Autumn Gardening

Over the past few weeks I've been cleaning out the fenced garden space, collecting seed pods (marigold, petunia and pinks) and planting.

I've got 6 varieties of garlic planted, and I've planted a bunch of crocus, and scilla (another early spring bulb).

Now it's time to start thinking about next year's garden!

The End of the Harvest

First frost this year was forecast for Oct 29/30, so as friends and family gathered to celebrate Halloween this weekend, we also harvested the last of the ripe and green tomatoes.

We also started pulling out the tomato plants and moving them to the compost, and started saving the abundant supply of marigold seeds.

My friend D and I have plans to experiment with Green Tomato Relish and Fried Green Tomatoes - look for recipies to be posted on Renee's Recipies...

Harvest is Here! The Garden Experiment at Mabon

Ok - so Mabon is a couple weeks away yet, but I'm feeling it in the air.

The garden has been a constant for me since Vernal Equinox when we planted some seed trays. Through April when the seeds really weren't growing well and I was trying to prepare the garden beds... May/June when things were finally in the ground and growing...

I worried through cucumbers rotting on the vine - didn't get much of a harvest there this year...boo hoo...but got a TON of cukes from the CSA farm share...YAY! Even made some B&B Pickles last weekend...but I digress...

Another problem was that SOMETHING was getting into the garden and eating my beans pepper plants and sweet potatoes and a few tips of the tomato plants.

A few squash rotted on the vines - but I had enough of a harvest that it wasn't a big deal.

The basil was a constant. I planted it early and have been harvesting all summer. YUM.

The tomato plants grew gangbusters and got me SO excited - but one by one each of the beds got too top-heavy and higher than the cages could handle,then toppled themselves...so the beds look a bit unruly, but the tomatoes didn't stop setting....they just didn't get ripe very early either.

Finally, the tomatoes are turning! All of them - not just the store-bought plants, but the stunted ones planted indoors on St.Pats day! So we've got a variety.

In the picture above there are examples of the "better boy" from the Home Depot, and the Green Zebra - yes that green one is RIPE! and some reisentraub and one yellow plum tomato that should really be a pink stripe, but someone forgot to tell it that.

The butternut squash was a volunteer plant from the compost I used in the garden .... The long greenbeans are finally producing - after being planted late and partially nibbled by my pest early-on and I harvest about 4 a week.

I have been picking about a box-full of veggies every couple of days at this point in the season.
So, the experiment is a success - the garden is really bursting its fence this year - I will need to increase my space next year or not try to plant so many things.....

September - Preserves/Garden

Setember...

a pause, for summer to say

an awkward and lingering

good-bye

and for autumn,

sitting on a hilltop,

a jug of fresh cider

in one hand,

a bunch of wild purple asters

in the other,

waiting to say hello

-New York Times

This weekend I made pickles - for the first time ever.......bread and butter pickles from my friend K's family recipie. YUMM! Well - I found out a number of things about canning - it being the first time I ever tried to do it on my own....
1) You need to make sure you have ALL of the ingredients you will need -check and RE-check to make sure!
2) It takes a lot longer than you anticipate - you need to prep all of the food - wash, chop etc...
3) You should really make sure you have all of the equipment you need BEFORE you start
4) Where there is a will - there is a way.

I was at the supermarket EVERY day this weekend - because I'd remember I forgot something for the pickles.... In the end I never could find mustard seeds separately so I substituted pickling spice mix I already had in my cubbord. I also had to add some brown sugar because I ran out of white......I thought I had another box stashed somewhere, but couldn't find it when I was looking yesterday....

The 5lb sac I'd had in the pantry got used up in jelly making with the ladies last weekend. (2nd annual hot pepper jelly making extravaganza - we also made peach-ginger jam and rose petal jelly.)

I also froze some medium heat long peppers stuffed with goat cheese - they'll be an appetizer at some fall/winter gathering....

The tomatoes are also starting to come in - and when I get the chance I'll post a couple of photos of the garden in its current state. Yesterday we noticed a LARGE new addition to the garden - a garden spider - very colorful and very beneficial to the garden, but very scary looking. I'll post a photo of her too....

The Garden Experiment Continues

OK - Update on the garden at Lammas:
Bed 1:

Yellow & Green (Zucchini) Squash -

When the plants started growing they just took off - got to about 3 feet in height and started producing blossoms prolifically. Harvest wise, I have periodically harvested MUCH yellow squash - and a few green. The zucchini plants seem to be a little wilted and at I picked one stunted/rotted squash off of the vine. The last one I harvested, however was gorgeous - it was about 6 inches long and still had the un-wilted closed blossom on the end of it. I'll see if I can get/post a pic of that. The yellow squash - when it has come in every couple of weeks - has been abundant.

Cucumbers - These plants too "took off" at one point and spread and flowered etc...but after picking the first 2 decent sized cukes several weeks ago - the plants have gone downhill and the cukes are yellowing on the vine as small stunted fruits. There are still a lot of flowers and small fruits on the vine, so hopefully things will improve....
This bed is also home to some "volunteers" - one winter squash vine close to the fence and two tomato plants - probably from last years' plants.

Bed 2:

Basil & Cilantro - I've been harvesting for WEEKS - I HAVE to start making some pesto to freeze!! The Cilantro has been less abundant than the basil, but there has been enough to share and to make at least one batch/week of fresh salsas for appetizers/snacks etc - YUMM! The basil has been going into veggie dishes and marinades and has been gifted away..

My Fresh Salsa Recipe:

1 Large ripe tomatoe

1Med vidalia onion

1 Med green pepper

All veggies cut into Large Chop and placed in food processor bowl

a large handful of de-stemmed cilantro

1/2 tsp salt

Dash black pepper

hot pepper sauce/cayenne/or fresh diced chile to taste

juice of 1/2 a lime

Process to desired consistancy

The parsely didn't do well and is gone, the dill seeds never came up, and the beans, though still standing and in flower, lost their leaves a couple of weeks ago. (See pests note at bottom)

I have since added additional cilantro seeds and a "second planting" of broccoli & cabbage plants hopefully for fall harvest

Bed 3:

Tomatoes started indoors - with stunted growth - These plants have gone CRAZY! And, while they are certainly not to the same maturity that the purchased plants are - they have amazed me. I'm not sure what of the multitude of varieties we started have survived, that remains to be seen - hopefully we'll get at least some fruit from these plants.

Jalapeno from the garden center - is also doing well. It currently has a plethora of flowers and a bunch of small fruits.

Pole beans - were nibbled a bit - (see pests note at bottom) - but have continued to grow. Not sure how much I'll harvest from them, but they were more of an experiment this year.

Bed 4:

Purchased tomatoes - are like small trees - completely filling the tomato cages and producing abundant fruit - none have started ripening yet, but we can't wait.

I have harvested garlic and shallots from this bed and planted some chard seed in their place - we'll see how that does.

Purchased peppers - not doing so well - immediately after they were planted something nibbled most of the leaves off of the stalks. So the tomatoes grew faster and are now shadowing the peppers - which have made a small come-back - so, we'll see.

Sweet potatoe starts - gifted from a gardening friend were nibbled unmercifully (see pests note at bottom) but are still alive - who knows what'll happen with them.

PESTS:

About 3 weeks ago something started nibbling SOME of my plants. The squash and cuke plants didn't seem to be touched, however ALL of the leaves were eaten off of the bush bean plants - leaves and shoots were eaten from some of the long bean plants, the sweet potato plants were decimated, the purslane growing in the path was attacked, and there was some nibbling of tomato leaves, but not enough, thankfully, to stunt the plants.The fencing around the garden had not been damaged, nor had it been burrowed under. So, my first thought was that it was a small bunny that made it through the chicken-wire fence without damaging it. So I used a roll of deer fencing over top of the chicken wire fencing and ancored it together. BUT, there has continued to be some damage - the cabages and broccoli I planted for autumn have been nibbled. And there are now some small holes on some of the basil leaves, and some of the pepper leaves....So, maybe it's catapillars of some sort, but I have been unable to find any to confirm this.

I keep calling this the "Garden Experiment" because I certainly do not have the time to devote to it that one of my friends has (she does have a full-time job,like me, but no kids)....or that my mom had when I was growing up (she stayed at home with my brother and I).

So, I have to approach it with less intensity than I would if I was trying to produce a greater portion of our food. This is really to supplement what we get from our CSA(community supported agriculture) farm share and to show the boys where food comes from and how it grows.

So far I've had three summers of "Garden Experiments". Each one has given us more success.We keep learning, experimenting and trying new things.And as a bonus, we get to enjoy the freshness only a home garden can give.

Strawberry Jam!

This entry has its roots in an event that took place last autumn...
A good friend of mine is an avid jam maker...so as a part of the autumn festivities last October, a few of us decided it would be fun to get her to teach us some jam making techniques.
I had wanted to make hot pepper jelly for quite some time, so we picked out a recipie for that. Someone else proposed lavendar and peppermint jellies, and we also tried a rosemary garlic white wine jam - these using herbs from our gardens.
Yes, we started out a little on the ecclectic side - not a fruit in sight. Although, some would argue that the peppers really are berries. All of those turned out so well that the jam making bug took hold.
On Saturday a couple of us got together again - this time for STRAWBERRY JAM!!!! MMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, yeah, we did add rhubarb to one of the batches we made - it just made the flavor a slight bit more lemony/acidy and very delicious!
Let me tell you, there is NOTHING quite as good as homemade strawberry jam on toast!
And it's EASY!!!! I can't wait to try making Raspberry, blueberry, peach the options are endless!
I'll never have to buy preserves again!

The Garden is IN!

So...after last year's garden experiment - which though not a total failure was FAR from a success....I was determined to do better this year!

In March - around the equinox - I got together with some friends to do seed-starting. It was great! We planted almost a dozen varieties of tomato, experimented with some older hot-pepper seeds, onion, leek, shallot, herbs - even artichoke.

All of our seeds started poking up around the same time - and I moved mine from the furnace room to a sunnier spot... and nothing happened. They all got to about 2 inches and STOPPED Growing. At this point it was warm enough to move them to the uninsulated, unheated "greenhouse" shaded by the lilac bush...where they did equally well. I was mentioning this to another friend a couple of states away who promptly said, "Didn't you get new thermal windows last year?" And I had the A-Ha moment - of course - the new windows blocked out all of the harmful rays - harmful for us and the furnishings - but necessary for the plants. Next year I need a cold frame or a grow light (or both!).

So, I have these seeds started, and I've borrowed some garden books on "Lasagna Gardening". At first the concept seems like a lot of work - a lot more than just putting the plants in the ground. BUT - I keep reading - and thinking about all of the rocks in my yard - and the fact that I don't have the world's best soil. AND THEN - I sprain my ankle - rather badly - so digging is really OUT.
SO - I decided to give it a go.

The concept is that you can create a garden anywhere - even over top of sod - without digging. That's not to say that it's easy or not a lot of work, because that would be wrong.

Around the same time - I decided to start some additional seeds - like cukes and squashes in containers so that they can be growing while I was getting the garden beds going.

It took me about a month to complete my 8X10 garden space.
My garden is about 8X10' fenced, with a path down the center and one crossing that about half way - in other words - a + path. So it is broken into 4 beds of about 3X4.
The first step to a lasagna garden is to block whatever is currently growing in the area by laying down a mat of wet newspaper. The first bed took ALL of my newspapers - 2 weeks worth. It also took about 5 cartfuls of compost/mulch over top of the newspapers to build the bed up about 6 inches...just barely enough.
So - I spent the next week asking friends to save me papers - and over the course of the next 2-3 weeks I finished covering the rest of the beds and planting all 4.
Ronnie has helped me many days with hauling the endless cartfuls ofcompost - at least taking the emptied cart back to the compost pile and helping push the full cart back to the garden. and both Ronnie and Evan have helped water the garden - since we're in the middle of another drought.
Currently I have:
Bed 1:
Squash&Cucumbers - pre-started ones from my plantings and some that Ronnie brought home from daycare. I also direct seeded some cucumbers in the garden, because you can't have too many cucumbers - and as insurance against the pre-planted ones dying off. Oh- and a few pole beans in the corner by the fence.
Bed 2:
Herbs - Basil, Cilantro, and Parsely- and I put down dill seed which hasn't come up yet; A few onions, a few bush beans
Bed 3:
Tomatoes, Marigolds and Peppers started from seed. Some from my trays - some from another friend - who's starts got to about 6 inches tall...just to see what happens. And some pole beans in the corner by the fence.
Bed 4:
Purchased tomatoes and peppers; more marigolds from seed and sweet potatoe starts; Garlic and shallots .
So...the experiment begins again.
The garden is planted. ...Hopefully there will be more tales to tell of harvest and consumption.
Next I need to re-visit the formal herb garden which is to become a sanctuary garden - and create some herb beds in the lower garden area.....

One step at a time.
At least I have my veggies started!