Men, an Icelandic band. And who better to write about winter than people from Iceland?

Appreciating All the Seasons

Appreciating every season isn’t about loving all aspects of it. For example, I get tired of the mud that comes with spring, summer droughts, the dreary skies of fall and winter, and the ice of winter. But those aren’t enough to get me to hate a season or wish it would preemptively end. Instead, I try to enjoy the general positives from start to finish of each season and squeeze every last ounce of joy from it. I’m writing this as we only have three days of summer left and am filled with sadness and excitement. I’m sad that summer’s end means saying goodbye to our garden and all the fresh vegetables it brought us. But I’m also excited to see our pumpkins ripening and can’t wait to pick more apples. Life is great, but it’s also short, and modern society rushes everything. Let’s slow down and really enjoy what we have when we’re in the moment.

September 19, 2025 0

Animals Are Getting Into the Garden

Our fence has become somewhat problematic over the past month or so, and animals are either taking advantage of it or are the cause of it. In the spring, I wrote about the fence we bought and how we reached that decision. We ended up buying deer fencing that is typically used in orchards to protect the fruit trees. It is seven feet tall, although we folded it over, so it is only about 4 1/2 feet, comes in 100-foot rolls, and only costs $23 per roll. We were able to fence in our entire garden for less than $200, including the bamboo stakes. We bought it with the intention of it being a short-term solution that we can upgrade over time. And for the first three and a half months, it was perfect.

Deer didn’t try to breach it, and rabbits didn’t burrow under it. In general, it worked better than expected, and any issues we had were self-inflicted. It’s relatively easy to overstretch and tear the material, and you have to be careful to not get too close to it when walking near it, as your shoes can get caught in it. But beyond that, it survived heavy winds, driving rains, swampy ground, and general ignorance. That was until about mid-August, when we started to notice that something was getting at our corn stalks.

Deer? Raccoons? Squirrels?

I first began to notice evidence of animals around our garden in July when I saw raccoon poop in the grass outside the fence. I didn’t think much of it, though, since they weren’t getting through the fence. Fast-forward to mid-August, and we started to notice that some of our corn was being eaten and stalks were showing signs of stress. At the same time, our sunflower plants were decapitated not long after the heads began to form. It only got worse from there.

Nearly entire ears of corn were consumed, while others were being torn from the stalk. From the outside of the fence, an animal was pulling our tall Blue Hopi corn stalks to bend down on the fence, reducing its height from 4 1/2 feet to about 3 1/2 feet. Elsewhere, we were seeing bite marks in some of our remaining cucumbers, our melons, and one of our pumpkins. And the worst part was that the animals weren’t eating the entire vegetable. They were taking a single bite and leaving it on the ground. And how did these thieves gain access? Flaws in the fence were the main culprit, and the evidence was everywhere.

It started with small horizontal tears or cuts in the fence that left the top intact and the bottom hanging, exposing an access point that is just big enough for a raccoon to climb through. In other areas, the zip ties, staples, and twist ties we used to connect the fence to the stakes failed, causing the fence to fall down. This meant that entire sections of the fence were reduced to a height of 2 1/2 feet, or plenty low enough for a deer to hop over. Finally, some of the stakes started to bend or angle, which also lowered the fence’s height. I’m not 100 percent certain of the cause, but my theories are animals pushing on them, plant vines growing against the fence and putting strain on the stakes, and the lack of rain not keeping the stakes in the ground as deep as they should be. In general, it’s become a mess.

Thankfully, it appears that the crims are simply raccoons, deer, and squirrels, or just your average neighborhood scoundrels. They don’t do a lot of damage. Funny enough, I think the squirrels are the most annoying of the trio. Even with an upgraded fence, they can climb up and over to gain access.

Upgrading Security

Given that this year’s fence was only intended to be a short-term solution, we’re unsurprised and undeterred by the animals. It may be a bit demoralizing, but luckily, there are ways to remedy it for next year. We’re already discussing how we can improve some of the fencing. While we likely won’t upgrade all the fencing for next year’s garden, we can upgrade it a little at a time. Even improving the fence for individual beds will make a difference. We’ll likely go with some type of chicken wire that is metal. We’re also going to upgrade the stakes with pressure-treated 2x4s that I’ll cut down to the appropriate width/height. Something else we can do is spray plants with a hot pepper solution that will deter animals from wanting the food. It’s not a permanent solution, as it needs to be reapplied after rain, but it’s organic and tested.

Ultimately, there’s only so much we can do. We’re growing vegetables in an area with a lot of animals. It’s a blessing to not live in an urban setting, which means we occasionally have to deal with animals. I’m also choosing to take it as a compliment that the animals want our food. Sure, they could have just eaten forageables, but they’re choosing to eat what we grow, and that’s pretty cool. And we are a big fan of animals, after all.

Have you had problems with animals getting into your garden? If so, what vegetables were they most drawn to and what steps did you take to prevent it from happening again?

September 15, 2025 0

Successfully Growing Melons

Last week, we harvested three melons out of the garden, one each of our Kajari, Tigger, and Noir des Carmes. Harvesting them instantly became the proudest I’ve been of the garden this year. Growing melons in Pennsylvania isn’t easy. My dad tried it when I was a kid and never had success. Magz and I tried it with our container garden. We had some success, but only harvested one fruit from each plant.

We knew the struggles of growing melons here when we bought the seeds, but the potential of growing unique varieties that we’ll never find in stores was too enticing. We bought the seeds, prepped the ground as best we could, and watched as the plants quickly germinated, and the vines took over our garden bed. We quickly had blossoms, and the fruit soon followed. The melons continued to grow and approached their full size, but I still didn’t believe that they would ripen. That’s where I’ve seen melons fail.

It’s also where our Ali Baba watermelon stopped growing this year. The lone fruit that we had was no longer growing in size and had the yellow ground spot that is typically an indicator of a watermelon’s ripeness. We harvested it, thinking it was fully mature, but unfortunately, the flesh was still white instead of pink.

So, even as our other melons showed signs of ripening, I struggled to believe it. However, just as the seed descriptions said, our melons ripened out of the blue and seemingly overnight. The Noir des Carmes went from dark green to orange, the Tigger melon’s green and orange stripes became more vivid, and the Kajari’s green speckles turned into a fiery orange. The garden bed also became fragrant like the sweetest muskmelons you’ve ever smelled.

We harvested them on Wednesday, eating the Kajari melon that evening. You can’t imagine our relief when its interior was the vibrant green it was supposed to be. It was also juicy, and the smell was intoxicating. Magz scooped out the seeds and cut it into sections, and we immediately ate it. Its flavor was similar to a honeydew you find in grocery stores; however, it had a slightly creamy texture and was much sweeter. I think it may be the best melon I’ve ever eaten.

We then ate the Noir des Carmes at lunch on Friday. It too was ripe inside and looked like a “cantaloupe” that you buy in the store. It also smelled and tasted like one, but it wasn’t as sweet. I actually didn’t mind this, though, because sometimes store-bought “cantaloupes” are too sweet, as though they are overripe. Those “cantaloupes” also tend to be either too soft or too hard. It’s made me not the biggest fan of them. Instead, the Noir des Carmes had the perfect texture.

At the time of this writing, we only have the Tigger left to try, which I’m really excited for. It’s an Armenian variety that Baker Creek describes as “the most fragrant melon we have tried, with a rich, sweet, intoxicating aroma that will fill a room. The mild-tasting white flesh gets sweeter in dry climates. Small in size, the fruit weighs up to 1 lb.”

The success of our melons in this year’s garden means we will certainly grow them again next year. They’re great fun to watch grow, and it’s especially fun to see how the different varieties display their unique qualities. There are a few things we’ll do differently, though. One is keeping track of what each plant is. The second is giving more space to each plant. Our vines got intertwined, making it difficult to know what each vine was. Finally, we have to kill the grass. The grass made it really difficult to see the vines and also meant that the fruits were lying in wet grass at different points. Regardless of those areas of improvement, though, I’m incredibly proud of our melon plants. I loved growing corn and tomatoes, but seeing these fruits that are native to the Middle East thrive in Pennsylvania made me feel connected to a culture and population on the other side of the world.

September 8, 2025 0

Reflections From the Garden: Lessons Learned

With the garden wrapping up for the year and little happening on a weekly basis, I’ve decided to pause the weekly updates. There isn’t enough to write about without being redundant. I’ll continue to provide updates as vegetables ripen and grow, but in the meantime, I want to alter my weekly segment to be a Reflections From the Garden column. I want to use this column to go over things I learned or thought about while in the garden. Sometimes, it will be directly related to gardening, while other times, it may be focused on personal things. The first edition will be dedicated to some of the lessons I learned since spring.

Accepting When Things Don’t Work Perfectly

I was originally going to have a section called “Letting Go of Control,” but it felt too similar to this section. This year, I learned that gardening is something I found myself wanting to control at every level. I wanted to control the amount of rain and sun we got, the temperature, when plants germinated, when they should be transplanted, when to restart seeds, and how quickly we should start seeing fruit. I had everything organized and included on one of my spreadsheets. But the reality is that for all the work I put into the organizing and planning, it didn’t matter all that much. I can’t control the weather or temperature. Sometimes, seeds take longer than the packet says to germinate, which means giving them more time to sprout. I also can’t force starts outside just because the calendar says they should be in the ground by a certain date. Likewise, plants can take longer than expected to produce fruit and fully ripen.

In a garden, things are bound to not go to plan at times. There are more things out of our control than in our control. Plants will fail at every stage – germination, transplanting, fruiting, and ripening. Sometimes, it’s because we did something wrong, but other times, we can do everything right and it will still fail. And that’s okay. Letting go of outrageously high expectations and control leads to a more enjoyable experience. I wasn’t there at first, but I began to grasp it as the garden went on.

Have Fun

Gardening is a lot of work. I also set high expectations for things and find it easy to create endless to-do lists. In the garden, those lists included, tilling, seed starting, transplanting, weeding, watering, fertilizing, and on and on. Pretty soon, the garden was only work and no play. I stopped seeing it as a hobby I enjoyed and only viewed it as this thing that needed all my time and attention. I quit woodworking or doing my other hobbies. Eventually, I had to say “enough is enough.” Magz got me to refocus on all the fun that can be had in a garden. It’s a lot of fun seeing the growth of a plant as the days, weeks, and months progress. It’s also fun to see the different varieties of a vegetable present their unique qualities. Finally, it’s the most fun when it’s time to harvest ripe vegetables. It’s easy to get caught up in the work, to forever add new items to your to-do list. But hitting the “pause” button and focusing on why you wanted to garden in the first place is important. Gardening is a hobby for most of us, and hobbies are supposed to be fun.

Don’t Let it Drive You Mad

If you get focused on the success of your garden rather than the process, you will go crazy. Plants will look healthy for a couple of months, and out of nowhere, they’ll die. Fruits will develop on the plant, making you think that they’re going to reach maturity, only to wither and die off. We had that happen with numerous plants this year, including our ground cherries, spaghetti squash, and multiple tomato plants. We had a plant die off, while its neighbor of the same variety reached its full height and produced lots of fruit. They were in the same soil and experienced the same growing conditions. If you think about it too much, you’ll drive yourself mad. Instead, focus on the plants that do make it and continue to give them the best opportunity to succeed. That mindset change will lead to better results now and also help you have a better mindset.

Enjoying the Peace

In my first blog post, I wrote about how a garden provides a sense of home to me, and a home is supposed to be a peaceful place. It can be easy to forget how peaceful the garden is when we’re focused on the work required to make it happen. The sun and heat can feel oppressive, weeding can be back-breaking, and neighborhood noises can drown out the silence. Yet, if I make an effort to do less when it’s hot and sunny, listen to music or talk to God while weeding, and focus on the sounds of the garden instead of my surroundings, I can become lost in the tranquility. There are a lot of sounds in the garden. You’ll hear bees buzzing as they pollinate your plants, crickets chirping in the grass, and the plants rustling in the breeze. All of those sounds are sources of peace.

Hard Work Is Worth It

Prior to starting our garden, I wrote a lot about how much hard work is required to garden. That is very true. I also said that the hard work is worth it because you get to grow your own food for the summer, and potentially longer if you preserve it. But before you actually see it pay off, you don’t actually know that the hard work will be worth it. Now, with the garden wrapping up for the year, I can say for certain that the hard work was worth it. Being able to eat veggies out of the garden this summer made the hard work pay off. This wasn’t so much of a new lesson learned but more confirmation of what I thought would happen.

September 1, 2025 0

Weekly Garden Update #25 – Meals From the Garden, Fall Is Approaching & More

In this week’s update, we’ve had a meal made entirely from vegetables out of the garden. We’re also starting to notice that summer is coming to an end and fall is on the horizon. This week also gave us multiple opportunities to share produce from our garden with family and friends, which is really what it’s all about. Finally, what is this edition’s Seed of the Week? Let’s dive in.

Eating a Full Meal From the Garden

I had several under-the-surface goals for our garden this year, and any future gardens for that matter. One was to preserve food for winter. That hasn’t happened yet but still could happen with our squash and pumpkins. Another was to share food with our neighbors and family members. More on that in the next section. A third goal was to have meals that were entirely sourced from our garden. Throughout the summer, we’ve had meals that were mostly from the garden with the exception of a protein. In these meals, the vegetables were often the side dish or used to complement the protein rather than serving as the star. We changed that this past week when we made homemade pasta sauce on the fly and ate it on spaghetti.

We used whatever tomatoes we had inside, so there were multiple varieties, including San Marzano paste tomatoes, Mushroom Basket tomatoes, and Queen Aliquippa tomatoes. With those tomatoes, some jarred garlic, sugar, oil, salt, pepper, and dried oregano, we had a great start. When it cooked down, we used an immersion blender to get it smooth, added a can of tomato paste to thicken it, and added some fresh basil from the garden. It resulted in a delicious sauce that was well-balanced. It wasn’t too acidic or sweet. It was savory and had me craving it the rest of the night and the next morning until we had the leftovers for lunch. Homemade sauce on perfectly al dente pasta is a real treat. It is wild how much better homemade sauce is compared to the jarred version. Granted, it wasn’t 100 percent from the garden. We didn’t grow garlic or oregano, and we had to use a can of store-bought tomato paste, but it was almost entirely all garden ingredients.

I had hoped that we would have enough ripe paste tomatoes to make and can pasta sauce for the winter, but that didn’t happen, which is okay. It’s a goal to have for next year’s garden, and we now have an excellent flavor profile to target when we do.

Sharing Food With Those Around Us

Living in community means helping those around us when an opportunity arises. That can mean lending someone a hand with shoveling snow, letting them have a cup of flour that they don’t have, or sharing the blessings we have. We were able to do that last week, and it touched our hearts. We shared some beans, eggplants, squash, and cucumbers with our elderly neighbor across the street. She is the same neighbor who gave us plants early in the season. We also gave our next-door neighbors some zucchini the next day. They are the neighbors whom we’ve regularly shared food with when we’ve had excess and were outside at the same time. These neighbors are also retired, and ever since we in America (in our infinite wisdom) have cut funding to social welfare programs that give food to the needy, Magz and I’ve felt led to help those around us even more than we did before. So, being able to bless those around us with the blessings that God has granted us is what it’s all about. We got a little taste of that this year and only want to do that more with next year’s garden.

This weekend, Magz’ parents and a family friend who was in town from Florida visited, and we were able to send them home with tomatoes, jarred applesauce, and baby bananas that we bought. The family friend hadn’t seen our house or garden yet and really wanted to visit before the garden was done for the season.

Fall Is on the Horizon

After a hot, sunny, and long summer, the weather and environment are starting to change. The 7-day forecast has nighttime lows in the 40s, the humidity has started to dissipate, and we’re beginning to have a fall sky. If you don’t have autumn where you are, the sky looks different in autumn than it does at any other time of the year. I’m not entirely sure why, but the sky has a slightly warmer tone than it has in spring and summer. It’s often a bit cloudy, and if there’s a high-pressure system in the atmosphere, you can see the cirrus and cirrocumulus clouds far off in the distance. While that cloud system happens in summer too, it’s most common in autumn. It’s something I’ve always looked forward to after a long summer in the same way we yearn for the first warm spring day after winter. An autumn sky is associated with chilly mornings and evenings, flannels, jackets, jeans, football (American), college, falling leaves, walks, pumpkins, apples, cider, and hot chocolate. It’s the best time of the year.

For the garden, it means that the end is approaching, which is bittersweet. It’s sad that we’ll no longer have fresh vegetables in the garden or be able to see new fruits ripening on a daily basis. At the same time, though, it will be nice to let the ground and our bodies rest. Our garden was a lot of work this year, and I’m incredibly proud of all that we’ve accomplished. It will be nice to rest, prepare the soil for next year, reflect, and plan next year’s garden. We’re seeing that the end of the garden is approaching. Our cucumber plants died off two weeks ago, and our summer squashes are no longer producing fruit or growing as quickly as they once did. The corn stalks are beginning to dry out, and the tomato plants don’t have the same vibrant green leaves they once did. And yet, other plants are thriving. Our winter squash and pumpkins continue to expand their vines, and we see new fruits or measurable growth each day.

As I wrote in this week’s post, A Parade of Pumpkins, it’s fun to see the different varieties show their different shapes, sizes, and colors. That will continue to be the case as summer winds down and autumn arrives. I was unsure how I’d feel at the end of summer this year, but I’m surprised that I’m feeling a little melancholy and sad. The garden has been a large presence in our lives since April, and this garden will never exist again. Each garden has unique characteristics that define it. We could grow the same plants in the same beds next year (we won’t) and have completely different results. So, we’ll be saying goodbye to something that we’ll never have again, but at the same time, we’ll be saying hello to our favorite season (autumn) and the early phases of next year’s garden. These are emotions I never thought I’d feel or explore.

Notes From the Garden

There aren’t a lot of notes from the garden at this stage, but here are a few updates:

We got a big harvest from the late planting of bush beans that I sowed in June. These were sown after the first batch of bush beans failed. True to their name, these Provider beans came through, and we were able to harvest pods from each plant for a total of a quart. We ate them on Saturday night by steaming them and serving them with butter, salt, and pepper. They were delicious.
We continue to harvest tomatillos as they ripen.
Our paste tomatoes also continue to ripen, but they aren’t ripening all at the same time, which is sad. However, we’ll still be able to make at least one more meal of homemade sauce, which I’ll be looking forward to.
We pulled some of our corn earlier than we wanted to because deer got through our fence, damaged some of the stalks, and ate a bunch of the ears. We’ll learn from this experience and mistake next year.
We’ve harvested what shelling beans we’ve had ripen and dry on the plant. It’s been a struggle with these beans because of the grass, but we’ve pulled about 10 pods that have dried beans in them. The beans are stunning and look identical to the bags of dry beans you can buy in stores.

Seed of the Week

This week, I’m talking about the New England Sugar Pie Pumpkin. This pumpkin variety is the quintessential pie-making pumpkin. It produces many 4-5-pound fruits with sweet flesh that isn’t stringy. Our seeds came from Baker Creek. It’s an heirloom that dates back to the American Civil War and, according to Fedco Seeds, was likely developed out of the Connecticut Field Pumpkin strain. Our plants are growing very well. We didn’t sow them until early July, and they have taken off, with vines sprawling all over the bed and multiple fruits on each vine. We’re so excited about the possibility of using them to make pumpkin treats or to carve.

If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, is your garden wrapping up for the season? Or, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, have you started to plan your garden?

August 25, 2025 0

A Parade of Pumpkins

Just a brief Friday post to end the week and show all the different shapes, sizes, and colors that pumpkins, squashes, and melons come in.

New England Sugar Pie Pumpkin

A classic pumpkin that is commonly used in baked goods due to its sweetness. These pumpkins stay relatively small (less than 5 pounds), and the one shown in the picture below likely won’t grow much bigger. These will ripen to the classic orange color that we all know.

Seminole Pumpkin

This is the most recent of our pumpkins/squash to produce identifiable fruits. The Seminole pumpkin is green throughout much of its growing process before ripening to a tan/buff color. These won’t get much bigger than they are now – about 6 inches in diameter.

Candy Roaster Melon Winter Squash

This Candy Roaster Melon is easily the largest of our fruits to this point. It’s currently about the size of a basketball. This variety can range from 6 to 30 pounds. Ours is probably somewhere in the middle of that range. When fully ripe, it will be a vibrant orange color with green stripes.

Ali Baba Watermelon

We have several watermelons on the vine, but this one is the largest. It’s about the size of a college-size football and could reach 30 pounds. Unlike other varieties that have a dark green color, the Ali Baba maintains a light green rind the entire time.

Noir des Carmes Cantaloupe

I’ve shared pictures of this exact fruit multiple times on the blog, but it’s beginning to change its appearance, an indication that it’s ripening. This won’t have the light tan “webbed” rind that the fruit we call cantaloupe in North America has. Instead, this will ripen to a yellow and green color. It has likely reached full size.

Tigger Melon

This is another melon I’ve shown a lot on the blog. This Tigger melon will become a beautiful orange color with white speckles or zig-zag stripes when it’s ripe. These small fruits only weigh about a pound when fully grown, but the plants produce plenty of fruit.

Red Kuri (Hokkaido) Winter Squash

Part of our late batch of squash, the Red Kuri is a winter squash but will become vibrant orange like a pumpkin when it’s ripe. This squash is on the smaller side at 3-4 pounds, but grows well in cool climates.

Red Kuri Squash — Red Kuri (Hokkaido) Squash

There you have it. These are almost all of the pumpkin/squash/melon varieties we have growing. It’s so fun to see all the different shapes and colors that they take, not to mention the sizes they can be when fully ripe. Do you have a favorite pumpkin or squash to grow and eat?

August 22, 2025 2