September 17, 2012

Apples turned into tempting treats as the first day of Autumn approaches.

This was garden clean-up week:  tomato vines and their cages uprooted, bean plants pulled, pruners lost in the rubble, wheelbarrow run a marathon, compost bin more stuffed than a Thanksgiving turkey!  The whole family was involved.  Our gigantic pile of sticks is reduced to ashes over the barren garden, helping to clean the slate on stubborn grasses waging war to win back the land we are trying to transform.

Giant grey striped sunflower seed head.

A very few vegetables remain, some carrots, bell peppers, and all the winter squashes; sunflower seeds are ready to be harvested and roasted, or left for the birds.  Our fall garden is progressing nicely as cabbage and broccoli plants stretch out to fill the empty spaces between.

Day and night are now nearly 12 hours each as the impending equinox changes the calendar officially to the autumn season.  The sun is rising due east and is setting due west.  Our myrtle trees are already coloring up and dropping their leaves, while dogwood and red maple are showing noticeable tint.  It's time to sit back with a glass of fresh apple cider and take in the wonder of God's creation.  Soon enough we'll be pulling jars of canned produce out of the pantry to supplement what little fresh we can find as the weeks get colder.

Cabbages (top row), broccoli (middle), and brussels sprouts.

February 27, 2012

Spring hyacinths

Spring is really coming - there have been hints, and they are more convincing each week, if you couldn't tell from seedlings in greenhouses and "false" Spring weather.  Though it hasn't snowed here all winter, March is known for some nasty surprises; this gardener wouldn't mind an early Spring, another chance to win the race to grow the first sun-ripened tomato!

Broccoli seeds sown indoors on Friday evening germinated in just 36 hours; they are now growing under fluorescent lights with bell pepper seedlings; outdoors, spinach seed is sprouting.

Compost is dull business, really.  The compost bin has been in operation now for a little over a year, and we are seeing some nicely-finished product using the slow method; our compost bin is really just a trash receptacle for all garden waste, weeds excepted.  It is too unwieldy to turn.  So it sits, sun and rain, with new organic matter added to the top.  The compost we are harvesting is enough just for a few individual plants in their planting holes, though in time we hope it will be able to amend garden soil on a large scale.

A handful of rich compost.

Autumn leaves and cardboard are mass-composting over the site where our future vegetable garden will be; wet cardboard is very attractive to earth worms:  we call it worm compost.  We don't till it under until it is fully composted.  It takes about a year, and while it lasts on top it does a great job keeping weeds down.

We're mulching all our trees and herb borders this week with contractor's mulch before gardening season gets really busy.  Every tree has been fertilized and will be ready to pop into growth when Spring arrives for real.

Our compost bin