The BIG October rain. The one that lasts 2 days and comes with big wind and rips all the colorful leaves off the trees, bringing an end to the iconic northeast’s fall foliage.
I love that rain. And I hate it. It all depends on what type of gardening year it was. If a lot of flowers bloomed and a lot of veggies were eaten and preserved, and a lot of bees and butterflies and earthworms were fed, then the October rains are the perfect opportunity to curl up with a favorite movie and popcorn.
But if it’s been a drought summer, or a 3-month wrestling match with deer and groundhogs, then, the October rains are accompanied by a big sigh – of both discouragement and relief. Discouragement that a lot of effort was spent with little to show for it. And relief that the struggle is over.
Unlike Rocky Balboa in his first fight, we KNOW there’s gonna be a rematch. It’s called next season. And it’ll be here before I know it. Because the markers of time between the October rains and seed-starting/bed prep goes like this:
- Garlic planting (possibly cover crops too)
- Halloween
- Fall-back Daylight Savings Time (1 hour of extra sleep)
- Thanksgiving
- All the Holiday Parties
- Putting up the Christmas tree
- Christmas & Hanukkah (in my house at least)
- New Year’s
- Tax prep
- Snow
- Taking down the Christmas tree (hopefully before . . .)
- Blizzard
- Valentine’s Day
- March 15th business taxes due
- Annnnd, we have arrived at SEED STARTING SEASON!
So, in reality, there’s barely time to breathe in that schedule. But somehow still, after a rough gardening year, the October rains announce the preparation for the end.
It then becomes my job to shake of the “should haves” and the “could haves,” take a much needed rest (which is also true when the garden is prolific and I’ve been canning for a month), and leave the “next year” thoughts on the shelf until the hope and enthusiasm return. Which it always does. In the January itch.
Photo credit – Photo by Nur Andi Ravsanjani Gusma from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/selective-focus-photography-of-corrugated-metal-sheet-of-house-during-rainy-daytime-1915182/
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