straw and brassica

an early morning trip out to the garden tells me Parker! has been out planting and mulching the beds with straw ( thanks Parker!! )...we are moving in the right direction...late but not never...there are brussels sprouts up ( second photo ) and kohlrabi ( third )...they resemble one another strongly because they are close cousins...both brassica...there are sugar snap peas up as well ( fourth ) so the ex-biology club bed is coming alive for autumn...the bed with the asparagus, tomatoes a, and peppers has a robust population...more asparagus plants are flowering...i have not seen any "berries" as yet but it is not too late to have seed develop...that would be gratifying for a number of reasons...the beef steak and roma tomatoes ( seventh and eighth ) are coming along...i am rather at a loss to understand why the peppers in the ninth photo are called "orange lunchbox" unless they are still quite a way from ripe....the tenth photo is of a nascent bell pepper and a bloom that will , hopefully, fulfill its purpose soon...the cucumbers in the next photo are doing well and developing tendrils to climb the cage behind them...blooms next up...the buttercruch lettuce in the in the twelfth photo is thriving and can be harvested any time ( from the outside...leave the middle to grow more )..the relentless jerusalem artichokes are taller than i am in places and bringing in the rye has given the sweet potato vine in the last photo the sunshine it needs to really get going...we are gaining ground and population...stay tuned.

garlic

parker! and friend met me in the garden this morning to continue with fall planting...we turned some compost into a couple of beds and then planted some red inchelium garlic...we used compost because the garlic beds will have to be thoroughly mulched for winter which precludes using green manures in those beds...the garlic bulbs were fairly large and the cloves ( fifth photo ) ranged from "normal" to absolutely huge...in all we planted sixty cloves...last season we had about three quarters of what we planted produce so we are counting on at least forty-five producing plants next spring...and while we're talking production, the sixth photo is of a nascent cauliflower...one of three we found today and the seventh neatly captures some happy second season asparagus "ferning" and parker! in mid-stride...most of the alfalfa i planted over, i believe, labor day weekend has developed its first true leaf...well on the way to being winter hardy...so i added more alfalfa seed to bare areas of the beds and tossed in some winter rye to act as a soil binding agent and a reservoir for excess nitrogen...the season is definitely winding down along with september...the cauliflower and brussels sprouts are in a race with frost...the beans and cukes are done...there are a few spuds left chugging away and next month sees the jerusalem artichoke harvest...november will see the garlic and asparagus mulch and then the season move indoors for seed potato production...we slow down...we don't stop.

first planting of 2015

it's past the middle of march and time for cool weather crops to go in...so Parker! ( Cynthia ) and i went out to the garden this morning to do some work...the first thing to do was to turn the alfalfa and winter rye that was planted late last season ( top photo ) under to become more organic matter for the bed...they had done the job of setting and storing nitrogen as well as holding the soil together over the winter and now it was time to put their work to use...the second photo is the bed after it had been dug and worked with a hoe...we then added about ninety pounds of compost from cow manure ( third photo ), turned that in, worked the bed with the hoe again, and marked out some furrows ( fourth photo ) then Parker! ( fifth photo ) and i planted beets, dill, parsnips, turnips, and spinach and watered the bed ( bottom photo )...give them a week or two and the first spring plants will be up in the garden and ready to harvest by mid may...the season started with the garlic a few weeks ago...that is pretty low maintenance ( although while we were there we mulched the garlic a bit more heavily with straw and compost to keep the weeds down...even this early they are there )...germinating seeds take a bit more care...there will be regular reports here from now until autumn...stay tuned.