"Do you mean to tell me, Katie Scarlett O'Hara, that Tara doesn't mean anything to you? Why, land is the only thing in the world worth workin' for, worth fightin' for, worth dyin' for, because it's the only thing that lasts. "
--- Some fatherly advice from Gone With The Wind.
Much like Scarlett, I worked my fingers to the bone this year, setting up our garden. (Actually we ALL did... but I can't liken my whole family to Scarlett O'Hara can I?) In our garden, we grew enough vegatables to go months without buying salad fixings from the grocery store. Well, except for those darn green tomatoes that never did ripen.
Sometimes as I was out there in the broiling sun, pulling endless weeds, I would recall the famous words Scarlett O'Hara spat out in fury, "As God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again!" Okay, I know that digging up dandelions isn't exactly the same as rebuilding a post-Civil War plantation, but on those really hot days... it sured felt like it. (Lucky for me, I could always cool off by going into the house and grabbing a diet pepsi out of the fridge.)
Now that that weather has turned cooler, leaves are falling, and the first chill (and snow!) has killed off all our plants, the time has come to tidy up the garden in preparation for the impending winter.
This weekend, Devon and the boys dismantled the entire garden. They pulled up all the flowers. Ripped out all the dried corn husks. Dug up all the weeds (I got tired of pulling by mid-August). And removed all traces of tomatoes, peppers, and chard. All the hoses, sprinklers, and tomato cages have been safely stored away. Our backyard looks empty now, but I'm sure it won't be long before the snow blankets the area where our garden once stood.
Alas, as we move from Fall into Winter, "Purple in Providece" is now... Gone With the Wind!
