Yay!!
Today, we were expected to hit 15C/69F, making it the last really warm day of the year. We’re expected to his 11C/52F in a few days, that that will likely be the last double digit Celsius temperatures we’ll get.
My goal was to get the garlic into the bed that was already about half prepared and covered with plastic, to see if we’d be able to get any solarization happening.
There was a slight side trip, though. The rescue had ordered a kibble donation from Amazon that was supposed to arrive tomorrow. Amazon deliveries – at least those sent by mail – tend to come early, so I went to the post office, just in case.
I’m happy to say, they were there! I don’t know what kind of promo or coupon the Cat Lady took advantage of, but it was for three smaller (compared to what we usually get) bags of indoor cat food.
The outdoor cats don’t care!
When I let her know, with thanks, that the kibble had arrived, the Cat Lady told me they now have FIVE large bags of kibble for us! That is so amazing! The challenge right now is to stock up extra kibble for the winter, in case we find ourselves unable to get out. I do not want to run out again!
The outside cats, however, have enjoyed their warm morning kibble softened in sludgy bone broth (I removed the meat from the bones, put it back in the stock, then blitzed it with the immersion blender) so much, I’ve got more being made in the slow cooker right now, since the last of the first batch was finished this morning.
The kibble picked up – and a feeding done so I could drive out of the yard again – it was time to get to the garden.
First job: preparing the rest of the bed.
The first image in the above slideshow is the “before” picture. The second picture if after removing the plastic, and the grass clipping mulch in the part that needed to be cleaned up.
The part that was covered in plastic did have a few weeds in it, but didn’t need much work to get that cleaned up. The rest of it had one really bad patch of crab grass, but was otherwise pretty good – except for the very end, where some Creeping Charlie was staring to invade.
There were also elm tree roots, of course.
And rocks. There’s always rocks!
I wanted to amend this bed with some trench composting. I made the trench in the middle, from one end to the other, with the spade. The soil in this bed is not anywhere near as compacted as I’ve had issues with in other beds, so no actual digging was needed.
This was a good time to remove more weed and elm tree roots.
And rocks.
Then I used the landscaping rake to widen and level the trench some more, while also removing more roots.
And rocks.
So many rocks!
The next photo shows the filled trench. I took advantage of this and emptied the compost buckets from the kitchen directly into it. Then I pilfered the compost pile, taking most of the Crespo squash vines that were in there.
Last of all, I scattered some dried grass clippings over the whole thing, then tromped back and forth on it a few times, to tamp it down.
That done, the soil was pulled back over the compost materials, evened out and leveled. For some reason, there was quite a bit more soil at the south end (away from the elm trees) than the north end.
There was still some bits of squash vines poking through, but that’s okay.
In the process of all this, I did find little surprises!
There were three yellow bulbing onions that had been missed, and a whole bunch of little shallots! These will be transplanted elsewhere and allowed to go to seed, next year.
Finally, it was time to plant garlic!
I’d selected a dozen of our biggest garlic bulbs from this year’s garden to plant. As these beds will eventually be framed with logs (at least, that’s still the plan!), the actual growing space is being kept fairly narrow. That makes it a lot easier to reach with my short little arms! 😄
After laying out the garlic bulbs in short rows of three, they didn’t make it all the way to the end of the bed. I will find something else to plant in the remaining empty space.
When I pause to take a photo, though, I realized something.
Garlic grows relatively shallow. Which means they won’t be affected by the elm tree roots at the north end of the bed, where there are the most roots.
So I moved the garlic from the South end of the bed to the North end.
Once the garlic was laid out, it was just a matter of pushing the root end into the soil. Once they were all in, I used the back of a fan rack to cover them.
After just a couple of passes, I stopped and got a broken piece of bamboo stake to mark how far the garlic was planted in the south end of the bed. Once the soil was raked over the cloved, there was no other way to tell how far they went!
Once the garlic was covered, I raked up several wheel barrow loads of leaves to created a nice, thick insulating mulch. Then I topped that with a thin layer of grass clippings, more to weight the leaves down, so they don’t get blown away!
After that was done, I took the time to rake in between most of the garden beds. While weeding, I generally toss the weeds and roots into the path. I wanted to get rid of that, so things like crab grass didn’t accidentally end up back in the low raised beds.
At that point, I didn’t have the energy for more digging and bending, so the next bed had to wait.
Instead, I started working on the old kitchen garden.
I didn’t bother taking any before shots.
I was quite surprised by what I was seeing in the wattle weave bed. The wild strawberries are looking quite green and healthy. The thyme was also looking great, and the chamomile actually had some fresh flowers blooming!
In the second picture of the above slideshow, you can see my garden helper. 😁
I’m saving the plastic rings that went around the tomato and luffa plants to use another season. I quite liked how that worked out.
The bed with the Forme de Couer tomatoes had a soaker hose in it. Once the tomato plants were removed, I took that out. I don’t know that I’ll use it again. It took forever to do any level of watering, and I’m not sure why. It’s possible our super hard water is clogging pores.
All the support takes were gathered up and set aside, except for the two broken ones I’m using to hold the plastic rings. The tomato and luffa plants were pulled and set aside – they will likely be trench composted, too.
That that was as far as I got today.
I’ll have to weed the tiny raised bed again. I see all sorts of grass coming through the mulch. I’m thinking of planting the remaining Red Wethersfield onions that I found among the Forme de Couer tomatoes in or near the tiny raised bed. These will also be allowed to go to seed, so I want to find a permanent spot for them.
The long, narrow bed against the retaining wall needs a bit of work, and I’m thinking of replacing the very crooked top log with wattle weave, if I can find enough materials to do it.
By this time, I had to stop. I’d completely forgotten to eat lunch, and it was getting to be supper time!
I won’t be able to continue this tomorrow. CPP Disability comes in tomorrow, so I’ll be heading into the city for our first stock up shopping trip. I’ll be using the car my brother and SIL lent to us. We haven’t heard from the garage about the truck. I think I’ll phone them in the morning. At this point, all I want to know is what’s wrong with it, and an estimate on getting things fixed. When the time comes to pick up the repaired truck, I will need to drive to the city first, to get my SIL, drive back with her to get the truck, then I can take the truck home while she takes their car back to the city.
Speaking of which, I was expecting them to drop off another load today, but I haven’t heard from them at all. There was just small stuff left. Perhaps they decided to take it to their new place, instead. They were talking about coming here, though, and my brother was going to look at the hot water tank for us after unloading. I’m quite surprised to have not heard anything from them, either way.
Well, they certainly have their hands full right now, so maybe that’s not surprising after all.
I’m just happy I got my main goal for today accomplished.
Our garlic for next year is in!
There is still lots to do. While things are expected to be cooler, the next couple of weeks should still be mild enough to get more garden beds ready for the winter, and to try our winter sowing experiment. I’m thinking I might do one or two went sown beds in the main garden area and, maybe do a third bed in the old kitchen garden.
I’ll have to go through my seeds and decide which to plant together, where. I plan to do a sort of organized guerilla gardening. I’ll be selected in what gets planted where, but once it’s time to plant, the seeds will be mixed together and scattered about.
But first, the beds need to be prepared, and there’s going to be just a few days when I’ll be able to work on it before things start to get too cold! Once the winter sowing is done and mulched, the other beds can be done at a more leisurely pace.
Little by little, it’s getting done!
The Re-farmer.
The Re-Farmer 