And so to bed.... almost

Or shall I say the long goodnight.

My little garden is halfway to being tucked in. Another month and it will be bedtime for a while. My visits will probably be once a week now to do a bit of cleanup and harvesting.

The flowers are starting to die back, except for those sweet peas. They are going crazy. I wish I had them at home so I could pick them every couple of days. Note to self, plant sweet peas at home!! They don't last long after they are picked but they sure smell wonderful. The sunflowers and still going strong. One of them was so heavy it fell over but luckily I was able to tie it up. The stalk was very thick and it was quite the effort to tie it to the fence it was so heavy.

My carrots are starting to finally get bigger. They are mostly still a bit deformed but I actually got a couple of almost normal ones. Not sure if any will last until the first frost. It will be tempting to have the whole garden finished by the end of October.

I'm actually looking forward to not going twice, three times a week. I love it but I need a break, a break to dream and plan, to figure out what to grow next year and where to put everything. I want to make a simple greenhouse in the spring with plastic tubing and heavy plastic and to also put up a fence between my plot and my neighbours.

I will miss this.

Fresh tomatoes, pesto and bocconcini!

Ready, set go!

You can smell it in the air. The end of summer. The days are starting to get shorter and you can feel a nip in the air. The rush is on now to get all the fall cleanup done and beds prepared for any fall planting. My garden is still not quite finished but I can start to tidy up a bit. Luckily I had a week off and it was spectacular. I spent quite a few hours at my plot puttering. I carted four more wheelbarrow full of manure to spread in my beds when they are all emptied. Right now I have it ready to go when I finish clearing all the beds.

Being an organic garden we are very limited as to what we bring in. I'm allowed Sea Soil (kind of expensive by the bag) Peat but no garden soil and all the manure we want. I brought in another bag of peat in the hopes that it will lighten up the manure that I'm spreading. If only life worked like that! I buried all my finished veggie tops and vines after chopping them up a bit and added the manure on top. I figured that will help to build up the soil. When all the lovely leaves fall I will use them as well. The compost I will cover and leave til spring and hopefully will be able to use it to fill up the beds as well. There is so much in there it should be great. It is pretty heavy to turn but when I last turned it it was steaming and I have never seen worms that big so I think it will be good. I'm going to plant something where the compost is now and move it to a different location. It will be prime real estate!

My garlic bed is all prepared with some manure and sea soil so will plant in another month. I cut down all my lovely tomatoes and picked them all :(. Even the green ones. Unfortunately I ran over a big green one with my wheelbarrow. I took it home and cut off the squished bit and made it into a fried green tomato. It was quite yummy. I wasn't quite sure what to do so I dredged it in flour, added salt and pepper and fried in a little butter. Never had them before. (Read the book though). The rest are all ripening in newspaper in the basement. I will probably roast these ones and freeze them for the winter. I always find that they are never quite as good as the ones that ripen on the vine.

Garden Art

I'm a bit behind on my blogging. It is such a busy time of year. Basically I had to run out at least twice a week and water which in itself shouldn't take too long. Usually, however I would be there at least an hour and a half watering, picking things, tying up stuff, always lots to do. My tomatoes were pretty pampered. I have diligently been taking photos but with the fall coming and harvesting everything as well as working there always seems to be a shortage of time.

I really really wish I had the time to pick blackberries this year. I would have loved to have made some blackberry jelly. Oh well, maybe next year. And pickles too!!

I wanted to try and do some painting as well and didn't quite get to it. I finally have my painting area in the basement set up and ready to go. I would have liked to do some painting outside but again ran out of time. At least I have taken lots and lots of pics so hopefully in the winter I can get going.

I have to satisfy myself with the creativity at the garden. It is nice to see all the bits and bobs and scraps that give a garden it's character. Even some of the tacky bits look bright and colorful in a garden setting.

As I have said before I love to go wandering and seeing what people are up to. Sometimes I'm too tired and I don't always like to lug my big camera around so some of my pictures don't turn out as well as I would like. Looking around though I think I need more art in my plot.

Love this little rusty gate.

Winding down

My little garden is starting to wind down. The lettuce has bolted and the remains are now in my compost. I threw in some more spinach and lettuce seeds in the hope of a fall harvest.

I was told by a fellow gardener that I had better get cracking and get my beds ready to plant my winter garlic. I actually have bought my garlic but there is no rest for me it seems. Apparently you are supposed to get it prepared a month ahead with composted manure. There isn't much left and I was told to use the old stuff, NOT the new stuff that they will be getting when it is gone. The pressure, I tell ya. Honestly I'm not going to worry about it too much. I might just shake it up a bit and put in some sea soil too.

I'm very pleased with the garden this year and the soil can't be that bad as you can see from my sunflower. I do wish the flower part was bigger for the birds. Maybe I had too much manure. I know it was my second batch of seeds that I think I bought at Home Depot so they probably weren't the freshest. Next year (here I go again) I will special order ones with big heads of seeds for the birds. If only I can get them to not eat them before they sprout.

The nights are getting cooler and I can tell that my cucumbers and eggplant are slowing down. I think next year I will start them in my mini greenhouse to give them a better start. Over the winter I am going to try and figure out a better structure for my tomatoes. They really are a bit of a pain but I do love them so will probably continue to grow them until I get frustrated. My eggplants are so cute. I don't know if I will get much out of them but I have to say they are the coolest thing I have ever grown. So smooth and perfect. This is the japanese eggplant which is smaller than the regular one. I chopped one of them up and pan fried it with some mushrooms and it was delicious.

My potatoes are almost all dug up and stored in the basement. Again, not sure if I will grow them again. We will see. The fresh new ones you buy in the spring seem sweeter. Will see how long these ones last. The next week will be spent burying all the old plant material, throwing in some more manure and digging it in for the winter. Hopefully that should do the trick.