I messed up. I deleted three weeks worth of footage because I pushed off a task that I should not have. I didn’t have up-to-date backups either, and Murphy’s Law hit with some properly bad timing.

“Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”

Murphy and I have a very intimate relationship.

Unfortunately, this means there is very little footage from the first three weeks of October: a garden tour from just before the lost footage, some clips that accidentally backed up to another service, a clip sent via message to someone. Almost everything from the three weeks is gone.

So, in an attempt to catch you up on what you’ve missed, I created an episode with decreasingly good footage, I guess. I started with the garden tour, then shared random short snippets that I was able to recover, but then there are only photos for the vast majority of October. So, I did what no self-respecting filmmaker would do: I dropped photos into the timeline and hoped for the best.

I’m probably saddest to have lost the green-tomato footage. I made marmalade, roasted and unroasted salsa, canned slices for frying in winter. None of it will now be shared.

In early October I had a literal face-palm moment when I realized why the tomatoes in my greenhouse weren’t turning red. I had taken one home that had blushed the tiniest bit. Two weeks later, it was still green but otherwise looking like a very ripe tomato. So, I sliced it open and tried it. It was ripe.

So, I went back through the history of my notes to see what options I had. I’d apparently planted a variety called Moldovan Green. Green… It dawned on me that I’d found the reason for my very uncooperative greenhouse tomatoes.

Hopeful to finish ripening them before the frost, I left them on the vines.

I was watching the weather forecast very carefully. I still had pepper plants in the ground that would not like frost at all. I’d probably be able to get away with covering them for a little while but in the long run, they needed to be dug up and moved indoors or into the greenhouse.

We kept getting closer to that big, fat zero on the thermometer, and when the forecast showed 1 degree above freezing, I chickened out and pulled the plants.

Some plants would never finish this season. We’d had a very dark and rather cold year, so there just wasn’t enough energy for some things to finish their growing cycle. Add to that that I’d planted quite a few things at the last minute. Well, the last minute wasn’t good enough this year.

This means we never harvested any black corn. A single green corn cob had formed, and I had high hopes it would finish. A single cob would be enough to try again next year. I’ll have to buy in black corn if I want to try again. I’ll definitely need to buy sweetcorn, as we plan to add that to the growing list next year.

The strawberries I’d planted after digging them out of the former neighbor’s greenhouse were taking well despite the unfinished weeding job before planting. I’d do some weeding to get rid mostly of the dandelions, then cover them with straw later in the month.

A single bucket sits on my plot, branches sticking out. This is an experiment to see if I can propagate berry bushes and wine. I’d spot first green later in October–a first sign of success. There is a second experiment in front of the greenhouse where I cut branches and unceremoniously stuck them into pots. I also transplanted a part of my balcony mint into one of the pots there. I use a lot of mint, so I’m hoping to let it spread through some of the forest garden. There’s a lot of room–and competition–there, so it should grow without taking over.

The potato beds had been turned for the winter. Two varieties of spinach grew in beds. The brassica beds had been ravaged by snails–well, the back half of them. I’d fill the gaps with overwintering field beans at some point. On the other end, corn salad and two types of ground cover were growing along with a few plants of salsify. At that point I still thought I’d soon get to replant the potato bed now overgrowing with fast ground cover, but the cover crop wouldn’t terminate until the first frosts. Two weeks after our average first frost, we still haven’t actually reached that point.

In the forest garden, I checked on the plants outside the garden house. The alpine strawberries from one neighbor were taking over the terrace. We are okay with that. We will cut them back if they are actually in the way. Until then, they get to roam. I even added more strawberries to the other side. They are more of the strawberries rescued from the greenhouse that was supposed to be torn down next spring.

Next to the strawberries were some herbs: two of the three lavender plants from the strawberry-donating neighbors were looking content, though I’m pretty sure I’ve killed the third. Another neighbor had handed me some thyme earlier this year, and it had died back completely but was now showing first sign of recovery. I have hopes of it having established successfully.

Speaking of successes: one raspberry bush survived the transplant from the garden neighbor’s greenhouse in early spring. I killed the other two, but one is enough to work with. There are raspberries in my future.

I am amazed that we still get sunflowers in the garden. The Velvet Queen lasted for weeks into the cold season. With night temperatures often close to freezing, I was surprised how many flowers there still were in the garden.

One of my favorite discoveries was the aspen in the flower beds I’d never done much with. I really enjoy the late flowers.

I put a thermometer in the greenhouse to get an idea of how cold it actually gets. On a chilly fall day, the temperature inside dropped to 15 degrees. I’ve seen it drop slightly lower since, but so far, we’ve always been in double-digit temperatures.

I’m hoping the greenhouse will stay warm enough to overwinter plants in.

And this is where the footage ends, and I had to get creative.

I shared how dark October was. I’m annoyed I could not share the whole story of foraging for chestnuts and preserving them (the last part is still not complete, so hopefully, you’ll get to see that.). More Murphy lead to empty drone batteries and even less footage of this.

But failed forages are often the nicest walks. Fresh air and some quiet.

At home, I took full advantage of the gloves I’d gotten for the blackberry brambles and took the chestnuts out of their thorny shells. Seriously, the thorns on these things are no joke. But they are so worth the hassle. I got more (already shelled) chestnuts from a neighbor a week after unsuccessfully foraging for them with my husband.

I reshaped the former tomato bed, shortening the U, widening the bed next to it, and adding a proper path.

I harvested the green tomatoes and chopped off the plants in the greenhouse. As always, the roots get to stay in the ground. A few days later, the peppers moved in and got a thick layer of straw for added warmth.

I rescued sunflower seeds from mold and took the seeds home to dry along with the giant basket of green tomatoes to preserve.

I published a new book and ordered print samples of all that I’ve published. I’ll have to fix two of the spines but it’s fine, and the words matter.

Most of the missed time was spent making more beds for garlic and onions. I weeded, planted, and mulched four strips next to the greenhouse with about 200 cloves of garlic, three varieties of onions, and some overwintering field beans. I am essentially doubling the growing space this winter.

I also, of course, went back for more apples, and preserved that harvest, as well. We added final harvests of squashes, got more mushrooms from the beds. I harvested the first beets, a Chioggia and a Wintersonne each.

I repaired the dishwasher again. The door is now a slightly different shade of blue which keeps throwing me off. I also don’t have new googly eyes, so Bob (the dishwasher) can no longer look around the kitchen.

The kitchen mint survived a fall into the fridge (wet soil is annoying to clean up…). I am amazed how hard it is to kill mint.

The neighbor’s plot passed hands, and the new neighbors started by mowing all the lawns. A giant steaming heap of grass clippings were turned into mulch for most of the beds. It was a lot but I could still use more.

And then, I lost all of the footage, and we are full circle to the present. You’ve missed a lot. I am sad I won’t get to properly share it all. But it’s just footage. It’s all good.

Thanks for sticking it out with me!