Before October Leaves...

I'm a week late in my bi-monthly posts, but I wanted to document how it looks now because Kate is planning on some garden cleanup this weekend.  I expect that she will remove the pea plants and pepper plants toward the right and harvest what herbs she can.  The garlic that was planted for Spring is coming up already, but what can we do now?  I'll try to do a more detailed post this weekend, but for now, it has been relatively untouched since the last post other than I used the sweeper to blow all the leaves I could out of the garden area before I took this pic.

The side of the garden facing the camera has been losing dirt between the boards, especially when it rains.  Either this Fall still, or early next Spring I will have to seal that up.  What you see here and just the top inside of the east garden (not pictured) are the only areas where this is happening.

October, And Fall Has Arrived

Ah, yes, same old place.  A bit dusty around here, time to knock down some cobwebs and tidy up the place...  It has been a month since I've posted, it has been more than a month since there has been a visitor.  No matter, this has always been primarily just for us to refer to and not of interest to anyone else.  Hmm, that means I'm writing this to myself.  Hey Dude, you're the best!  Keep being you!

Last weekend Kate harvested the lettuce that grew and 4 radishes that managed to form, she thinks the soil is not good for root vegetables and she may be right.  We shall add nutrients in Spring and, eventually, our own compost.  Also, the tomato plants have been removed, almost a total bust this year with the temperatures and drought.  We have had to cover the pepper plants once, but the next few nights there will be frost.  I'm not sure yet if Kate wants to cover them to keep them a bit longer or not.

Here's the rundown:  Thyme is in the lower left, a couple rows of newly planted garlic are above it.  then there are chives by the thyme, oregano to the right of the chives, and cilantro and italian parsley above those.  Next, right down the middle of the pic is another row of newly planted garlic.  Then there are the pepper plants, jalapeno up top, sweet cherry peppers below, and bare dirt at the bottom.  Atop the garden, the attempt at a second run of peas did not take.  In the east garden, the strawberry bed, there are still only three small plants that survived.  There is a new plan needed for this side next year, I think.

The compost bin is nestled in the back corner of the yard, beyond the gardens.  The plan is to fill up the left side this year, right side the next, and get usable compost from one side every year thereafter.  It may take two years per side, we don't know, we've never done this before.

Well, enough for now.  I will try to be good about the 'twice a month at least' posting in the future, though there may not be much more this season.