I apologize for missing garden journal last weekend! I am still working to get my garden ready for the winter, and we are still harvesting a little here and a little there. My fall garden is not as fabulous as I had hoped it would be, but I won’t complain. Caterpillars need to eat too, right? The chickens have also discovered the garden, and like to spend the late afternoon there. I am remembering why we gave our last flock away, although this time around I am thinking about fencing. I want both: chickens and a garden.
cauliflower
garlic is coming up
honeybees and marigolds!
lettuces and beets: if I remove the netting the birdie girls scratch and mess them up!
yes, you.
crimson clover: planted in September as a winter cover that will bloom next May
cosmos
birdhouse (? my memory is so bad) gourds
We found a little clutch of eggs in the back garden. (The back garden used to be a flower bed, but now it’s overgrown with weeds, but I’m going to start calling it the back garden anyway.)
The bright low growing green in the middle left is crimson clover. The thick bushy green in the middle right is sweet potato. We will wait until frost to dig them I think. I read that sweet potatoes need to be cured at 80 degrees or so and very high humidity for 10 days. How are we to achieve that? Should we lay them out on the ground and cover with clear plastic out in the sun? I guess I need to start googling “how to cure sweet potatoes.”
How is your garden growing?
Hey Ginny, your garden is looking beautiful. We just finally got some rain down here in TX, but I cannot garden because I am renting. I did pot some mums and they are gorgeous.
As someone who dreams of an edible garden, your weekly journal is like a trip to an amusement park! Thank you, as always, for sharing!
You have the prettiest hens I’ve ever seen!
Love that photo of your chook preening. So great!
What do you use the clover for?
We use it as a cover crop, and the bees love it when it’s in bloom.
Ginny,
I love the chicken photos. And seeing your garlic reminds me that we need to get some garlic planted. (It’s practically been a mantra around here lately: “Plant Garlic.”)
I added my link showing some dye plants in our garden. We planted a dye garden for the first time this year and we’re really excited about it. I linked to your post about using dock seeds for dye. You inspired us to harvest some we had growing in our yard.
Love, Taryn
This year has not been nearly as productive as the last two years, so I was feeling discouraged about gardening. Then I was inspired by your last garden journal post, so I ordered packets of lettuces, peas, shallots, and spinach seeds. It’s a few weeks late to plant then in our USDA hardiness zone, but I’m still hoping. The exciting news here is that one of our chicken laid an egg today–the first egg! The egg was no bigger than the size of one of my short stubby thumbs, but it’s still very exciting for us.
This last spring we placed a fence around our garden to protect it from the chickens and other visiting critters, and I look forward to planting some blueberry and lingonberry bushes around it…someday. 🙂
Your garden posts are always inspiring. Thank you for sharing your garden notes.
Love the bee and chicken shots.
we just moved and are starting our garden…just built our chicken coop and run…
this post is inspiring!!! Thank you!
About halfway through with planting my Fall garden and I’m trying peas for the first time ~ can’t wait to see how they turn out!
Your garden is looking lovely Ginny, your chickens are so sweet. I find the mesh works very well to keep our chooks from pulling our plants out. We have planted many heirloom seeds this season, can’t wait for them to start growing.
your garden is so full of life. i love the photographs. some day maybe we will also have a lovely garden. 🙂
We planted fruit trees and grape vines as soon as we moved here 10 years ago. This year we had a great harvest of peaches (last year the apples were great and the peaches so-so). We were giving them away like zucchini. Now the grapes are ripe and my kitchen table is covered (as in, I can only see the legs) with red and green bunches, some seedless, some seeded. Last year the starlings stripped our vines, so this year we netted everything. A bumper crop is a two-edged sword. I’m making jelly and while it’s not hard, it does take time (and what happened to all my pint canning jars??). I’m pleading with my friends to come over and take some before they turn to raisins or wine.
From my experience you can only have chickens and a garden if you have fencing. Or an eggmobile a la Joe Salatin (you should go visit his farm since you are both in VA).
Beth is right – it is worth it, to have whatever gardening experience you can get.
This is my first year really gardening. In years past it’s just been me, my balcony, and lots of potted plants. Now I have a small shared yard and two raised beds. But they were built late (not that I’m complaining – my husband and in-laws built them for me as a surprise), so everything I’m growing this year is truly just for fun. For example, I started pumpkins from seed in July – way too late, I know. But I have enjoyed seeing them progress so much that it’s worth it.