Minding the Patch: The End is Drawing Near

I have many friends who say fall is their favorite season and I just don't get it. Sure, the changing colors on the trees is aesthetically pleasing, and I did miss it when I lived in Florida. And football is fun to watch, if you pretend you don't know about the long-term effects of concussions. And Octoberfests are super delicious, I can't dispute that. 

So sure, autumn (as my British friends insist I call it) has its charms, but overall, I don't like it. I don't care for layering; cold mornings and hot afternoons are just plain annoying, as are menus featuring an abundance of pumpkin desserts. Except for pumpkin pie, I don't see the point of pumpkin desserts. Take pumpkin bread pudding: Why would anyone do that to bread pudding? And pumpkin cheesecake? --Seriously, who would prefer that over regular New York cheesecake, with optional strawberries? And don't even get me started on pumpkin flan.

And newsflash: the leaves are changing because they're dying. They've decided not to undergo photosynthesis anymore. What's delightful about that? Other whole plants are simply dying, many not even to return in spring. And consider this: Octoberfests are transitional beers, weaning us off light, fruity summertime brews and getting us ready for the hearty, spicy, heavy wintertime beers that we'll drink when it's cold as a brass bra outside. As yummy as Octoberfests are, they serve a sheerly pragmatic function.

I think that being surrounded by all this death is depressing, not refreshing or romantic or whatever autumn-lovers often say.

The visit to the patch today was depressing too, frankly. The cucumbers are all but dead. I picked just two and had to toss a bunch of the plants into the compost heap. (If they died because it was just their time or because of squash bugs, cold nights, or something else, I don't know). The bareness of the patch from the areas where I failed with strawberries and acorn squash depressed me in particular today, and the spiders just plain made me mad--I don't mind them being there, but why aren't they doing what Dad always said they do: eating the other bugs that cause trouble?

The good news is that, as I said last time, no matter how much the deer and squash bugs pig out on the okra plants, they don't seem phased a bit and keep on making okra. I snapped a pic of one pod today that I should have picked a couple days ago, it seems, and caught some flowers on their way to blooming.

Next, I'll be trying to transplant some mint into a pot for winter (before it freezes to death). If anyone has tips on how to do that successfully, I'll gladly take them!