Wednesday, October 31, 2018

today's garden work

It was a beautiful, bright and warm HALLOWEEN day! I was lucky to do garden work all day. There are not so many of these good outdoor days any more as the season moves on toward winter. Here's what I did:

- Finished up my seed list. (Last year I started a list of all the seed packets I have that includes the folder they are stored in and when I planted them. By going through my seeds again now I put misplaced ones back in correct folders and identified seed packets that were used up this year so I know what to buy for next year.)

- From my home garden I harvested some kale and bulb fennel, dug up 3 first year artichoke plants for overwintering in pots in the garage, and dug 4 or 5 Belgian endive plants and set them out to cure under several layers of row cover.

- I photographed 3 types of mushrooms growing in my home garden. One on untreated pine raised bed wood, and two on birch logs that edge my flower bed. I'll get these identified by an expert. I THINK two are edible, one possibly a turkey tail and another maybe an oyster mushroom. I have no idea what the third is.

- I unpacked 4 or 5 of the 10 or so micronutrients that I am collecting mail order to refurbish the soil of my small orchard (3 apple trees, a cherry and a peach).

- And finally, the task that wiped me out, I dug a bed of potatoes at my community garden. I recovered about 20 lbs of beautiful russets from the bed in soil that was REALLY heavy. I was thrilled to get such a good harvest and shouldn't complain, but it was a lot of work!! We have had an unusually rainy fall here and even though I dig potatoes only after a couple dry days, the soil is still heavy. I've dug two beds so far, one more to go, lots of rain in the forecast...

belgian escarole IMG_6401 garden IMG_6405
garden mushroom IMG_6406 garden mushrooms IMG_6409
potato digging IMG_6430 community plot IMG_6434

Thursday, October 25, 2018

a year of garden photos

May 4: The peas are a few inches high, cover crop of winter rye is tall in some beds, and winter beds have greens growing.
05-04 IMG_2412

May 11: I just turned under the winter rye, crabapples and tulips are in bloom.
05-11 IMG_2530

May 30: I just planted tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers. Alliums are blooming. 05-30 IMG_2790

June 18: Everything is growing, including the weeds in the paths. Those are asparagus fronds across the view in the foreground. 06-18 IMG_7487

August 24: Time for eating fresh vegetables! 08-24 DSC00070

October 15: Beds with summer crops are cleared and ready for planting with some small seedlings to overwinter. 10-15 IMG_6023

October 21: Overwintering beds are covered with a single layer of fabric. Soon I'll add a layer of greenhouse plastic. 10-21 IMG_6154