Meg Buerkel Hunn, Advisory Council Chair: Life + Death – Changing Seasons

Autumn has just arrived, blessing us with cooler mornings, colors, harvests from the garden, and events and activities and fiestas and more.  This is one of my favorite times of the year, although it inevitably becomes one of the busiest as well (mostly due to a slew of family birthdays that must be celebrated).

I’ve been thinking a lot about the seasons lately.  As gardeners, we are probably fairly well tuned into the changing of the seasons – here it means the tomatoes that wouldn’t ripen because it was too hot are finally ripe and red or orange, the apples are dropping from the trees, the chickens have slowed down their egg-laying, and nearly all the hummingbirds have left town.  Pretty soon, the annuals will die and the leaves will fall – and, before we know it, perhaps it’ll snow!

I love living close to nature like this – it’s a privilege to see and experience this firsthand.  It is also a reminder that we, too, are a part of nature – we too experience seasons changing.  Aches and pains arise, children chart their own paths, friends move away, work changes, death visits.  The seasons come and go.  It’s like the Byrd’s song, Turn, Turn Turn – which was based on Ecclesiastes 3: “to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted…”

On my forays into the Bosque along the river, sunflowers nod to the sunshine across the Rio Grande – they’ve sprouted from the debris and death of other organisms.  Their cheerful ‘faces’ feed the bees and birds, and their time comes (…all too soon, in my opinion – I would have sunflowers year round if it were up to me!).

At the State Master Gardener Conference this past month, we were reminded that ‘our yards are universes,’ and to utilize sustainable practices that benefit the creatures with whom we live – including to ‘leave the leaves.’  This practice not only provides habitat and food for other organisms, but it also saves us time and effort – a win-win in my book!  For more ways to make your garden more sustainable, please visit this link on our website: https://sandovalmastergardeners.org/building_a_sustainable_garden/

What do the changing seasons of your garden look like?  And how do they inform and influence the changing seasons of your life and living?