Garlic Grid

Sunday evening was spent getting a few rows of garlic in.

Loved having the extra help around...Corbin added compost to the rows.

Bone meal and Blood meal was also added.

The parsnips were covered with left over mulch from the old rows. Troy took care of tilling all the amendments in.

Using grid lines from a piece of cattle panel ....we went to work getting the garlic in.

We were able to get 5 varieties in and 375 cloves planted and ran out of daylight with  half the job done.We will continue planting in the next few days.

She Gathers...

One of the things I love most about gardening is Seed Saving at the end of the growing season.

Saving seeds has helped me save money and I've learned to be a little more self reliant. I also have a better understanding on how my small scale crops grow.

There is always something new to learn and today is no exception. 

Morning Glory Seeds were easy to find on the dried vines.

A few random Nasturtiums blooms were still hanging on... 

 Underneath the foliage... seeds were scattered all along the ground.

 The seeds have been gathered up and will need to finish drying.The Broccoli bolted early in the season....

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the plant was loaded with hundreds of seed pods.

Pods open up easily for harvest.

 These Leek seeds have been growing in the greenhouse for 2 growing seasons.

To my surprise...small bulbs resembling garlic bulbs surrounded the base of the Leeks when pulled up.

I guess it should have been a no brainer, but I never knew that leeks could form bulbs and now I know different.

So, I broke apart the bulbs and replanted them in the greenhouse.  The seeds have been saved for Spring planting. 

*Upon further research I discovered that I may have harvested the seed head to soon. If left alone the seed head would have formed grass like hair with bulbils that could have been replanted as well. 

There is always something new to learn!

Garden Neglect

It is true...

Sadly I have neglected my garden!

It was high time to get it together...and get my sad, neglected, frost kissed garden cleaned out.

The Parsley and Kale are still truckin' along despite my total lack of care.

There were still plenty of Hungarian Wax Peppers to harvest.

The last of the tomatoes were pulled from the vines.


 and even though the  carrot harvest was terrible this year.....I managed to pull this monster ;-)

Feels good to get caught up in the garden...

Flower beds have been cleaned...
Seeds have been saved.....

and garlic is scheduled to be planted tomorrow.

More fall bulbs

Yesterday, was spent playing in the dirt and getting some more Fall Bulbs planted. We chose to add a little sunshine along the side of the greenhouse with Daffodil Bulbs from Breck's

I couldn't decide on just one...So, I planted a mix of three varieties....and added some Blue Muscari bulbs in too.

Roulette image source Breck's

Smiling Maestro image source: Breck's

Spring Fever image source Breck's

Re doing the flower bed

Fall is the perfect time to plant bulbs...and we have been wanting to change the front flower bed beneath the American Flag, for some time. 

Although, the Monarda ( Bee Balm) is stunning through July...

It quickly takes over and chokes everything else out. The scale of this flower just doesn't work where it's at....

So we spent Saturday digging it all out and relocating it to a different part of the yard.

We amended the soil with compost ...and got to work setting the bulbs in place.

Covered the bulbs to recommended depth and covered with a blanket of leaves for added insulation.

  We chose the combination of Plaisir Tulips and Blue Muscari Bulbs from tulips.com

Image source:tulips.com