Fall Fatigue

VermontCathy

I love fall. It's my favorite season.

The cooler nights are refreshing, the leaves turn beautiful colors, and we begin to move away from summer activities toward the slower pace of winter.

But fall is exhausting.

You have to pick the fruits and vegetables when they are ready for harvest; preserve them by canning, dehydrating, or freezing; rake leaves and set them up to compost into leaf mold; pull all the plants from the garden and compost in place or in a compost pile; bake the fall holiday foods; and much more! And all the while you are still doing your regular job and other commitments.

I've been frantically trying to get apples picked, apple chutney and apple jelly made, can the pickling cucumbers, make frozen tomato sauce and canned tomato sauce, buy more canning jars (who ever has enough?) at the same time that my business has picked up new projects and I'm trying to get in some fall camping before winter shuts it down. I still need to bake the apple cake and German apple pie for the upcoming holiday season, and find space in the freezer for them. And fall leaf raking hasn't started yet, but it's coming very soon.

Whew! I'm always happy once the freezer and pantry are full, but it takes time and effort to make that happen.

Merin Porter

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/848770/fall-fatigue

You're so right, @VermontCathy ! I feel like there's always so much to do in the fall -- but it's nice when the weather starts to cool off, so the outside stuff -- harvesting, getting the beds ready for winter, etc. -- at least is happening in some more tolerable temperatures. :) (And it feels great to have it all done!)

VermontCathy

I'm definitely looking forward to the slow, relaxing pace of winter.

JennyT Upstate South Carolina

Autumn is my favorite time of the year as well.

And I feel your pain @VermontCathy with the never-ending checklist of projects that need to be completed.

We've also got home renovations that have picked up again. All the dust and debris have my sinuses in an uproar and now I have strep throat. 😫

This means taking it easy for a bit, which of course there's no time for before I can get back at it.🙄

VermontCathy

@JennyT Upstate South Carolina Oh, yes. While my house is fine, our church is undergoing major renovations that have been going on for many months, and will continue for months yet. That has really disrupted everything we do there, not just services, but other meetings.

We'll all be glad when the dust and general mess is gone!

JennyT Upstate South Carolina

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/916894#Comment_916894

Yes, renovations are wonderful, when they're done. But not when you're trying to live/work through them.

Our homeschool group meets at a church that just started renovations as well. And that has made more work for us in setting up and tearing down each week. Not to mention the stacks of construction materials that are sitting here and there. Trying to keep the kids away from them has been challenging to say the least. The area for them to run around and play in keeps getting shrunk every time they bring in more for the next stage.😕

marjstratton

I've got to say that fall is my favorite season too. Rather than fatiguing, I find it kind of melancholy. The time of slowing down and looking forward to the cold and wet of winter. A time of missing the warmth and light of the sun.

VermontCathy

I just put the garlic in and removed some of the remaining tomato cages from the summer garden. (I use tomato cages as supports for many types of plant, not just tomatoes.) The last bag of potatoes was also harvested and its soil added to one of the beds.

The fall onions still need to be planted, one remaining bed of green beans harvested and its tomato cages put away, and a bunch of dying summer plants need to be turned under or composted.

It's a Red Queen's Race. You have to run just to stay in place...

Leediafastje

@VermontCathy your fall gardening activities sound a lot like mine. I like doing this. I take satisfaction in knowing I don't buy a lot of my food from the stores (I believe we all feel that way).

More than that, though, I love the exercise! My garden keeps me alive because I have to keep moving.

Cornelius

Fall is also my favorite time of the year. I love all the colors!

I already planted my walking onions. Is it too late to start Swiss chard from seed?

JennyT Upstate South Carolina

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/917006#Comment_917006

@Cornelius I love walking onions!!!

My friend is supposed to get me some. I'm hoping to get them this week so I can plant them.🤞😁

nicksamanda11

I have so many walking onions that I am probably going to compost some, wish you were my neighbor!

water2world

@VermontCathy Right there with you!!

Of course when I started reading your post--it made me relax just visualizing the changing leaf colors, cooler temps...........then wham! ALL of the work needing to be done, yanked me right out of that lazy feeling I was starting to experience! LOL

JennyT Upstate South Carolina

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/917083#Comment_917083

Oh that's so sad, @nicksamanda11. I wish I was your neighbor too!😕

SuperC

I agree @VermontCathy that fall has its many side jobs. I’m making homemade grape juices. We have harvested all of the fruits and veggies, ate a lot of them yet the rose hips are on the side for a gobble of vitamin c. We have to harvest our potatoes in the coming weeks.

Cornelius

I can't wait to have that many @nicksamanda11 lol

VermontCathy

@JennyT Upstate South Carolina @nicksamanda11

Walking onions are so prolific, it's going to be difficult to use them all or find all of them a good home once they get well established.

I started with one set of bulbils from one stalk, and I have so many now I can't plant them all. This year I am planting some in native clay soil outside the garden to see if they will self-establish there.

VermontCathy

The walking onions, potato onions, and elephant garlic have finally been planted. I picked a few fresh raspberries yesterday, but they are done for the year. The sunchokes are almost ready to be dug, but I'm waiting for a hard frost to kill the tops first. Over 20 lbs of potatoes have been harvested and put in a paper bag in the house for use this winter. The canning shelves are jammed full of jams, jellies, chutney, applesauce, and sweet pickles

The garden is pretty much in its fall/winter state. Claytonia has reseeded itself and sprouted in the cold frames, and spinach and lettuce have been manually seeded and are sprouting there too. Sunchoke dried flowers with seeds were clipped from garden plants and tossed into a weedy patch in the yard to see if they will sprout in the spring.

There won't be much more to do, or harvest, until spring.

Now the focus shifts indoors. I'm baking a pumpkin in the oven to prepare for pumpkin pie. Apple pie was made last week, and I still have enough apples remaining to make turnovers and probably something else.

I started crocheting a new blanket a couple days ago. New slipcovers need to be made for the couch cushions, so the fabric for that was bought last weekend.

Things will slow down and be more restful.