grading the patio

After spending hours researching the differences between mere inches, Michal spent the last few days starting to painstakingly set up the concrete form boards for our patio so that the patio will slope 2" over 12 ft., allowing water to drain away from the house.

It's time to take down the Halloween decor. Harvested a trash bag full of mixed greens today.

We've been cutting dill thinking, this dill is really not as fragrant as it was in the spring. But I've just realized I planted fennel there, too. Maybe we've just been trimming the fennel.

What grew this year:

alaska nasturtium, common oregano (only in the pots, not in the ground), goldy honey bear sunflowers, zohar sunflowers, marigolds, cilantro, arugula, scary lary tomatoes, gai choy, peppermint, spearmint, black cherry tomato, hill hardy rosemary, sungolds, german chamomile, chives, alyssum, the world's tiniest determinate tomatoes, thai hot pepper, fennel, anaheims, jalapeños, serranos, mexican sunflowers (eh, barely), shin kuroda carrots, black seeded simpson lettuce, red lettuce, chijimisai, southern giant curled mustard, koral carrot, japanese giant red mustard, five color silver beet swiss chard, bloomsdale spinach, some other spinach earlier this spring (seed from natural grocers), viroflay spinach, cincinnati market radish, french breakfast radish, malaga radish, japanese wasabi radish, wasabi arugula, bouquet dill, round radish, blue grama, crimson clover, red clover, white clover, buckwheat, sorghum sudangrass, western yarrow, a few types of basil, a lifetime's worth of curly parseley, oats, alkindus lettuce, walking onion, a few types of garlic, few types of potatoes (german butterball and, ??), a few types of yellow onion, cinderella pumpkins, yellow summer squash, a few more types of tomatoes that we bought the nursery (early girl...san marzano...what else?), alaska daisy, a few eggplants.

What didn't grow:

salvia, bee balm, true greek oregano, hidcote blue lavender, delphinium, lemon balm, calendula, fenugreek, peppermint (from seed), raspberries, strawberries

Not sure if it grew:

showy milkweed, alyssum, golden giant amaranth, buffalograss,

Tbd:

beets - cylindra and rainbow mix, turnips (seven top), hollyhock, lila lu sang carrot, blue and breezy flax, parsnips.

I'm desperate for the patio to be finished so I can get Don to till the east side so I can put seed down that's meant to overwinter and germinate in the spring. It's basically all I think about. I have a not-small fall seed collection that I am overeager to spread.

Making white bean and potato soup tonight. There is nothing about soup season that I do not love.