The winds whipped the cold moist air of october straight to your bone. The sky was cloudy, gray, and sleepy.  As I walked from the deck that was attached to our house, I looked to see white plastic furniture lying on their sides on the cold wet grass. As I walked up to the furniture I look around our backyard to see leaves from the trees scattered. My mind quickly thought of a theory, and I looked at the forest ahead of me to see that all of the trees were stripped of leaves, most likely due to the storm that had rolled through during the night. But trying to not get distracted I picked up the furniture which was two chairs and one tiny square table and placed them were I thought they once stood. As I stood looking at the furniture, I heard a car drive by, and then the air was filled with silence once again. It seemed that nothing was going around, it seemed that the howling winds and rain of the night storm has sent everything to its residence. But you could still hear things on this day, especially the wind shaking the gray trees. Then I began to walk back towards the stairs I had stepped down to pick up the overturned furniture. As I got to the foot of the sharp stone stairs I trudged on gray and white pebbles, soaked due to the storm. Then I stomped my way up the three stone steps and after some careful 5 steps, I gazed left to see our garden, a victim of fall because of the frigid temperatures. Because of this, many plants lay dying or dead. But the first plant I saw was a sunflower with its face down never to see the sun. The stalk looked to be taking on a soggy, rotting, green death and it’s face was brown and heavy. Upon closer inspection of the dying jungle was the brown viney remains of a cucumber plant that dominated the fence behind it, and twisted itself up the crab apple tree to it’s left.

The spiraling cucumber plant reminded me when me and my Dad planted the bell peppers, brussel sprouts, lettuce, and cucumbers into the garden. Then we planted some tomatoes, Green beans, watermelon, and some time after these plants the sunflower, though I’m unsure about it’s origins, most likely wild as I have no memory of anyone planting it. But now, only one lettuce plant remained as the four others were invaded and conquered by the young and expanding cucumber plants. Closest to the Cucumber plants were the broccoli plants that proved to be difficult to determine when it was the best time to harvest them as the broccoli began to flower if you let the vegetables grow old, and well I don’t see flowers appetizing. And there was the stubborn brussel sprout plants that didn’t provide any vegetables for months after it was planted. The red tomatoes seemed to have succumbed to a plague as they rotted on their wooden support pole and their red orbs turning brown and splitting open in places then falling to the earth below. But there was another tomato plant across the garden that was unaffected but did not produce rapidly, but with only the occasional tomato ripe for picking.

But in the cold days of early October, it seemed that the stubborn brussel sprout plants were the only ones to survive under the grasp of october as the broccoli was on its deathbed. And the last letteous plant shriveled brown and crumpled after it attempted to shoot up a stalk and shower seeds down below. Then I glanced at the forest again that was a considerable distance away from the garden, and it seemed that there was almost a thick line of trees that waved their skinny branches that were barren as a desert, down as far as I could see. And it seemed that the trees on either side were still lush with red, orange, and yellow shining in the cloudy October day. The only thing that stood out from them was the giant green pine trees with huge branches sprawling out holding millions of tiny green pine needles. But then I gazed back at the brown and green garden and thought about the amount of produce gained from it, sure it was a good amount but the most we got from it was wasted, as we didn’t eat it fast enough, especially the cucumbers that grew so fast that in five days you needed to pick them off before the seeds overtook the delicious interior. It was clear to me by then that planning is key but planning with information was the brighter option, but only time can tell that story. But then I simply shrugged at the dying mess and continued to walk forward, looking at the cold wet grass dampen my sneakers as I lazily walked away from the decaying garden.