Surprise, Surprise

Yesterday I had a Gomer Pile moment.





I had decided to get in the garden and weed it.  So I'm hanging upside down shuffling sideways when what do I come across?  Carrots tops!  They weren't very tall.  Could there be carrots underneath?  If there were I was pretty sure they'd be too tiny to harvest.

I'd forgotten that I'd tossed a batch of seeds here last September.  It's in one of the back "double dig" strips that we'd made last year.  I'd already harvested all the carrots from the raised bed back in January.  Those carrots pulled up easily and were sweet and yummy.  So easy, I'd made a mental note to myself to always grow carrots in the raised beds.

I tried pulling these up with a yank and broke off the tops.  The clay we call soil around here had them gripped tightly.

SM handed me the pitch fork and "Shazam"...CARROTS!  And some were pretty good sized too.  Well how about that!?!  What a treat!  I considered pulling only what I needed and letting the rest grow some more but I was concerned about the quality of the carrot if I let them be.  They've been in the ground 6 months after all.  Would these even be any good?  We rinsed one of the bigger ones off and taste tested.  It was fine so I decided to just pull the whole patch.

And here's another surprise...Look closely.

Yep, there's life in that there soil!  Worms and tiny little micro-organisms.  Seeing THAT was even better than seeing the carrots.  We must be doing something right!

I swear I heard all the birds lining up on the fence line hoping to get in where I'd dug and get some worms for breakfast.  (I tossed some cardboard over the newly dug patch when I left.)  Sorry birds...those worms are an endangered species in my garden...None for you!

I went out front and tossed them on the sidewalk leading to the front door and sprayed them off.

Then I sat there in the early morning light and trimmed off all the tops.  Back to the garden they go and now SM and I have lots of carrots to munch on of the next few weeks.

My first harvest of Spring 2012!

2011 A Look Back In Pictures

Empty Garden

Who lived here
He must have been a gardener that cared a lot
Who weeded out the tears and grew a good crop
And now it all looks strange - 

Elton John / Empty Garden

(I always liked that song.)  

So here's the follow up from yesterday's post.  Yes, we did indeed "empty that garden".  

I was up and out first thing, pulling up the raised beds.  I would alternate between the beds and the weedy walkways, letting my back dictate when I should take a break.

I sat down on the back porch swing at lunch, soaking up the sunshine.  I'd started off the morning in jeans and a long sleeve shirt.  Now it was time for shorts and T-shirts.  (I just love the South!)

Yuck...The garden was wetter than I thought it'd be by now.  After lunch, SM came out and helped.  I could tell that he wasn't into it at first.  After helping me spread the cardboard onto the walkways, I told him he could quit.  He asked what else needed doing.  

"Rake the leaves and put them in the beds.  Mow the lawn."  

"Can't it wait a week?"  SM asked.  

"One good wind and all those leaves are gone.  I'd rather strike while the iron is hot.  Don't worry, I'll get it."  (I've had low motivation days myself.  I know how it feels.)

"No.  I'll help."  (Bless him)

There is something about power tools that kick start something in a man.  Did you ever notice that?  SM started off uninspired to do much, but once he turned on the leaf blower to "blow" the leaves out of the front landscaped beds, it was like a hired hand came to work.  Suddenly, SM was all sparky and having at it.

While he was blowing the front yard I thought I'd start mowing the back.  I headed out and noticed my next door neighbor (Hey, Heath!) had one of those pine needle guys laying a bed of needles around his front landscaped beds.  The guy had blown some of Heath's red maple leaves into a pile.  

"Hey Heath!  Can I steal your leaves for my garden?"  So I got off the mower and headed over to Heaths to gather his leaves. 

While I was doing that, I hear my neighbor across the street (Hey, Deb!) shout my name.  

"Tami!  Do you want some leaves?  I've got 5 sacks in the back!"  (Her daughter Katie had just raked them up the other day.)  "Sure!  I'll take them."

So with a little help from my friends, I've got lots of leaves to decompose into the garden.  I concentrated on the double dig beds for now.  I'll have more leaves yet to fall and I'll add those to the raised beds.

My plan for the "double dig" area is to toss in some manure on top of the leaves and cover it all with cardboard.  Turn it into a "no till" area.  Those beds won't be planted until next May, so that gives me plenty of time to let things decompose.  I'll use the raised beds for the Spring garden I'll plant in March. 

I'll need to hit Craigslist this week and see who's advertising free manure.  Last year lots of horse farms had ads and I think I also saw one for rabbit poo too.  

But that's a project for next weekend.  Today?  Chocolate Chip cookies.  I need to thank my hired hand @;)


 

My First Seed Save

I went out last night and picked some salad lettuce and pulled a handful of carrots for our dinner.  

I'm so pleased with the size of these carrots.  Finally I figured it out.  Yeah Me!

Technically, this is my 3rd attempt.  I tried last fall, this spring and then this summer.  A friend once told me that in gardening, she'll make the effort 3 times.  If it fails after 3 different attempts, then she moves on.  Makes sense to me.

I also pulled some of the seed pods off of the marigolds that are beside the salad bed.  I got these as a freebie from Baker Creek.  I planted a few in a pot...they did poorly, too hot.  But the marigolds I put in the raised beds did beautifully.

I've never saved seeds before but it's something I'm interested in doing when I find a winner.  Flowers are easy enough, I think.  You either like them or you don't.  

Veggies?  Well, that's a bit tougher.  There's a whole world of different varieties to try out there.  I feel this compulsion to try new things whenever I see those glossy seed catalogs.  Kinda like a kid in a candy store...."Oooo lookie!  I need to try that too!"  I expect at some point I'll start to save some of the vegetable winners in my garden but I'm afraid that might be a year or two away.  

But lets start with the marigolds.  Any tips for the new kid?  Some of the pods are VERY dry.  Most of them are still dampish though.  Should I leave them on the plant to dry?  Or pick them and let them dry inside?

Today is supposed to be sunny and in the 60's.  SM and I are hoping to get out and dedicate some time to cleaning the garden up and putting it to bed for the Winter.  It's so wonderful that SM is invested in the garden now too.  It's turning into a big part of our home life.  Really just too much for just one person when there's so much labor involved.

I'll probably post some before and after pics tomorrow.  It's looking pretty nappy out there. 

Smoke Signals

Yesterday we went out to tackle some of the yard work.  We'd been building up a brush pile that needed to be burned.  Besides that pile, we also had the wood from the Bradford Pear we took down last spring.  We'd tossed all that wood to dry in the back part of the yard and it was a mess back there with all the bermuda grass growing through it.

We'd had heavy rains Friday, so I wasn't sure everything would be dry enough to burn.

After some initial heavy smoke, we settled down to business.  SM's job was being bent over pulling all the bermuda that had grown insanely in the back section and there was a TON of it.  He said it was actually pretty easy as the rain from the other day helped loosen the dirt so he could get at the roots too.

I'd hoped to spend my afternoon attacking the garden but, with SM otherwise occupied, I went ahead and attacked the wood pile.  We'd cut some of the branches up but still had a pile of 10 to 20 foot lengths.  SM asked if I wanted him to cut them in half.  "Nah, let the fire do it." 

I was concerned about snakes and spiders in the wood pile.  Interestingly we didn't run across any (that we could see) but I did find a Black Widow in one of the spare plastic trash cans we keep around for hauling yard debris.  


I took the can out to the driveway, flipped it over and pounded on the can to get her out.  Splat with the shoe.  Black Widows are pretty common down here.  I've never seen one in the house, (Thank God) but I have seen them in the garage and out in the shed.  (shuddering)

So with that creepy, crawly thought, I'll wish ya'll a happy and safe Halloween.
   

32

SM was watching the college football games in yesterday and would yell at me to take a look at the "white-out" conditions.  Has there been a snowstorm before Halloween in recent memory?  Wow!

SM also pointed out that we were due for our first frost this weekend.  Now I been very neglectful of the garden this fall.  (That is on today's list of to-do's)  So I figured I'd better take one more tour before the frost.

SM's been very curious about the carrots, so we pulled one.  Eureka!  The carrot we pulled was about 5" long and actually looked like a carrot.  (Not a baby carrot.)

I wanted to snap a photo, but we ate it first.  But you can see it had some size to it.  So the secret to growing a carrot in the South is to plant it in July, under a wet towel to germinate in a raised bed.  (*My other test carrots I planted a month later (in the ground) and they have no root formed at all.  Just tops.)  

I'd left some of the healthier bell pepper plants alone after the big "Summer Pull" in September.  I'd noticed they had blooms on them and wanted to see what would happen with the cooler Fall weather.

Shazam!  Now that's what I call a bell pepper harvest.  No bugs, no skin disease and some of them grew to a pretty good size.  There's about 10 pounds of peppers in the sink.  I must find a cooler, shadier spot for next years crop.  Just too freakin hot during the Summer months down here.

The Hungarians also grew to a good size.  Whats your favorite way to deal with these?  Can em? Freeze em?  SM asked me to stuff them with sausage and bake them in sauce.  Really?  Any ideas out there?

So that's it for this years garden, then.  SM and I tossed a sheet on top of the salad patch to keep the frost off.  We'll likely have salad for a few more weeks at least.  The carrots will stay in the ground.  I'll pull them as needed.


All in all, this years garden "rocked".  Still some improvements to make but considering it's only our second year, I feel that we've made some BIG strides in production.  Probably the biggest lesson I learned this year is that the raised beds are great for Spring and Fall production but completely suck during Summer.  It's just too hot around here and the roots responded poorly to the hotter soil temperature.  Summer produce MUST go in the ground where it's cooler.

I want to say "Thanks" to all of you out there with your garden and farm blogs.  I can't tell you how much I've learned reading all your tips and tricks.  Sharing what you know, the successes and the failures, have really helped me get to where we are today. 

Salad Garden

I've been very neglectful of the garden these past few weeks.  I went out yesterday and took a tour.

 My lettuces are coming along and I'm still getting tomatoes from the Matt's WC.  I won't need to plant this ever again.  I'm sure to have TONS of volunteers from all the tiny tomatoes that have fallen.

My carrots actually look good.  Tall greens on top.  I brushed a bit of dirt away to see if anything was happening down below.  Maybe.

The green peppers are loving the cooler weather.  Tons of blossoms and another batch of fruit on it's way.

Even the Hungarian's are liking it.

I left a few Tropic VN tomatoes to see if I could get anything from them.  Mostly cracked fruit and worms.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with what's going on out there considering that I'm not putting any effort into it at all.
 

Scrub it

We've had a whole week of gray skies, rain, drizzle and humidity.   

Finally, the sun came out today.

I almost put my face right into this spiders web.

I had sown some lettuce last week and it actually came up.

It's funny.  I'm not sure I want to bother with a fall garden.  Even though we're still in the mid 80's, I think it's too late in the game to get a harvest out of anything that I'd plant right now.  I'm sure the lettuce can turn around quick enough and the carrots have been in since August so they have a head start.  Plus they can over winter in the ground.

I guess I was hoping to try for some cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and collards.  But these plants take so long to grow.  To even hope for any kind of harvest though, I'd need to have a hoop house and Mother Nature on my side.  I'm just not feeling it.


Heading into October in the 80's is weird.  Yes, it could imply an Indian Summer, but it's more likely that by the end of October we'd still have a frost and then I'd have wasted my effort (and expense) on plants that aren't going to give me anything back.

So I've decided to just "scrub it".  No Fall garden this year other than the lettuces and carrots that are already in.

This may not be a bad decision at all, actually.  We've got "double digging" and fencing to do and with our poor quality soil, I'd rather invest my time tossing organics (leaf and manure) in the garden to help try and establish a "bitchen" soil for next springs garden.

(Edit:  I forgot to mention that I'm researching cover crops too.  Why not?  Any recommendations for a zone 7 cover crop?)