The first of the garlic

Last Saturday planted my first round of garlic bulbs. I have three different varieties of garlic that are going into the ground this fall: Lorz Italian, Broadleaf Czech, and Early Purple Italian. I look forward to the summer so I can get my hands on what must be a good haul. I'm something of a fiend for garlic so this will be great. I think this weekend I will plant the second/final round of garlic. And I'm getting a hoop house built. It looks like I'll have it done just in time too as the first frost might hit sometime this weekend.

Fall housekeeping

This is the what happens when a garden bed gets away from you. The good news is that I have finally fixed that problem. At least in part anyway, I decided to let the plant bearing larger fruit to stay until it finally gives up. 

Before

The biggest grasshopper ever?

I found this bad boy this weekend while I was clearing out the old cherry tomato plants. They had finally given up the goose so I decided it was time to clean house and add some compost to get things ready for a winter run of greens and root vegetables. This fine specimen was something along the lines of 3 1/2 inches long. I have a sneaking suspicion that he might have been the culprit for plenty of my pest damaged collard greens.

Small town living

You know you are living the true small town life when the barber you go to hooks you up with some fresh quail eggs. I might even have a continuous stream of the eggs coming.

What is this?

I found this stuff when I pulled off some cardboard that I put down to kill off weeds in one my beds. I have no idea what this is though. Any ideas?

Small fall garden update

     I have fallen behind in my blogging of late. This is due to prioritizing my energy mostly on school work. Chemistry is not a dear friend, (sadly that is just not how my mind works). But on a truly positive note my garden is not so bad as you might think.
     My tomatoes are still going, albeit at a reduced rate. My larger varieties are finally making a decent showing. Squash and I are destined to remain bitter enemies it seems. I've tried three different varieties this year (both summer and fall) sadly they have fallen short of expectations. I got a late crop of Anaheim peppers which is nice. Glad I let them hang around during the summer heat. They will be making a nice addition to some chili here soon if things cool down enough. My spinach didn't work out the way I had hoped, but they are making a showing now. So too are my rainbow Swiss Chard, and Georgia collards. This year my garden has been a lot of error and trial. That is not usually how its said but it is certainly how it feels. The red Romaine lettuce seems to be doing better now that the most of the oppressive heat has past.  I have about three pounds of garlic that will be going in here soon so I won't be running out next year. This is especially good as I hate having to buy garlic in the store. Its too expensive for the quality and lack of variety that you can find. Lucky for me I went with all heirlooms and a few different ones just in case some don't perform as well as I hope.

     I found a source of some free horseshit horse manure which I am really excited about. I should be collecting that in the next week or so. The plan there is to amend the soon to be backyard garden with that for the spring, and still have enough to let it compost over the winter for use when I need it.

     If I can keep my self honest my goal is to start keeping some good records about the goings on here in the terms of inputs and yields that I get starting in the spring. What this really means is spreadsheets, which I do not like, but will hopefully help me keep track of some good metrics going forward. Things like how much of my own produce I actually eat, what didn't work, what does, all that good stuff will be nice to have for subsequent years. 

    On a separate note the backyard re-fencing is almost complete which means...one step closer to hopefully some chickens in the spring. That will be triply beneficial, I get good pest control, I get eggs/meat, and I get poultry litter to fertilize with.

Hopefully I will have some more stuff to share soon,

Ryan

Change happens

There is nothing that highlights changes like absence. The old saying goes that a watched pot never boils. The same can be said for your garden, and really life in general. On Friday I drove back to Alabama to visit my Alma Matter and several friends from college. I arrived back home yesterday afternoon. I ended up being too worn out to really look at the garden from any closer than my driveway. But today I found a pleasant surprise, tomatoes I thought would never ripen suddenly had. Even more exciting is that my raised bed is flush with newly germinated seeds of several kinds. What will soon be my fall crop of mustard, carrots, collards, swiss chard, and lettuces are popping up with great speed. My fall squash plants are thriving and putting out little creeper vines too, which means I have to put up some trellising. That will hopefully keep me from having the same problems I've had with my tomatoes. Mainly that they have sprawled out and nearly taken over a single garden bed. 

On a less exciting note weeds and grass also has a way of popping up when you turn your back on it. That means there is some weeding and grass pulling in the newer beds to begin soon. After that will come some serious bed prep and mulching to choke out the weeds. Of course if that all happens soon enough I can plant out all my root vegetables and some cabbage varieties.