Monday, October 27, 2014

Post Frost



The first week of October, I awoke to some wilty sweet potato vines:
 

which could only mean one thing-- frost! So I got some pictures of the rest of the garden and gathered up some zinnias for some last bouquets, and the next morning the yard was encrusted with water crystals, and that first hard frost did away with the rest of our tender, cold-fearing plants. 


zinnias, planted late so didn't get seeds, but eventually got lots of nice flowers
 




I spent almost all of the beautiful Fall weather sitting inside, looking out at this, half asleep and nursing a baby

last zinnia bouquet of 2014
 
shelling Christmas lima beans

peak color behind the house

after frost; zinnias and sunflowers crisped to brown

still looking good

walking up the drive; sun going down and shining on the bluff behind the house


 And just to show the progression of the Fall season:

mid September

pre-frost October



post-frost October


 Today, Mike collected the seeds from his sunflower heads, including this giant one:



And I took some pictures around the front yard. It reached almost 70 degrees today; just perfect weather, and I think it really will be one of the very last comfortable-in-short-sleeves days we will have this year.


rose

barberry

green grass

scabiosa (pincushion flower)- who knew they looked so good this time of year!

color and texture- dianthus and coral bells

kid in the garden

violas

I'm very thankful to have had nice weather all the way up until now. Some years there's talk of snow already at the end of October, so this has been fantastic! Even though we didn't get outside in the warmth and Fall colors much, and Mike's farmer's market season ended early to focus on the new family addition, we still got to enjoy it all from the windows and on the occasional walk outside. I hope you get some time to enjoy it and jump in the leaves once for us!



Monday, September 29, 2014

Autumn Is Here

And with it has come a precious new member of our family:



We think she's adorable! She is an efficient nurser, which is wonderful, but makes me wonder how much milk she is really getting, so we put her in a tomato crate on her Daddy's farmer's market scale, and you can see she's already well above her birthweight of 6 lbs 2 oz at 1 week of age. Good job, Baby!

Once I'm able to get back to normal activities, I'd like to get some bulbs planted for Spring. It's time to pick out more tulips, crocuses, and daffodils! Last year I didn't get them all in the ground, so this year I'll wait to buy until I know I'm able to get out and dig in the dirt.

For now I have this nice view from the living room:



And from the driveway:


I think there's something planted to bloom in every season now, which was my first goal starting out with this little perennial garden.

Mike's mushroom logs have exploded with mushrooms since the baby's birth, so he's been doing his best to get those washed up, cooked, or dried in between toddler and newborn duty.

The leaves are now changing, with beautiful yellow walnut leaves raining onto our yard with every breeze, and temperatures up to the 80s the past few days. The nights are cool, but no frost yet, although it did get close during one cold snap, and it looks like temps to the high 60's / low 70's the next week. I'm trying to take it easy so that I'll be well enough to take Autumn walks with the family soon! I hope you're enjoying your Fall, too!

Monday, September 15, 2014

September



Cooler weather

Just in the last week the temperatures have dropped. Some days were highs in the upper 50s, which felt quite chilly, and lows overnight in the upper 30s. It felt pretty sudden to be talking about possible frost already! Our garden season has been interrupted a bit by the fact that we are expecting a new baby any day now, but really the season is far from over, as the very tips of just a few tree branches are starting to change, so we still have the whole beautiful fall season ahead of us, as well as I'm sure still some very warm days.


Farmer Mike

Mike got to try out his dream of selling at a farmer's market this summer. He only sold a few times, and was limited to a less busy market on a weekday, but he learned a lot, and got to network with some other farmers to help learn the business in the area better. The moral of the story is that farming doesn't pay selling at small markets like this around here, even for those who have a much bigger business than Mike, so he will continue to explore options, such as a CSA (community supported agriculture). He also gained more knowledge of the varieties of produce that are more desirable to customers, at least at this particular market.



Another big challenge was pest and weed control utilizing organic practices. The Japanese beetles were a problem for awhile, and then after awhile the weeds just took over. He has some more ideas on how to do things differently next year. Here is the garden with the aisles mowed, which I think looks quite nice.


And here it is just recently, in need of a good mowing:


So what does it look like when you're getting ready for a farmer's market?


Stacks of homemade tomato crates, refrigerator full of produce, vases of flowers, and other clutter everywhere. I do think if he ever did this on a larger scale we would need a big room devoted just to farming stuff!

Some of the totals from his garden this year: 25 lbs of strawberries, 250 lbs of tomatoes, 10 lbs and counting of raspberries.

My perennials

I was blessed with a few afternoons to work on my little perennial bed. It has been missing the presence of Fall perennials, which I didn't get much of last year, so I got to do a little shopping and planting. Gardening is so much easier now that our little one absolutely loves to "dig in dirt." She gets quite upset when we tear her away from this favorite hobby. Now is also the time to be getting more bulbs for Spring, but that will have to be on the backburner until new little baby girl arrives.

the garden right now, finally mostly filled in

last year's mum on the left, a new purple mum this year on the right

sedum- this wasn't even planted, just tossed in a pot, but it bloomed!

     
late summer garden before the new Fall perennials were added

filling this bucket with soil is a very serious mission
found the mud





I will just dig in this pot of basil right here

 

For now

The current garden fun is mostly just harvesting raspberries every couple days (right now a pint every couple days or so), waiting for the last peppers to ripen before frost, drying beans, and collecting the last few zucchini, cucumbers, and whatever else happens to be hiding in the weeds!

Saturday, July 12, 2014

July

It rained again today, which made for excellent evening weed pulling. Our backyard is still in the process of being landscaped and mulched and such. Mike has had to remove landscape rock and fabric and slope around the house in areas, so the foundation plantings are all works in progress. Tonight, I was able to weed and mulch part of it while the little one watered things with buckets of water filled from her pool.


may not look like much; if only I had a before pic!
Finding safe entertainment for the toddler is the most critical gardening chore at this point in our lives.

 Mike continues to have challenges with his garden, including finding ways (and time) to beat weeds organically, and fighting with pests, like a bug that almost destroyed his tomatoes, and the return of the Japanese beetles. He also didn't get a spot at the Saturday morning farmer's market, which limits him to selling at a much smaller Wednesday morning market. So far that hasn't been a big deal, since he hasn't had enough of anything to sell yet! Just starting to get into the business, it's hard to know just how much of a market there is, but after attending the Saturday morning market today, I was very disappointed not to see any organic growers. The green beans we purchased there could easily have more pesticides on them than the ones at the grocery store! So despite the hurdles, I'm still hopeful he will find his niche.

Below are some pictures from a couple weeks ago when we were still getting strawberries. The little one is working to overcome picky eating, but if dinner doesn't go over well, she has no problem foraging in the garden. Here she filled up on strawberries after refusing to eat most of her supper. She has done the same with raspberries, which we are now getting and she seems to enjoy, and one of the first cherry tomatoes of the season, which she promptly spit out. Guess it wasn't quite ripe yet!






And just a few other photos as evidence that produce is growing:


sweet pepper

kale

This last one is a poor quality picture, but this is Mike on one of his morning trips into the garden to spray for beetles. He sprays with a combo of insecticidal soap and neem oil, which are apparently organically approved ways to deal with these very difficult bugs! I just think it's funny to watch him walk around with his cool ghostbuster-like backpack!



Hope to have some more nice pictures of a (weedy and partially bug-chewed) vegetable garden soon!




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I'm a flower enthusiast married to a man with organic farming dreams. We're enjoying developing our own outdoor paradise in our first home, with 3 little gardening girls by our side. When not spending my free time gardening, I'm recording our memories in my pocket page scrapbooks.