The Modern Victory Garden

Sunday was overcast but generally a dry and comfortable day – perfect weather to knock a few more of my fall “to do” items off of the list.   First up was to finish clearing out the spent crops from the back section of the garden.  Two weeks ago, I pulled out the bush beans and the snap peas from this area of the garden, but the tomatoes and cucumbers were still in place.   On Sunday I tackled the not so fun chore of clearing out the tomato patch.   The plants were starting to go down from disease and molds caused by the cooler temperatures, increasing rain amounts, and decreasing sun strength and day length.   It was time to bid them goodbye for yet another year.   Here’s what this part of the garden looked like before I started doing any of the fall clean up in the back garden area.                        

As mentioned before, the bush beans and snap peas came out two weeks ago.   This weekend, I took out the tomatoes and the cucumbers.   The red plastic mulch was removed; the soaker hoses coiled up and put away; and the tomato cages and ladders were rinsed off and also put away.   Once done, the back section of the garden was in large part laid bare.                 

But it is not entirely bare.   Back in the far corner of this garden area is a new bed I created quite a few weeks ago as a permanent home for the artichoke plants.   I had grown them in large pots all through the summer but moved them to a permanent bed to try and continue growing them as a perennial.   In the course of transplanting these very large plants (out of even larger pots) I had to manhandle them pretty badly and I was fearful they were damaged in the process and might not make it.   But take a look at the plants now!         

Lots of new young shoots coming up, so obviously I did not manage to actually kill them – just roughed them up a bit!   The plants have a protective barrier of wire panels around them to keep my flock of hens out.   Once the weather starts getting a lot colder, I plan to place a thick mulch of fall leaves over the bed to insulate the roots from really deep freezes.   Hopefully, these protective actions will help ensure that these artichoke plants survive over the winter to grow on and produce for me as a perennial crop.                       

Behind the greenhouse is a bed that has my two ultra dwarf apple trees planted from bare rootstock earlier this spring.   Underneath and between the two trees (which are growing very well), I have a patch of green onions growing that I direct seeded in mid to late summer.   They have put on quite a bit of good growth and should provide some usable green onions for fresh cooking needs after the leek patch has been all used up.                

 The other fall chore I got taken care of on Sunday was the planting of the garlic patch.   I completely emptied out the left hand bin of the worm box and got a good wheelbarrow load of gorgeous worm casting laden finished compost.                 

I spread this thickly over the 4’X8’ section of bed that the garlic was to be planted in and then mixed it in to the top few inches and raked it smooth.        

The soil in this bed is just beautiful.   In fact, I think it is rapidly becoming the best on the property, because I have used it for the pea patch every other year since it’s creation and the soil in this location had a little more sand in it than elsewhere on our property, which when combined on a regular basis with exceptionally nice compost becomes a very light and humousy loam.   I used my 6 inch planting jig to mark the prepped soil and then initially placed the garlic cloves into the designated spots.   I waited until all of them were laid out to make sure I had them properly set before going back and pushing them down into the soil and covering them.                 

I planted most of the bed in Music, which is a hard neck variety I grew in 2011 with good success.   I really like its flavor and it produced nicely for me.   I also planted some Silver Rose, which is a soft neck variety that I have also grown with good success in the past.   The garlic is planted right next to a section of bed that I direct seeded in mid to late summer with a storage onion variety (Top Keeper).   I am experimenting again with over wintering onions to try and improve my onion yields.   By direct seeding mid summer rather than transplanting starts, I am ending up with more sturdy seedlings going into the winter and hopefully they will be more successful at surviving the winter than some of my previous attempts at this have.   I may opt to cover this bed with plastic later to keep it protected during the coldest part of the winter months.   They are looking pretty good right now though.              

The last task I did before calling it a day, was to direct seed some hull less barley that an online friend (Thank you Cherie!) provided me last fall along with the tree kale starts.   I did not manage to get them planted last fall so the seed is a year older.   This year, I found a section of garden bed that was unused (but under netting cover so the hens will stay out) and scratched in the seed to do a mini trial to see how it will do in my growing climate.    Hopefully the seed did not lose much viability by being held for a full year before planting.   It is always fun to experiment a little.                    

Managed to clear quite a few things off my fall “to do” list last weekend.   However, I still need to clean the greenhouse panels to ensure as much feeble winter sun can get in as possible.   If it is not raining too heavily this coming weekend, I may try to get that one done soon too.   Eventually, I will have a few more crops to clear out from the side garden area but they are producing harvests (or are about to) yet – so those will be waiting a while.   Otherwise, I think the garden is largely ready for winter now.              

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener