Putting the gardens to bed

 Always a bittersweet moment. 

As I pull up the remnants of what was another decent effort in the vegetable garden and cut back dead foliage in the flower gardens, I can't help but chastise myself for not being one of those gardeners who obsesses over each and every plant.  I don't have an amazing yield, I don't grow monster fruits, and I generally fail far more than I succeed.  I wish I had that drive, but I really don't.  Gardening to me is something I think I'm passionate about, but in truth it's more of a passing enthusiasm.  I might remember to water, if and when we have water.  I might remember to feed my plants.  I don't always prepare my soil before planting.  I don't always think about the angle of the sun or the days to germination.  And yet...somehow it always works.  Maybe not impressively, but we get a meal or two, there's always something I can share with friends and neighbors, and there's always a pretty flower to be admired, no matter how black my thumb may be.  Next year, I need to plant earlier.  I missed more than a few harvests because I hesitated.  This winter, I need to start a few more perennial plants from seed.  The money saved by growing my own yarrow, baptisia, and blue fescue grass has me hooked.  These are my lessons for this growing season.

Today I pulled up my corn and squirreled away the stalks for my mother to use as decoration.  After two days of absolutely driving, gusting winds, I was actually amazed they weren't all flattened.

 Once they were pulled, the garden looked so naked.

 But how about that cottage garden?  Both sides are still eeking out a bit of color.  I'm excited to see them next year.

Most of the vegetable beds have been cleared out and augmented with some amazing composted mule manure - it's 2 or 3 years old at this point and rivals anything you'd get out of a bag.  Garlic for next year is planted; Music and Premium Northern White.  I may try a softneck variety next year, but I haven't settled on one yet.  I also cleaned out the masonry tub bed that was nothing but moss and weeds, and gave that a refresh.  I've been ignoring certain beds and it's time I put them to use.

The edges of the garden really needs a good weeding and new layer of bark mulch, which will probably wait until spring.

I managed to tackle the hot borders, which took a day and a half.  I really need to practice better technique; prepare a bed before planting, not as an afterthought!

I don't know why I do this to myself. 

At any rate, I spent an entire day ripping hunks of grass and weeds from around what few plants were in these beds.

Planted some spring bulbs, perennial mums, and kniphofia into the bare spots, and gave each bed a generous layer of wood chip mulch.

I still have some finishing touches to work on, but they're well prepared for winter at least.

On the backside of the house, my homemade hand rails are beginning to show signs of rot, so out they come.  I'll use them as supports for the rambunctious asters on the pond side of the firepit area.  The raspberry trellis was a shot in the dark that didn't work out so well, so I will try something different next year.  The raspberry bushes didn't really get to a point where they needed much support anyway.  I really hope they put some growth on next year.

The gravel paths were about as successful as my gravel patios.  Crab grass is just a nightmare!  I had originally wanted to put in tiered steps using pressure treated 4x4s; I may do that next spring.  It seems like where I want grass, it won't grow, and where I don't want it, it thrives.  But how about the color on that Tiger Eye Sumac?  Just beautiful!

I never think to get a photo of it when it's lush and gorgeous, which is a shame.  I have to say, I'm really happy with this little shrub as it's not the invasive pest that our native Staghorn Sumac is.  Don't get me wrong, I do love the Staghorn; it's a great provider of winter food for many birds, and it gives the landscape an almost tropical feel.  The autumn color is fantastic, as well, but once you've got these thugs they can be difficult to get rid of.  This Tiger Eye, on the other hand, isn't showing any signs of suckering two years on.  Of course, my mother's favorite saying about certain plants is "the first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap".  Maybe next year will see this little shrub explode, who knows?

And as it so often happens, over the course of days it's taken me to prepare this post, changes have occurred.  Four days later and we've had our first killing frost.  And so begins the next season.

Let the games commence

 And by games, I obviously mean "projects I've been putting off all summer and suddenly need to have done before snow flies".  

My first project was to reclaim the lower patio.  Remember when I created it without edging and blithely declared that I wanted to be a part of the landscape, not apart from the landscape?  What a maroon.  Two years later and the landscape had basically begun to swallow my patio whole.  

It was obvious this would never become the hub of summer activity I'd hoped, so I decided to revamp it as a simple fire pit area.  I gathered all of the tools I would need and many I wouldn't, and began reclaiming the overgrown edges.

So I wouldn't have to fight back the weeds and grass, I finally conceded to a concrete block edging, since I have an abundance of block on hand.

 

 

All that was left was to purchase caps for the cinder blocks and add the fire pit and furniture.

The fire pit was picked up off the side of the road free, and I might get a few months out of it before I'll need to buy a new one.  I like being able to cook over a wood fire, and with some items I had on hand I was able to finagle a grate out of a couple pieces of rebar and the racks I grabbed from my mother's old stove when she had it replaced.

The fireplace insert and grate will come in handy as a firewood holder and table or plant stand.  Next year I plan to get a small gas grill and set it up down here, as well.

I purchased some landscape adhesive to glue to the block caps down, but I'm not sure if I'll do that or not.

Now, on to the next project.  I plan to put in a path from the patio to the water feature using the bluestone I have on hand.  If there's enough stone, I may just make a small area to set the iron bench on, so I don't have to move it every time I need to mow.  Obviously, from the length of the grass, I don't mow it often.  This is a troublesome little area that needs some TLC.  Off I go!

That Autumn Feel

 Finally, after what seems an eternity, the muggy, oppressive weather has abated.  It is peak hurricane season, so you never know what might blow in, but for now the cool mornings and pleasant afternoons are a welcomed respite from summer's wrath.  This time of year triggers something in me.  I'm not sure if it's a primordial sense of survival or just an ingrained process of seasonal preparation, but the beat-the-winter-sprint has begun. 

In the beds where I've harvested seasonal vegetables I've been trying to be proactive by replacing nutrients in the soil for next year's crops, specifically nitrogen.  I planted field peas where the garlic had grown, and the next day found neat little divots where each pea had been sown, and no peas.  I have repeated this sowing twice again to the same result.  Also, a second sowing of green beans met the same fate, as well as some salad greens.  While watering one evening I believe I met the culprit - a very well fed rat.  We do have wild rats in our area, the Wood Rat (aka Pack Rat), plus introduced Norway and Black Rats.  I know there is one living in the hay room in my barn, but now I've seen this one in the hillside garden and also one in the polytunnel, where it's been snacking on my ripest tomatoes.  Same rat, or is it a gang of rodents?  And people wonder why I welcome coyotes and foxes to my tiny kingdom.  

Speaking of predators, I was lucky enough to watch a bobcat saunter through the pasture this summer.

Magnificent.

I haven't seen too many deer or coyotes lately, but I'm sure they're around.  As well as a bear, as evidenced by a large scat pile I found.  

While I didn't have an abundance of any one harvest, I'm happy with what I did get this growing season.  The potatoes in bags actually did well, and I'll grow them like that again next year.  I didn't get a lot of large spuds, but what did grow is perfect for roasting.  The Kennebecs are a great all around potato as far as taste and texture, and the Red Luna have a beautiful yellow flesh that you would think would be really starchy, but isn't.  The Highlander onions were a bit of a disappointment as they never reached full size, but my mother likes the smaller ones for roasts and stews, so it's all good.  The shallots did really well and exceeded normal size.  Next year I'll go back to the Walla Walla onions.

Part of the potato harvest, all of the onion and shallot harvest.

We've had about four harvests of green beans; just enough for a meal or two each picking.  My peas did well but I made a huge mistake waiting for them to go by before planting cukes in the same containers.  I've had some decent pickings of the mini cucumbers, but the lemon cukes have only just started to come to, much too late in the season.  We won't get that heat or length of daylight to really push these plants to produce fruit.  Next year I'll pay attention and plant much earlier.

I am completely sold on growing tomatoes in the polytunnel.  I'll know next year to raise the pots up off the ground a little and have a better staking system, but I've been really pleased with the size and number of tomatoes I'm getting off each plant.  These are Better Bush Hybrids and are known for their sturdy main stems, compact growth habit, and medium sized, fleshy tomatoes.  My lack of attention is what caused any issues with them, and by the time I started to really pay attention, most of the plants were so loaded with fruit the branches began to split and break.  We've still harvested enough that Mom made a sauce, we've had plenty of Caprese salads, tomato sandwiches, and just plain salted tomatoes, and I'm still harvesting more.  Oh, and the rat had enough to keep his belly full, too. 

By contrast, the tomato plants I started inside and planted directly into the garden have been a disappointment.  Same variety, but they were started about a month later to stagger the harvest, and they have produced only a few small fruits, if any.  I'm not even sure they'll ripen before the plants are frost killed.  Being able to put plants out earlier under the protection of the tunnel and being able to regulate the heat and humidity has definitely proved to be the better method.  And not just with tomatoes - the pepper plants have absolutely thrived and are producing more fruit than I could ever need or want.  I've been giving most of the habaneros away and using the milder jalapenos in salads and whatnot.

The corn has been my greatest pride and joy.  The Sugar Buns Hybrid was very sweet and tasty, but ears were rather small.  The Silver Queen is just beginning to ripen and the ears are much bigger.  With its lower sugar content, it's not the corn most people would choose for a BBQ, but Mom and I both prefer it over the hyper-sweet stuff.  Mom is itching to get her hands on the stalks to decorate with, so there's an additional bonus.

It's a late season variety, too, so again - stretching out the harvest.  I'm learning!  I'm also learning about growing it in raised beds versus the ground.  This summer when we did get rain, it came in quick, torrential downpours usually accompanied by whipping winds.  As a result, I was constantly trying to prop the stalks back up after each storm.  Luckily instead of breaking, the stalks would just sort of tip over but not lose their grip on the soil, so it was just a matter of growing a third arm to prop them up, hold them in place, and set braces against them to prevent further damage.  

If I decide to use this area again next year, I think I'll try to work in some kind of support system before I even plant.  

The wildflower meadow was a complete disappointment this year.  It was absolutely clogged with wild Primrose plants that grew to shrub-like proportions, and a Tansy plant that showed up out of nowhere a few years ago suddenly grew to monstrous size.  The downpours also wreaked havoc on the Tansy, and it flopped to the ground, spreading out to three times it's actual size.  It never recovered enough to stand back up, and thus shaded out and smothered smaller plants under and around it.

 

Primrose

Tansy

I've removed the Tansy and have been pulling up the Primrose as they go by; these plants are important for night feeding pollinators such as moths, so I don't want to take them while they're still in flower. Crab grass has again filled in any open spaces.  Fleabane has self seeded like mad, and though it's pretty, it's overwhelming in numbers.  My autumn sowing of annual wildflowers just didn't do well at all.  I'm not sure if they didn't have enough room to get a foothold due to the thuggish self seeders, or if the birds maybe ate most of the seed last year, but I won't do another autumn seeding.  In fact, I'm torn between cleaning this area up and planting it as more of a cottage garden or trying again with wildflowers.  

Speaking of cottage gardens, the new ones at the front of the hillside garden have really started to take hold, and I'm very happy with them.  I may have - as usual - disregarded the right place for each plant, but next year will be the time to decide that.  This year was all about establishing a root system.  

I'm hoping next year the newer plants will really fill out.  I'm also hoping the Verbena Bonariensis self seeds, because I'm beyond happy with them.  Even Mom has taken a shine to them, and wants me to start more from seed next year so she can add them to her gardens.  My only complaint is that they really get lost with the buddleia in the background, since they're so similar in color.  The two buddleia bushes are quickly outgrowing their spots in spite of being cut to the ground each spring, so it may be time to move them out, anyway.  They will make excellent structural plants for the backyard gardens...if I ever get to work on those. 

If.  

{sigh}