The Modern Victory Garden

We have had a string of dry days recently, which has allowed the leaves that have fallen on the front lawn to finally dry out enough (after our heavy rains the prior week) such that it was possible to rake them up.   On Sunday my husband and I bundled up and together tackled getting them raked up.   We let our flock of hens loose on the front yard to graze and forage for bugs while we were there to keep an eye on them.   They love joining the human members of their flock for an expedition to the front yard.   I think they were finding lots of worms underneath the leaves we were working to rake up but soon they moved over to the small ornamental bed in front of the house.   I am sure they were finding lots of nice things in and among the fallen leaves and plant foliage that has died back for the season.                                        

They seem to like hanging out with my garden fairy that has a permanent residence in that bed – perched on an old stump.                         

The end result of a nice afternoon spent outside in the crisp fall weather was a tidy lawn, some happy chickens, and two very full compost bins.                        

The first bin is the almost finished pile, the second bin was completely empty and is now filled with leaves, and the third bin was about half full of debris that was just barely starting to rot.   I topped off the last bin, and the remaining bit of leaves was added as additional mulch on the artichoke bed.     

One more fall chore I can mark off my “to do” list as “Ta Done!”                   

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

It seems we always come up with projects for our garden and homestead.   In fact, I don’t think a year has gone by in my adult life where there has not been some improvement, change, or addition that was undertaken.   This year, I thought our big project would be installing the cross fencing, but in retrospect our involvement was fairly minimal as we just staked it out and then paid someone else to come in and install it.   It seems that this was not near enough to satisfy the “Project Demons” that apparently reside within my husband and myself, because lately one of our wish list projects has repeatedly come up for discussion.   Specifically, the notion of getting a worm box established has suddenly elevated in interest level for both of us.    The clincher was last Saturday while I was working some volunteer hours at the Kingston Farm and Garden Co-op Giving Garden, some of the volunteers were working to assemble a worm box (from a kit) for the Giving Garden.    I really liked the simple design of the box, the cedar lumber used to construct it, and how easily and quickly it was assembled.   Seeing this nifty worm box just threw gasoline on our worm box fire and after getting home that afternoon and having a brief discussion with the spouse… the same worm box kit was ordered and on it’s way.                       

We purchased it from a local supplier, so it arrived incredibly fast.   In fact, we ordered it Saturday and it was here on Tuesday.   Today (Wednesday) while I was away at work, my husband assembled the box in the shop.         

You can see in this last photo that the bottom is open (you can see the table top it is sitting on).   This weekend, I will help my husband carry this to its designated spot.   It is too bulky for one person to do alone.   We are waiting for the weekend to do this because the ground where this will be located must be dug out before setting it in place, and neither of us wanted to do it on a weeknight.   Once it is put in place it will end up being partially buried below the soil line, which provides an insulation effect that protects the worms.   The next step after that will be to layer in the compostable items and the bedding material (peat moss, shredded paper, etc) in the first bin and moisten it thoroughly (just like regular compost pile assembly) so that it is moist like a damp sponge throughout.   A couple thick layers are all that is needed to get started.   We can then add the red worms (we will be adding 2 lbs of worms) and then just continue that process of regularly adding layers of food wastes covered by a thick layer of damp bedding until the first bin is full.   When that happens we start layering in the second bin.   When the worms have used up all the food supply in the first bin, they will migrate to the second area where the fresh supply has been provided.   This is when we will be able to start harvesting the worm castings from the first bin to use as fertilizer and a soil amendment for the garden.     The cycle then just keeps repeating back and forth.   We have been doing lots of research on this and feel ready to become worm wranglers, but I know we will learn a lot more through actual hands on experience.    I will provide updates later on how this project progresses.                     

So I wonder… what will next year’s project be?                 

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what everyone else is harvesting from gardens in so many different regions.   Check it out and join in!                

On Sunday I spent a few hours in the garden turning over the green manure crop (crimson clover) and then layering on compost in one of the two largest beds ( 4’ x 32’ ) in the garden.  This is in preparation for the early spring crops that will be planted out in mid to late March.             

This bed was the potato patch in 2010.    Consequently, as I was turning over the green manure crop, I turned up a few missed potatoes from the fall potato lift.   They had over wintered quite nicely.   There was just slightly over a pound of potatoes that I harvested in the course of doing this work.                        

Earlier in the week, I had also harvested some nice mixed greens from the container plantings in the unheated greenhouse.   It was enough for two very nice sized dinner salads but did not weigh enough to round up to ¼ lb, so they were not included in my harvest tally for the week.              

Harvest totals for the week of February 28th through March 6th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Lettuce & Greens 0.00 lbs (not enough to round to ¼ pound)
• Potatoes 1.00 lbs

Total For Week 1.00 lbs

Total Year To Date 11.00 lbs                    

Eggs harvested this week - 35                       

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

We enjoyed some rather beautiful days this weekend, but while the sun was indeed shining, it was also quite cold.   The ground was frozen on both Saturday and Sunday so it was not possible to do any early bed prep other than spreading some compost in the afternoons once the temps warmed up a bit (which I did).   As a result, the garden activities were mostly confined to the maintenance of the trays of seedlings.   The items planted last weekend are largely all up – including the celery and peppers, which usually take more than a week to make an appearance.   The seeds started in earlier batches are all in various stages of growth with the oldest being the onions and the super early tomatoes.   Some of the greens planted on February 5th were far enough along by Saturday that they were ready for some thinning.                            

While they look lush in this before picture, there are multiple plants in each cell and as they grow on (if not thinned) the competition would just result in multiple weak seedlings.   So I took the time to carefully cut away the excess plants from each cell.   The plants look a little bedraggled immediately after I do a thinning, but they perk up quickly and will be much stronger ultimately than if I had let them remain crowded much longer.                           

The seedling trays were all given a thorough bottom watering and allowed to sit in the feeble sun and chill conditions for about 20 minutes while soaking.           

Then the excess water was drained off and these tender seedlings were whisked back off to the protection, light, and warmth of the light set up in the shop.   I find handling them periodically like this is beneficial … similar to the effect of running low fans on seedlings in that it tends to toughen the stems up and make them more resilient to stresses.                           

Next weekend, I will be starting another batch of lettuces and if the weather warms up a bit, I will do some aeration of a few of the garden beds.   I also will be making arrangements later this week to have that cross fencing installed as well.   It seems rather quiet on the gardening front right now, but I can tell that the greens in the greenhouse are responding to the increased day length and I expect in the next few weeks to see the early greens kick into much faster growth – especially if it would just warm up a little bit!                           

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what everyone else is harvesting from gardens in so many different regions.   Check it out and join in!                      

The garden is now into a light harvest mode that supplements the preserved summer produce in the weekly menus.   This week, I harvested some lettuce and young swiss chard leaves, some parsnips, and some kale.   I did not get pictures of everything but here is the majority of it.                    

Harvest totals for the week of November 8th through November 14th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).     

• Kale 0.25 lbs
• Lettuce 0.25 lbs
• Parsnips 1.25 lbs

Total For Week 1.75 lbs

Total Year To Date 440.50 lbs                   

Eggs harvested this week - 35                       

On Sunday, we tackled the first pass of raking up the leaves from our Japanese Red Maples.   Two of the trees are pretty much done with their leaf drop, but one of the trees still has quite a bit of leaves to let go of yet.   In about two weeks, I will have to go back with a second effort to get the rest of the leaves from this last tree.   It is mid November and the rainy season that the maritime Pacific Northwest is famous for is well underway.   The leaves were quite wet as a result, but the long term forecast showed no relief thus putting off the task made no sense.   So here is the area before…         

…and after the raking was completed.                               

The leaves were gathered up in the wheelbarrow and then carted off to the compost bins.                   

There is one bin that is almost finished, a second bin that was partially full that I finished off with leaves, and another bin that is almost entirely filled with just leaves.   The third bin will continue to receive kitchen debris and garden trimmings, along with chicken yard and coop cleanings until it is fully topped off.   I will need to set up a fourth bin soon as these will be nicely filled and “cooking” in short order.  

The leaves on the trees and deciduous bushes are not the only plants to be changing colors.   I noticed the ferns growing in the under story of the forest surrounding our home have turned a beautiful golden color too.

In addition to the color provided by the leaves and ferns, our yard has a surprising colorful addition this fall, in that several of our red rhododendrons are confused and are blooming!                                     

I have never seen these plants give a second bloom in late fall like this so I did some research on it and found that while not common, it does happen once in a while.   To put it simply these plants are not so much re blooming as they are getting a jump on the spring blooms.   Spring-blooming woody plants (such as rhodies) initiate flower buds on previous year's wood. The flower buds require a period of chilling before they will break dormancy and bloom.   Normally, this happens during the winter months.   However, anyone who has been following my blog for the past several months knows that we have had an extremely cool and wet summer followed by a damp and cold fall.   Apparently, the relentlessly cool nights we have been experiencing provided enough chilling to result in these plants blooming out of their "normal" sequence.   Sadly, this likely means these particular plants will not bloom next spring as a result.   This extra shot of fall color and display emphasizes what a strange and rather non-existent summer we had in 2010.   Here’s hoping that next year is a little more normal!                      

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Sandy at The 10 Year Challenge writes a great blog that I regularly follow.   She recently participated in a new meme started by Toni at Backyard Feast, which focuses on “A day in the slow life”.   Sandy in turn invited me to participate as well. 

I am a firm believer in the health benefits and good economics of eating abundantly from a working food garden, avoiding highly manufactured and processed foods, and using a relatively low amount of sugar compared to the Standard American Diet (ironically the acronym for the Standard American Diet - is SAD!).   It is also a personal goal of mine to reduce the amount of foods that we use that are produced using factory farming techniques (heavy on pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and monoculture crop growing) and which are located far from our home and thus require large amounts of fossil fuels to transport and refrigerate items before they come to our table.        

Growing really fresh, nutrient dense, organically grown food is definitely the priority for me and is at the heart of what this website and blog is all about - but it is so much more than just good food.   The process of growing and preparing our daily food is as important to me as the actual food itself.   Our modern lives, with its wealth of labor saving appliances and electronic amusements, generally encourages a much more sedentary lifestyle than our ancestors experienced.   While I don’t yearn to wash clothes with a rock by the river and I totally embrace technology in both my private and professional life, I do appreciate that a little manual labor is a good thing for the human animal.   Physical effort, spending time outside getting fresh air and sunshine, and living for at least a few moments each day away from the constant bombardment of information and noise our modern world subjects us to - would be reward enough for food production gardening even if we did not also get some really tasty vegetables and fruits out of the deal as well.   That’s where The Paradox of Slow comes in to play.   Growing and preparing my family’s food in such a hands on manner is clearly more labour and time-intensive then the modern day alternatives and when the garden is at it’s peak the pace of activity is anything but “slow”!   I could quite easily just buy produce elsewhere or let “Hostess” do my baking for me, but the point is - I choose not to.   The “slow life” for me is about choosing wisely where I invest my valuable life energy and then doing so in a manner that really savors that effort and it’s many rewards.  

The purpose of the meme is to share a brief glimpse into our daily “slow life”.    So without further ado, here is a recap of typical fall weekend day around our homestead.       

Monday, 10-11-2010        

6:05 AM:  I have the day off from work today (Columbus Day) but I always have a hard time actually sleeping in - even when I have no particular schedule to keep.   My internal alarm clock and my cat (that loves me awake with feline kisses so I will get up and feed him) just don’t let that happen.   So I am up.   First order of business is to feed the cat and make a pot of coffee.   While he is eating and the pot is brewing, I slip on some shoes and a zippered sweatshirt jacket, stuff my keys into the jacket pocket, and head outside to the henhouse to open up the chicken door on the coop so they can move out to the covered chicken run when they are awake and ready.   We shut the coop up tight at night to keep them secure from aggressive predators, but they are much more relaxed if we don’t prolong their confinement.   I then unlock the garage and grab a partial can of layer crumble and some hen scratch grains and refill the feeder in the run and toss a little fresh scratch around for their eating enjoyment.   Since it is still dark out, the hens are just lightly stirring around in the coop but not making any motion to come out.   I circle around to the front of the house and unlock our shop door and walk out to the mailbox to bring in the morning paper.   With those quick tasks done, I head back inside, grab a cup of coffee and go online to respond to a few comments on my blog and do a link at Daphne’s Dandelions to the "Harvest Monday" post I actually wrote and posted late last night.   It’s now only 6:45 am and my cat Sid comes in to the computer room and proceeds to successfully talk me into going back to bed for awhile.            

8:45 AM:  Went right back to sleep and got almost two hours of additional snooze time in before I did my second wake up for the day.   Ran a comb through my hair, brushed my teeth, grabbed a cup of the still fairly warm coffee from the pot and took a few minutes to flour and shape the batch of No Knead Bread that I had started the evening before.   Put it back in the bowl, covered it with a plate, and set it on top of the microwave.   Since the house is a bit cool this morning I put a full mug of water in the microwave and then turned it on for 3 minutes to bring it to a full boil.   The mug of boiling water is left sitting in the microwave because it makes the top surface of the microwave quite warm, which in turn warms the bowl of rising dough sitting on top of it.   Made myself some breakfast - two eggs over easy and a slice of toast with real butter (kept spreadably soft and fresh in our butter bell). Eggs came from our chickens, bread was homemade, and butter was from a regional dairy. More coffee to wash it down – not from a local source I am sad to admit.   Went back online while eating my breakfast (yes, I eat at my PC which drives my computer tech husband absolutely wild!) and spent some quiet time reading and commenting on “Harvest Monday” posts that other bloggers had made.   Sent my daughter a text message and briefly corresponded with her catching up on her daily doings.      

10:00 AM:  Put the covered baking pot into the oven and started it preheating to 450 degrees.   Slipped shoes and a light jacket back on to go outside and open the chicken run up to allow the hens to start free ranging for the day in our fenced backyard.   During the weekdays my husband would take care of this as I am away at work but on weekends I tend to do it.   Opened the back vent to the chicken coop and did a quick look to see if they were done laying for the day.   Two ladies were still sitting on nests, so I did not bother them.   Instead, I stepped over to the raspberry patch that is growing next to the chicken run and picked a sizeable handful of ripe raspberries.   I ate them right there while being entertained by the chickens.   I have yet to get any of this year’s berries into the house to be weighed or photographed.    We always just eat them in the garden!        

10:30 AM:  Placed the bread dough into the now very hot baking pan, covered it, and set the timer for 30 minutes.    While that was baking, I prepared a pan of quartered garden tomatoes, onions, and two large peeled garlic cloves – drizzled with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt.              

Tossed the tomato, onion and garlic trimmings into the kitchen compost pail and registered how full it was so I ran it out to the compost pile, emptied it, and gave it a quick rinse using some rain barrel water.   While outside, I did a head count on the chickens to make sure they were all okay and noted that all six were outside so the egg laying must be done for the day.   Took the now empty and rinsed out compost pail back into the house.          

11:00 AM:  Took the lid off of the baking bread and set the timer for 13 minutes.   Grabbed the small wire egg basket and went back out to the coop to collect eggs.   Total of 5 today, which I rinsed and then put into the fridge.

11:15 AM:  Removed the bread from the oven and tipped it out onto a wire rack to cool.   This recipe consistently produces a really beautiful crusty loaf of artisan style bread with only a little bit of work on my part.      

11:30 AM:  Turned the temperature down on the oven to 350 degree and put the pan of tomatoes, onion, and garlic into it.   This will bake for several hours to create a lovely roasted tomato paste for tonight’s dinner prep.   Heated up a dish of leftovers from last night’s dinner for lunch composed of steamed broccoli (from the garden) with just a little butter and a sprinkle of salt and homemade macaroni and cheese.           

Noon:  Got dressed in something more substantial than the shorts and t-shirt I had been wearing all morning and headed outside to do some work in the garden.   The past several days had cold soaking rains so the cool but sunny fall weather this afternoon was wonderful to work in.   I started off by using the broad fork to aerate and loosen a 4’X12’ garden bed that I had layered with compost the previous weekend.   Raked it smooth and then used my planting jig to lay out the grid for planting up the garlic.          

After the garlic was pressed down into the soil, I filled the wheelbarrow full of finished compost and used it to add a layer of compost mulch over the entire bed.   The garlic only used one section of the bed, but this will be the allium bed for 2011 and I want to have it amended and in good shape for an early spring planting of onions.               

Once the garlic was all in, I then focussed on using the rest of the finished compost pile to layer on garden beds - putting them to sleep for the winter.   I was able to do one of the long vertical grow beds, and two of the larger garden beds.        

The rest of the beds are currently either in use or already planted up with a green manure / cover crop so the quantity of compost worked out well.     

Around 2pm I took a quick break from what I was doing outside and went inside to pull the roasting tomatos out of the oven.   Used a fork to mash and mix the roasted onions, garlic, and tomatoes together into a thick and chunky paste.   The carmelized onions made it quite sweet so I did not add any sugar.   The salt I had added previously was enough -  so the only thing it needed was a little pinch of dried oregano and it was good to go.   Put it in the fridge until I needed it later when I fixed dinner.              

Went back outside and finished up the compost mulching task.   Used a pitchfork to turn and mix the remaining two working compost piles.   At that point I pretty much quit working and just hung out for a while enjoying the garden on a cool fall day.   Spent about a half hour just standing by the compost piles talking to my husband who had come out to help and keep me company after he had finished up his own projects that he had been working on in the house (mopped the kitchen floor and put a new coat of minwax on an old oak table we have in the living room).   It only took us about a half hour to solve all the worlds problems and together we emptied and refilled the chickens water containers and topped off their food containers with some layer crumbles.   The two of us then “herded” them back into the covered chickenyard and shut the gate behind them.            

3:15 PM:  Came in and decided to take my evening shower early as I was kind of grubby from working in the compost piles.        

3:30 PM:  Put the pizza stone into the oven and started the oven preheating to 450 degrees.   Mixed up a batch of pizza dough, gave it a quick knead and then let it rest while I assembled the necessary toppings.   I was fresh out of any mozzarella cheese so I grated up some Cougar Gold very sharp white cheddar cheese and mixed in some freshly grated parmesan cheese with it.   Diced up some onions from my storage pile.   Diced up some summer sausage we had in the fridge, and opened and drained a can each of sliced black olives and sliced mushrooms.

Then it was just a matter of rolling out the dough…         

… putting it on a floured sheet and then topping it with the beautiful roasted tomato paste and toppings.           

This was then slid onto the very hot pizza baking stone and cooked for about 11 minutes until the crust was crisp and the cheeses melted and bubbly.      

4:20PM:  We ate pizza for dinner and watched the local news broadcast.   Delicious!   Cleaned up the kitchen and started the dishwasher.   Wrapped the remaining pieces of pizza and put them in the fridge for our lunches the next day.                 

5:30 PM:  Went online and checked my blog, updated the calendar, responded to comments, replied to emails, and finished visiting and commenting on other gardening blogs that had posted for “Harvest Monday”.   

7:00 PM: While my husband got the woodstove going with a cheery fire.   I slipped on a coat and shoes and headed outside to close the “chicken door” on the coop.   Poked my head inside the henhouse using the “man door” and did a head count to make sure everyone was safely in for the night.   My favorite little black hen immediately came up and asked to be picked up and held.   It has become a nightly ritual and it really is very sweet.   She sits in my arms and clucks to me quietly.   I have grown quite attached to my little feathered friend.   Set her back down and close the man door.  Locked the garage door and the shop door for the night and went inside.  Cut a slice of the fresh bread and spread a little butter on it;  made a big mug of Earl Grey tea; grabbed a fleece throw blanket; and settled in on the couch with my cat Sid to watch a movie.             

7:20 PM:  We watched the movie City of Angels using on demand video service.           

9:15 PM:  Assembled my lunch for work the next day – slice of leftover pizza and a small container of blueberries (scooped out from a bag of frozen berries picked by us at Graysmarsh Farm).         

9:30 PM:  Adjourned to the bedroom, to read and watch some news before eventually giving it up and going to sleep.                  

Not a terribly exciting day, but a balanced one with some periods of quiet personal time and other periods spent working to take care of the household and each other.   Truly a day in the the slow life.          

To continue the meme, I am inviting Heather at Heather’s Homemaking, Mr. H at Subsistence Pattern and Annette at Sustainable Eats to participate and share their days with us as well.   I hope they take up the invitation as I am personally very much looking forward to reading about a day in their slow life.     

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

It was drizzling rain this morning, so I spent several hours in the shop making progress on the planting jig construction project.    Last week, I completed the 2-inch planting jig, which was the prototype of the design.   Today, I completed most of the assembly of the 3-inch, 4-inch, and 6-inch planting jigs.   They need to sit over night now to let the glue dry and set before I can complete them by attaching the handles on the back.   I did change one thing with these 3 planting jigs from the first one I constructed.   I went up to a 5/16th inch dowel pin, which is a little bigger and should make a larger hole impression in the soil.   I used a 5/16th drill bit to widen the holes in the pegboard where the dowel pins would fit.   That worked very well.   Easy to drill and the pegs fit in quite snugly.   Here’s the 6-inch planting jig - fully assembled with the exception of the handle attachment.  

By the time I wrapped up with the project work in the shop, the rain had stopped and the sun was making a partial appearance.   Took advantage of the break in the weather and got a start on some early spring bed prep work.   There are several beds with a green manure crop of crimson clover growing in them that need to be turned over in the next few weeks, in order that the plant material can sufficiently decompose prior to planting up the beds.   I like to get this done at least six weeks before I expect to be planting up a bed.   Most of the early crops are scheduled to be planted in mid March, so the green manure crop needs to be turned over by the end of January.   It’s not that hard to turn over crimson clover, but I have enough area planted up in it that I try to break it up over a period of several sessions to avoid over doing and hurting my back in the process.   I have one big 40 foot long by 4 foot wide bed that will need to be turned over.  

And I have a 12 foot by 4 foot wide bed that needs to be turned over as well.   The back most portion of the bed has compost on it instead of the green manure crop, because it had cabbages growing in it until very late in the fall and missed being planted with crimson clover as a result.   I decided this bed was the better one to get started with today.       

I use a garden fork and just turn a fork full of the clover and soil over on itself – such that the roots and soil are facing up and the vegetation is turned down into the dirt.   I work my way down one side of the bed.      

And then I work down the other side until it is completed.                      

In about two weeks, I will need to come back to this bed and use a hoe on it to cultivate the top few inches and chop up the few clover plants that will manage to get roothold and attempt to grow again.   Using a green manure crop reduces the amount of compost I have to use each year to add organic matter to the soil.   Given the number and size of beds that I have in the garden, if I were to use strictly compost I would have to have a huge compost making operation to keep up with it.   By using a combination of compost and green manure crops, I keep my garden sufficiently replenished with organic matter without having a monumental sized compost system set up. 

While I was out in the garden, I also did bed prep on the adjacent bed to the one I just turned the cover crop over in.   I added a thin layer of finished compost and then emptied out old potting soil from containers into the bed and raked it smooth.                                                           

I use potting soil in containers for at least two years, rejuvenating it with the addition of compost and organic fertilizers.   However, after several years of use, I recycle it into the garden beds and replace the container soil with a fresh mix.   I had several containers that had old soil mix in them that I have been holding through the winter with the intention of adding to the garden beds this spring.   Both the 12 foot by 4 foot beds are now initially prepped for spring.     

Before they are planted up, I will use the broad fork to aerate them and will also broadcast a general-purpose organic fertilizer over the beds.   For now though, they are basically prepped for the season.   I have lots more to go over the course of the next several weeks.   First priority will be to turn over that large 40-foot bed of crimson clover.   I will need to break that up into several work sessions.   If it does not rain tomorrow, I will try and get one part completed then.               

Have a dinner engagement to attend this evening; so no harvesting was done today.   Well, I should say that I did not “intentionally” harvest anything today.   During the course of turning over the crimson clover, I unearthed over 3 lbs of Butte potatoes!   This was one of the potato patch beds last year and (as usual) I managed to miss quite a few spuds when I harvested them last fall.   They overwintered in the soil nicely and are really good looking potatoes.   Probably have them for dinner tomorrow night.

I hope you are having a good weekend and managing to get some time in on some garden related projects.

The weather gave us a bit of a break the past two days.   It has been overcast and cool but no rain, and it has been warm enough for the past few days that the soil is now unfrozen.   I took advantage of the respite and got outside today to take care of a few things in the garden.   The primary objective was to clean up one of two beds of carrots that have been plundered by our marauding rabbit.   I only tackled one this weekend because it is too cool to spend more than few hours outside at a time.   If the weather cooperates, I will similarly clean up the other bed next weekend.     

The bed I worked on was the newest of the vertical grow beds.   It had Mokum carrots growing in the front 1 foot of bed area – down the entire length of the bed.   This variety of carrot is particularly nice for fresh eating and we have been using them from mid summer up until just recently for that purpose.   As a consequence, there really were not too many carrots left in the bed by the time the rabbit found his way to it.   What was there though, he has been damaging with abandon.   I used two large 5 gallon buckets for the job.   One was for the damaged carrots and debris, which were destined for the compost heap.   The other was for carrots that looked to be in good condition as I pulled them from the soil.   A garden fork was used to then work my way up the bed, loosening the soil and then removing the carrots.                                                                             

For every 1 carrot that looked good – 2 (or more) were damaged.   The bucket on the left is the “looks okay” stash, and the bucket on the right is the clearly damaged group.                                          

The carrots were washed by swirling some water in the bucket until the bulk of the dirt was removed.   The muddy water was poured into the compost pile and then a further cull was made pulling out carrots that had insect or rot damage that was not readily apparent when covered with soil.   When all was said and done, I ended up with just over one and half pounds of good carrots salvaged from the bed.   Probably had about four pounds of carrot debris that went into the compost pile.                                  

I raked the bed smooth after the carrot removal process and then dumped 3 full buckets of really good finished compost across the surface.                

I then smoothed the compost out over the surface so that it provided about a ½ to 1-inch layer over the entire bed.                       

This bed is now empty and amended.   I also did a little weeding in a few other beds and put away some hoops that had been left in place but were not being used.   I have several other beds that are now empty and also need compost added to them.   Over the course of the next several weeks, I hope to get to each of these and get them taken care of too.   It was nice to spend a few hours outside today.   However, I was ready to come in and warm up by the time I wrapped up for the afternoon.   There may have been a break in the weather today, but it IS still winter out there!

I am way behind everyone else this year in getting our leaves raked up.    Things seemed to be conspiring against me to get it done timely.   First, the trees seemed to hang on to the leaves for a prolonged period of time this year, only letting go once we had a major windstorm event.   That windstorm was part of a series of storms that rolled through one after another bringing heavy and soaking rains.   The leaves were matted down and completely wet as a result.   This weekend was actually almost dry (a few sprinkles), so this afternoon I took advantage of the weather break and spent a few hours doing the annual leaf raking and composting process.   They were still very wet and hard to rake up but the top layer had dried out somewhat making the task at least possible to do.   The leaves were transported to the compost piles where I topped off the two current bins and got a good start on a third bin.                                                             

Another chore I tackled today (before getting to the leaf raking) was to remove the fall crop of broccoli.   They have provided some good harvests including a lot of side shoot production, but they had essentially quit producing and the weather forecast is calling for freezing nighttime temps next week so there really is no hope of any further harvests.                    

 Half gone.                                                         

All gone!   I need to layer some compost on to this bed next weekend.

The kale, brussel sprouts, various cabbages, swiss chard, celery, and root crops (carrots & parsnips) are doing fine in the fall/winter garden.   I have some lettuces in the outside beds as well but they are looking a little rough.    The steady cold rains have been hard on them.   The January King cabbages are particularly nice looking and are starting to form heads. These are such pretty plants with their purple and green coloring and ruffled leaves. 

The fall season is wrapping up and winter is fast upon us.   The heavy cold rains are beating down several of the semi hardy fall crops - the outside beds of lettuces and spinach for example, are all but done at this point.   I will be pulling them up and composting them soon.   Luckily, the swiss chard and lettuces in the unheated greenhouse are doing quite well.   I also noticed today that the mache (corn salad) has begun to germinate and emerge in the greenhouse as well.   There are still several more harvests left on the brussel sprouts before they too will be done for the season.   I harvested a nice bunch of them for tonight’s evening meal.                  

It was a cool but enjoyable day working in the yard and garden.   Finally got the leaves done for the year – better late than never!

Many people view October as the month where their garden comes to an end for yet another season.   In some respects this is indeed a time where plants complete their annual cycle and either die or go dormant.   However, as I stand in the fall garden (dressed in layers to keep the damp chill from seeping in) I see the foundation of next year's garden.   October is a perfect time to improve soil structure, return depleted nutrients, and encourage minerals in the soil to become more readily available to plants.   Nature uses this time to do the same thing as well.   Leaves fall and litter the forest floor.   There they molder and decompose through the damp winter and spring - producing rich humousy soil that sustains the diversity of life that grows there.   Taking a cue from nature, if my garden beds are not in production with fall and winter crops then they are either planted up in a green manure crop or layered in a deep blanket of rough finished compost.                  

Fall is a great time to create new compost piles as well.   The last lawn mowing of the year, fall leaves, and the garden clean up debris all combine to provide a really wonderful mixture of compostable materials.   The leaves have yet to really get falling but the garden debris from pulling down the vine crops and spent bush beans have helped to finish filling two of the wire compost bins.   There are more vines to come and the fall leaves combined with them will fill another full bin once the trees have finished their annual drop.   Today I emptied out the compost bin that was assembled late last fall - comprised largely of last year's leaves, lawn clippings, and some kitchen and garden debris.   Generally, since I do not constantly turn my compost piles, it takes approximately one year from full assembly until I have a pile of good rough finished compost.                                   

This bin is now empty and ready for the current year's leaves and final garden clean up debris.   The compost from this single bin supplied a heavy layer that was placed on the oldest vertical grow bed.                   

This bed is largely empty now with the exception of some celery and some swiss chard (recently harvested so they do not show very well in this picture).   In addition, there was enough compost from this single bin to also heavily layer two of the large beds in the newer section of the garden.   The compost was dumped into the beds using a wheelbarrow and then spread with a pitchfork.      

Next spring, I will use the broad fork to loosen and aerate the soil, add some organic fertilizer, and then lightly cultivate the top few inches to mix and break up the soil - preparing the bed for another year of high production.    Since these two large beds are new, they will benefit greatly from the large addition of organic matter.   They were double dug and amended this spring with compost and rock minerals but it takes several years of organic investment in garden soil to bring it up to a truly high performing status and health.                                                         

Rather than view October as the end of the garden season, I see it as the start of the coming year's garden cycle.   What steps are you taking this fall to improve your soil?