(Click on the photo and mouse over for plant labels.)
A good day for getting a few jobs done at the garden plot. Here's what we did:
- Clear out dead summer squash vines.
- Remove all but 3 tomato vines and poles.
- Pick dried beans.
- Harvest broccoli.
- Harvest basil.
- Put up trellis for fall peas.
- Weeding.
In the plot expansion area:
- More weed clearing.
- Move the weed pile out of the area I plan to use as a garden.
- Measure new space: its 12 ft by 21 ft. That's a total of 252 sq ft of new space. (My old space is 15 ft by 24 ft, 360 sq ft. new and old together will be 612 sq ft.)
- Dig out one big stump and start removing it with chain saw.
My next jobs are:
- Process basil leaves and freeze as pesto.
- Lime and seed winter cover crop in the squash bed. (The lime amount recommended in my soil test results was 13 lbs per 100 sq ft this fall. For my approx 8 by 8 ft squash bed, I should add 8 lbs of lime.) (I got my mail-ordered fall cover crop seeds from Johnny's this week. I ordered 1/4 lb Crimson Cover and 1/4 lb Mixed Fall Green Manure Mix seeds. The clover should be sowed soon - by late summer. I'll seed 1/4 to 1/3 of this pkg in my squash bed ASAP.)
- Plant garlic.
community plot expansion project
Even though it's almost fall, your garden still appears to be healthy. How is escarole? I am growing some right now and I haven't tried it yet.
ReplyDeleteI grow a broad leaved escarole. It adds a mildly bitter flavor to salads. Its nice. My Mom thought it was lettuce and wondered what was wrong with it. I'm not sure if she likes it - it may not be to everyone's taste. But I enjoy the mix of flavors in a salad.
ReplyDeleteEscarole varieties are usually more cold hardy than lettuce. I've had years where it grows well into Dec surviving temps in the teens.