The end of October brought dark, wet, but still very warm days. I had a plan for next year’s garden, so I brought cardboard into the garden to start new beds with. I’d already prepared most of the beds for winter, made most of the new beds. Three beds were left to start. I’ll likely never get to plant these beds. But I didn’t know that yet, so I worked diligently.

If you need a break from politics, here’s a fluffy video where I plant garlic, harvest carrots, the sun shines, and a dog gets a treat. I struggled a lot to make this video, so there is a non-fluffy version in addition with some real-talk about the current situation. This is not it. This one is all sunshine.

I struggled a lot to finish what set out to be a fluffy video about harvesting carrots and planting garlic, so I created the episode that felt more fitting in addition. If you need a break from politics and the dire state of the world, watch the fluffy version instead.

A garden tour in bad weather with everything you missed because I lost three weeks worth of footage. I’ll show you the new beds I made, how I’ve turned everything over for winter, and give you an update on what’s still growing in November in North-East Germany.

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.

For weeks, I’d prioritized the garden, ignoring tasks at home until they became urgent. Now, it was time to catch up on, well, everything. It was too wet for most garden work anyway. I used the time inside to bake crackers, infuse a lemon balm syrup, and catch up on the million things I hadn’t done.

After two weeks off to soak up the last summer sunshine, fall fell fast. I couldn’t quite get used to the change in season. It is hard to switch from heat wave to near freezing. There was a week between digging up strawberries on a hot day and looking for mushrooms in my winter jacket.

Work in the summer garden was slowing; the winter greens were in. Soon, I’d need room to grow onions and garlic. I was running out of bed space. I needed to fill the gaps.

Water has been a constant issue this year. First, we had too much, then we had too little. I would have run out during the heat wave. The misfortune of others saved me. Over the course of this summer, I doubled my water storage on the off-grid garden plot.

September was a month of fast change. 33 degrees one week, 3.5 degrees the next. Summer to fall in 10 days. It was also the month when a lot of our plans changed.