Preparing The Gardens For Winter

Today was a productive day in the garden.  We got the bags of dirt required, planted the garlic and have the gardens ready for winter.  I say we, but you don't see me in any of these pics.  Kate is awfully protective of me and my problems, she put in a lot of hard work and had the sore muscles to prove it.  Friday she harvested all the usable peppers from the plants she removed today.

Above is the (hopefully) finished product for winter.  She cut down the strawberry plants as much as she could and mulched it with hay, removed the pepper plants, added four bags of dirt and manure, and planted the garlic at the bottom of the west garden (top) and added hay over that as well.  Hopefully the squirrels will leave it all alone now...

More pics after the break:

A Bit Cleaned Up

Well, over on my regular blog I think I said something about a post here on the garden blog soon, so I guess I should follow through.  Truth is, my regular hardware store was out of dirt so I have to make a trip this week to one of the 'big box' places to get some composted manure and garden soil.  Therefore, there is not much to update, but I took some pics yesterday so I may as well document it.

The west garden is all cleaned up and ready for dirt and garlic bulbs.  Only the pepper plants and the thyme, lower right, remain.

The east garden strawberry bed will be trimmed soon and covered with hay for the winter.  In the top right of this pic you can see the potted chives on the left and the newly potted sage on the right.

Mid-October Lateness

Not only have I not been posting as much on my regular page, it seems I've lost track of here as well.  I try to post here bi-monthly at the least and I missed it this time.  Oops.  Now, on with it then, eh?

The gardens are pretty much exactly as they were a month ago, except that I removed the cucumber plants soon after the last post.  We have harvested more peppers and still have some to go.  The sweet pepper plant, front left in above pic, has been droopy for the last few days however.  Kate still will pot the sage plant, middle top, and soon plant the garlic for next spring, where is still to be determined.

West garden, traditional view.  You can really see how the pepper plant on the right is wilted compared to the jalapeno plant on the left.

The east garden strawberry bed is still there.  A little thin on the topside, but I expect it to fill out again in Spring.  We may help it by moving some plants up or else we may find some compatable plant that likes the sun a lot to put up there.  Last year we winterized in the first week of December, if I remember right.  Hopefully we won't see snow for at least two more months yet.