October 18 · First Quarter Moon

Plant · Prepare · Begin

There is a funny kind of optimism to October gardening. We are watching most of the garden finish for the year while putting garlic and bulbs into the ground for a spring we can't see yet. This part of October is about doing a few things now that your future self will be very glad you did.

Garden
Plant garlic and spring-flowering bulbs. Tuck in crocus, daffodils, tulips, or whatever you'd love to find coming up after winter. Think about early spring flowers for pollinators, too. You don't need to redo the garden—just plant something for next year.

Hearth
Set up the house for the way you'll actually live in it over the next few months. Put a basket of blankets near the couch, move a lamp to the chair where you read, find the slippers, bring the tea things somewhere easy to reach. This is hygge at its most useful: making everyday life at home a little warmer and more comfortable.

Kitchen
Make something with apples while they're abundant. Try one savory recipe and one sweet one this month. While you're cooking, pay attention to what you might actually want to make again next October. A tradition has to start somewhere.

Apothecary
Make your Heart's Ease Elixir with hawthorn, linden, motherwort and rose, or choose another preparation you know you'll want through the colder months. This is also a good time to check bottles, jars, honey and alcohol so you're not halfway through making something in January when you realize you're out of supplies.

Self
Think ahead to the holiday season before you're actually in the middle of it. Is there something you already know you don't want to repeat this year? Something you'd like to make simpler? Something new you'd genuinely enjoy? Decide now, before habit and obligation start making those decisions for you.

Invitation
Do one small thing this week that won't pay off immediately. Plant the bulb. Start the medicine. Begin the tradition. Leave something good waiting for your future self.