By Felder Rushing

Gardening Columnist

Savvy gardeners are as philosophical as we are one-and-done task managers. We find ways to savor the process as well as the results of our efforts.

That said, there are few garden-related comments that trigger me more than the unsatisfied “can’t wait til the weather gets better.” To me, pining for a different season means not finding something to savor at the moment.

I just shake my head, understanding that though garden seasons, like life, are short, there is a healthy balance to be found between dueling philosophies. Rather than being paralyzed in a Cynic’s doom and gloom, I temper an Optimist’s “it will get better” with a touch of pleasurable, not-quite-Hedonistic “gather ye rosebuds while ye may.”

Which is a convenient way to handle this shifting season. Like you, I lost some stuff to the summer weather, but rather than wishing for spring I am already planting for winter and spring, while relishing what is hanging on out there. Yeah, it’s still mostly hot and dry, but there is still okra and basil to harvest, the mums are budding nicely, and the sumac is showing a bit of fall color.

But there are colorful edimental veggies and flowers to plant and enjoy in the season before spring. Somewhere between being a lazy grasshopper and a too-busy ant, I’m staying active in the garden, and planning ahead so there won’t be a disappointing lull during insufferable weather.

It’s easy for me because I am a cottage-style gardener, not a row-crop home farmer. I grow flowers, culinary herbs, fruits, and pretty vegetables, for both looks and kitchen qualities, in raised beds, easy containers, and tucked in front of perennial flowers and shrubs.

I won’t go into how-to details because gardening in a small space is more concept than recipe. Dig a hole, mix in some compost, shove a plant in, water to get started, and take it from there. Luckily, cool weather gardening is not a big challenge because there’s less sweat, and fewer bugs, blights, and weeds.

If you aren’t sure about what can be planted now, go online to MSUCARES.com and in the search box type Garden Tabloid. It is absolutely the most bottom-line source of Mississippi-specific information on all things vegetables. It isn’t fluffy, no color photos, just solid bottom-line information is solid, from best varieties to practical planting dates.

But this week I am sowing seed of several different lettuce varieties, chosen for leaf shapes and colors to make little fast-growing color spots that can be cut off as instant mesclun salads. I do this every month or so, to keep the fresh salads coming.

For a striking range of good looks and good eats, throw in Swiss chard, turnips and greens, burgundy mustard, frilly parsley, and tall cold-hardy superfood kales in an impressive range of colors, especially the heirloom Tuscan Blue sometimes called lacinato or dinosaur kale. When grown in pots on the porch or patio, especially with a few edible violas and pansies added, and it will be as beautiful as delicious and nutritious.

And in addition to it all but forcing me eat more healthy food, grown safely in my own garden and eaten within minutes of harvest, it makes me feel kinda Epicurean.

I don’t see gardening as a never-ending Sisyphean task; to me it is just putting one foot in front of the other, eyes wide open to the bounty that is around me in the here and now while planning and planting for next season.

Meanwhile I calm myself with a Stoic “the weather is what it is, let’s keep going.”