Seedling lectures, local animal bile

It has been a busy fall and early winter. Having two children seems like it is twice as much work as one, the Aggie's have actually been good at football for the first time this century and, of course, I've had my work and drinking habit to attend to. Gardening has not fallen completely by the wayside, but writing has.
I have pulled out all of my spring and summer veg and planted my fall garden. In went garlic, radishes, beets, lettuce, spinach, carrots, chard, cilantro and parsley. I originally planted garlic only in my cottage garden, but it hasn't rained since September and my cottage beds get a good soaking only once monthly when it doesn't rain, and those garlic plants were really struggling along. Therefore I added a line of garlic down the center of my vegetable beds.
I planted everything a little more 'square foot gardeningesque' than my last two rounds of vegetables, but still not directly by the book. Not because I thought I could improve on Mr. Bartholomew's design, but because I was in a hurry and just needed to muck on with it. I am proud to say I did do a nice job of preparing the beds by turning them over, adding compost (homemade! I am such a good person!) and organic fertilizer (again, I'm very good). I also worked very hard at keeping the soil moist and germinating my seedlings. I had to really force myself to work at that. I like planning, preparing and planting but the day to day care of a bunch of needy seedlings is drudgery. I tried very hard not to begrudge them (the seedlings) all the trouble they were causing me and almost succeeded, save one or two early morning lectures on the benefits of self sufficiency. Pulling oneself up by the bootstraps and whatnot, which I feel was largely lost on them.
Armadillo Update - they still suck and I still hate them. I can now keep them out of the rock wall garden and to pay me back for my efforts, they have begun to work over the cottage garden. I have basically given up trying to trap them for now. No more skunks, just empty traps and me tired of looking at the wire monstrosity in my garden. One night while shutting everything down, I heard some rustling about, and then threw on the flood lights and beheld a truly massive armadillo getting down to business in my mulch pathway. I grabbed the nearest deadly instrument (always a few handy), a splitting maul / ax, and then stood there and watched the fat bugger slowly waddle off while I came to terms with this fact - I hate armadillos enough to write rude things about them on the Internet, but not enough to bludgeon one to death in the harsh glare of halogen lighting. Or in the dark, or in the daylight. So with this is my only recourse, I say, "Hey, armadillos of northern Hays County, you're really making my life less fun as you look for food and water to survive on. Bastards."
Deer update - they suck less and I hate them less than armadillos. They ate the tops off my three roses in the cottage garden the other night. One thing they don't know, among other things they don't know - deer historically perform poorly at trivial pursuit - is that they aren't really hurting the roses. They tend to stop eating when they hit the thorns and my roses, a mutabilis, an old blush and a knock-out, are tough birds and just bounce back with more vigor. The deer are performing a necessary task for me, acting as my team of gardeners. To them I say, "Hey, deer of northern Hays County, thanks for finally helping out a bit. Don't expect a Christmas bonus, though. Bastards."
Otherwise, the garden is at rest. I am leaving all the perennials untrimmed post frost, due to one part laziness and one part actually enjoying the structure they keep in the garden. I'll trim them in the spring. Hopefully, (for who? me!) I'll write again before then.

November picture

The Flame-Leaf Sumac (Rhus lanceolata) looked very nice for most of the month. You can see the Copper Canyon Daisy (Tagetes lemmonii) in the foreground on the left.