Dig Dug Gardens

About a week after the last post Kate had a day off and she worked on the west garden.  She added dirt, compost and planted the garlic.  Since then, the squirrels have continued treating the gardens like their own little playground.  Daily she has had to check the garlic and strawberries, replanting when necessary and adding straw. 

The burning bush is finally showing how it got it's name.  After a good trimming this spring after the drought of last year, it is alive and well.  It started out quite overgrown and is probably better off.

Fall Is Here - Mid October Update

Last weekend Kate cleared out the tomato, cucumber and pepper plants from the west garden and potted the thyme.  We have yet to add more soil mostly due to the wet conditions.  It will dry out soon and we shall get more soil and compost added and Kate will get the garlic in for next season.

The east garden no longer has netting and the squirrels are having a ball digging around in the dirt and straw, as you can see, much to my wife's annoyance.

East Garden Update

We did a makeover of the east garden on Tuesday night.  On Wednesday after work we found that the squirrels had a heyday with the strawberry plants, as they have been known to do before, so Kate had to do a lot of replanting.  That made me not wait for the weekend and I stopped off after work today and got a bag of straw.  We use straw to protect the small plants and roots over these cool nights and ultimately winter.  In the spring we remove as much as we can and put it in the path between the gardens to inhibit weed growth.

Anyway, we got home tonight and amazingly the garden was untouched as far as we could tell.  Still, Kate put down some straw to maybe help keep the critters away by hiding the small plant sprouts.  And besides, we're probably not too far away from the first frost.

East Garden Re-Do

Last night we put some work into the east garden to get ready for next season.  It may be a little early, but that should give the plants some time to establish themselves after replanting.

 

 

Here is the final product, replanted and watered.  Also with bird netting in an attempt to keep the critters from digging in it.  It didn't work, Kate had to replant about half the strawberry crowns today after work and we lost a few.  Damn squirrels.

 

See the whole thing, start to finish, after the break!

September Onions Plus

These pics were taken during the day yesterday.  Afterward, Kate harvested all the onions and some peppers that were ready.  Two notes:  Kate says this type of onion does not grow large bulbs and the peppers that were drying were taken down about a week and a half ago, except for the red one which required more drying time.

The east garden will be getting a major overhaul very soon.  We have strawberries to plant and also move the raspberries.  The trick is that we have compost and soil to add to this side so we will have to replant the strawberries that are there now, the raspberries will be totally removed and replanted as well.

Still Growing

What is here is mostly still growing well.  There are both kinds of peppers, cucumbers, parsley and even a few tomatoes in the west garden, top of picture here taken yesterday.  In the east garden onions are still growing as well as some new lettuce and oregano.  The raspberry plants and strawberry plants are still alive, not doing a lot right now.  Our thoughts are already turning to how we will prepare the gardens this fall for the next season.


And the peppers that were brought in to dry (because that part of the plant was dying) have been out for just over 2 weeks now.

Late August Update

These are pics that I took a couple days ago and finally getting around to posting.  The peppers were picked about a week ago and are hung in the porch to dry.

Picking and Planting

Last night Kate gathered a few veggies for use in salads and also to use in a brine for the juicy, delicious chicken we grilled today.

Edit:  The veggies were used in a jerk marinade for later - previously harvested herbs were used in the brine.

Today Kate planted some more romaine lettuce in the east garden, to use up the seeds that she thought would no longer be any good next year.  (They were barely good this year.)

She also planted more peas in the west garden for similar reasons, plus she says they both may produce yet before winter.












The empty tomato cage is to hold up the netting which we have placed over this side.  This happened a couple days after the last post.

Last Tuesday...

... Kate picked a tomato and a cucumber.  Both were eaten in salads at dinner that night.

Herb-ie Rides Again

Kate has harvested much of the herbs yesterday and has been busy making meatballs, pesto, spaghetti sauce, and other stuff with them.  Sorry, not a long post, I'm feeling a bit lazy today.  Pictures are before and after harvesting the herbs.




















Bonus Pics:  Other stuff is actually growing!