A Fall Garden Suprise

I finally got around to weeding the garden. I pulled weeds and put down some more alfalfa for mulch. I tried to use leaves after they were ran through the vacuum part of my given to me for free Poulan blower/vac. Unfortunately the vacuum part does not work as well as the blower and after 3 very frustrating bags of leave mulch I gave up on the idea. Gardening to me is a way to eat organic better tasting food and relieve stress. The vacuum experiment did not work into that plan. I also tied up my cauliflower as unbeknownst to me even the week fall sun will start discoloring the heads. Now back to the suprise. While weeding around the brocolli I pulled out the volunteer green bean plants I had allowed to grow. They were small but full of beans.

My first foray into a full time fall garden; potatoes, brocolli, cauliflower, kale, lettuce, radishes, carrots, and cabbage. I envisioned a super easy care garden with weeds hardly growing, hardly ever having to water, and very little maintenance. The less need to water has been true but the others not. Weeding involves getting muddy and they're growing just as fast as in summer. Way more work than I planned. To sooth my stressed over worked garden soul I made me a lunch of beans, brocolli, carrots, and a few new potatoes I dug. That being said I am hoping everything is ripe by Christmas so I can harvest everything except the garlic I just planted and the sugar snap peas. Then I'm laying down a bed of nonmulched leaves and letting the ground sleep for a couple of months.

Fresh from The Garden




Ready to eat


The old man after 2 days of duck hunting last weekend.

Somebody Doesn't Want Me to Get My Garlic Planted

My goal for this week by friday was to build 2 planters, fill one with soil and plant my garlic. I picked up the boards last saturday. I then cut and assembled the sides on sunday. There they sat until yesterday. I took them outside and stained them in the morning, let them dry all day and then returned them to the garage so they would not get wet with dew. This afternoon I put the sides and ends together into a planter and put them in place. I filled one with soil and commenced planting garlic. 3 kinds were to be planted(Oregon Blue, Ischeium Red and California White), 2 rows of each 16 rows deep for a total of 96 bulbs next year. I was about half done with the first variety when the rain came pouring down. I was going to finish all 3 varieties but quit after finishing the first variety due to the tremendous amount of hail.

The new soon to be garlic bed


















My poor carrots


The neighbors roof.

Happy Thanksgiving

I sit here today having a different Thanksgiving and remembering traditions and Thanksgivings past. My wife's brothers wife took a promotion at work and had to work today so our recent tradition of TG down in Concord will be put on hold. Her brother decided he didn't want to travel up so it'll just be myself and my wife plus our young adult children and her brother that lives here in town. This is the second holiday season since my mom passed on and my wife's mom's been in a home for 3 holiday seasons. I remember the TG's from years passed when 10-20 people would come to my mom's. Time, marriages, and children growing up have changed those old traditions. I still hold on to some traditions that bring the old memories back and tie the new with the old. On the table today is my dad's old turkey salt and pepper shakers plus his silverware ( he passed on when I was 9) and my mom's holiday china plus the turkey serving ware myself and my wife purchased for her when we were first married. We will be starting a new tradition of eating many fresh vegetables fresh picked out of the garden and prepared to the table. There's carrots, radishes, banana squash, kale, and broccolli. Though the traditions of TG football at the local elementary school and huge groups of people are on hold for now it's still a day to celebrate all that's good in the company of what family is available.



Picked for the table


The potatoes didn't make it. Maybe Christmas.


Kale and carrots.


A sunflower


Broccolli


The old man's shakers from the 50s


Mom's soup turine


Drake. He attends all holidays at our house.

The Garden Shame Continues but the Citrus Produces

I still have not gotten around to pulling the myriad of weeds now infiltrating my garden. The planters are not done, however they are in process and will have garlic planted in them by friday. I have been enjoying a few hunts of the waterfowl variety and some delicious organic broccolli and lettuce from my garden. The carrots look like I'll be able to start harvestibng them by Thanksgiving for dinner. The potatoes are another story though. They have not flowered nor starting dying away. The wonderful idea of a bowl of roasted purple, yellow and white potatoes for Thanksgiving is not going to happen. My lemon tree though is quite full of those little yellow buggers. The orange tree at the previous foreclosure has many oranges also. Since the house sold recently and today I met the couple who will be renting it I guess they will enjoy the fruits of my deep watering and fertilizing not me.

The "Hall" project that has been gobbling up my gardening time if finally finished.




Part of my soon to be bountiful lemon harvest



Planters sides that need stained and attached together then filled for the garlic.


The oranges that I coddled that will be eaten by another.


A Euryops

My Garden Shame

I haven't had much time to post nor do any work in the garden. Working on the hall project as well as responding to fire calls has kept me pretty busy. I need to build my planter beds to get my garlic planted but first I need to do some maintenance in the garden to erase my sloth and shame. Normally everyone likes to post pictures of their beautiful garden and result of hard work. I'm going to post some pictures of the poor condition of my garden resulting from other priorities.

Weeding that needs done.


Weeding plus needing to replant snap peas where they did not germinate.


I need to pick some snails after dark.







My peppers have almost had it with the cool nights. Hoping a few more will turn red before I pull them.



Some fungus? on my cauliflower



Luckily my son pulled the tomatoes or they would still be in these pots.



Crab grass blanketing my newer garden area.



A couple good ones. A late sunflower.



Broccolli starting to head out.



A brief moment watching a grey squirrel that lives in my pine tree accompanied by the dogs.



That's it. I think I'm going to go pull snails and crush them.

Changing of the Leaves, Ghosts and Goblins, Cooler Temps and the Magical Crockpot

With the changing of the leaves comes Halloween, with Halloween comers cooler temperatures, and with cooler temperatures come Crockpot time. What a wonderful tool the crockpot is! You can make stews, chilis, soups, roasts, gamehens, and even taco meat. We've yet to fully utilize ours by cooking desserts and other items. However each fall and winter the crockpot gets used and abused. Many roasts, stews, chilis and soups get prepared in it. At least 2 times a week which equates to 4 meals. This week we had a beef roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions on monday. I pulled out the roast and vegetables when it reached the correct doneness, drained the juices to make gravy, sliced half the roast then put the balance of the roast back in with some homemade salsa for a few more hours to have taco meat for tuesday. Thursday was a pork roast with all the trimmings for dinner with half the roast returning the next afternoon with some barbeque sauce for bbq pork sandwich meat. Today was a clam chowder. Many soups etc. will be in the future but maybe not until it cools off a bit more. This coming week looks like a good chance to fire up the grill some more.

Favorite Season of the Year

Yesterday marked the first day of my favorite season of the year. True I love summer vegetable season and am really syarting to enjoy the fall vegetable season, there is nothing that , for me anyways, compares to waterfowl (duck and goose) season. The crisp fall mornings, the sights, sounds, and smells of the marsh. The sound of the wings as they fly over, and the different calls of different species. The anticipation of the dog as he awaits each retrieve. The precision marking and work performed by the dog. The smiles on a childs face as he learns to enjoy watching nature and enjoying her bounty. I'm in heaven now and it will only get better as the temperatures drop and the weather gets nastier.

A friend and his son on Saturday.

The Garden Survives the Storm

The garden came through the storm fairly well. A few potato plants suffered broken branches from the downpour. The broccolli etc was sitting in a pond until the water soaked and some plants along the garage drip line were beat down for a couple of days. All in all not too much damage. All is doing well but the cooler nights are starting to show wear on the tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers. Only about half of the Sugar Snap Peas germinated so I'll need to do a second planting. My lettuce is finally really growing and I enjoyed a completely homegrown salad tonight along with some wild boar steaks.Here's a few pics of the garden.






Here's some of the compost bins I am trying to give away. I still have the box of MiracleGro for Tomatoes as well.