Catching up

I missed Bloom Day in November.  I took pictures belatedly, but they never got posted.  I think the end of Daylight Savings Time (and the ensuing early evenings) has thrown me for a loop.  In Standard Time, during this time of the year, it's entirely dark by the time I get home at 6pm.  In fact, pretty much every daylight hour is spent either at work, or taking public transportation between our far-north Austin home and work.  Such is the life of a one-car household, I suppose. 

I found myself planting asparagus in the raised bed at about 7:00 one morning this week before work, because it was the only time I could find!  What do people do about this? Should I invest in a headlamp and just weed in the dark?  Maybe we need better lighting in the back yard.

I've been doing most of my gardening on the weekends, when I have some daylight to use.  Our vegetable garden is chock-full these days with cool-weather crops, and I've been planting in and around it with flowers and herbs, both for aesthetic purposes and to attract bees for pollination.   This time of year, we've got lots of plants, but not a lot of flowers.  The goal is to keep the puppy out of all the plant beds until the plants have had some time to establish roots and grow big enough that a bit of gnawing won't hurt them.  Mixed results on that front, so far.