Fall gardening & the purple fairy.

Even though I felt pretty lazy this weekend, I was at least able to accomplish a few tasks - thus making it a productive and successful weekend.  Not only did I get my garden's put to bed, but I also watched the new Parks and Recreation episode...


...and a few movies.


...and one episode of Kitchen Nightmares.


But that is besides the point.  Although, watching Chef Ramsey makes me want to say the word "bloody" in my best British accent.  Like, "I must say, that was a bloody good meal."


That may be the weirdest adjective I've used to date.


Let's move on.

My dear husband helped me to put a few of the garden beds to rest yesterday.  We mixed in a wheelbarrow full of homemade compost (though, I must admit, I am a bad composter...so mostly, we just mixed in a wheelbarrow full of half-decomposed-organic-mater.  I'm not patient enough to wait for it to finish composting!).  We also used a shovel to break up the hardened patches of soil, mixed in a wheelbarrow full of white-birch leaves, and added a shoe box full of chicken poo poo to each bed.  


Eventually, the leaves with decompose, as will the already half-decomposed egg shells, lemon rinds, and apple peelings.  "Ehh, just throw it in the garden bed...it'll breakdown eventually..."


...and I wonder why I have a gardening disasters.   Smart, Shaye.  Real smart.

I do think that my beds felt the neglect of last year.  I didn't take the time to feed the soil as I should have in the fall.  This is the perfect time to add all sorts of goodness to your garden beds, so that come spring, the added nutrients will have had time to mix with the soil.  I'd still like to mix in a wee bit more horse poo poo into each bed, as mine is already very decomposed and rich in goodness.


Here's a small fall "to-do" list in the garden:
- Harvesting any remaining crops and dry accordingly
- Till the soil 
- Add compost, manure, or organic matter to feed the soil
- Plant a cover crop or cover the soil with a thick layer of mulch (leaves, grass, etc.)
- Plant garlic, shallots, and bunching onions
- Scribble down any fresh ideas while they're in your mind about what you'd like to do better next year!  If you're anything like me, you'll forget by the time spring rolls around what it was that you thought would work so well..
- Add all the remaining gardening debris (leaves, grass clippings, old plants, rotten vegetables, etc.) to your compost pile
- Start next year's gardening journal with the plant dates and location of your fall crops!

The shallots, garlic, and bunching onions have been planted into one of the raised beds.  These delicious treats are prime candidates for growing in raised beds, as they prefer well-drained soil.  Keep these bad boys too moist, and they'll rot right in the ground.  Rotting garlic - now there's a stench for ya.  

After I planted the garlic, I covered it with a thick layer of hay to protect the darlings from the chill of winter.  Oh, and this year, I've decided to keep track of the actual varieties I am growing.  Imagine that.  'Magic' is my garlic of choice this year - it is a hardneck garlic with very large bulbs.  The shallots are 'Red Sun' french shallots and the potato onions are...dangit...I forgot to write that one down...


I'm terrible at this.

Oh - and here was my other project.  This is the fenced plot of land that I have been working on for a few months time.  Many a load of compost and manure have been added to this wee little wedge of garden and I'm hoping that in the spring time, after another tilling, it will be plant-able.  And while I know it takes years to establish healthy and lush garden eco-systems, what's to say you can't at least try to get the ball rolling in the right direction?!  This plot was a desolate...dessert...of dense soil...and weeds...inhabitable by only the toughest of bugs.  Maybe next year, at least some hardy vegetables will be able to tolerate the semi-improved soil.  I'm hoping to add a few wheelbarrows full of birch leaves into this plot still, before the snow falls.

Oh, I didn't tell you.  My wheelbarrow is from 1756.  It's old....but it works.


Oh, I didn't tell you either, though you may have noticed.  Our lawn needs to be mowed and weed-wacked.  Though this is my husbands job, as I like to remind him, and since he has been very busy doing hours and hours and hours of homework (what we've since termed "feeding the monster"), it hasn't been done.  Though it will...in a matter of time, I'm sure.


Like maybe next spring or something.


But that's beside the point.


Oohh - and how could I forget! Today is Halloween!  Which pretty much means nothing to me...except that I am going to make some homemade coconut truffles for the next door neighbors!  I thought it would be a better alternative to candy...plus, I wanted some too.  I'm so selfish.


And also, Georgia will be dressing up like a purple fairy.  She has purple fairy wings, a purple necklace, and a purple sparkly tutu.  Stuart wanted to dress her up like a "ork...or maybe a hobbit"....


But I am happy to say, she will be a purple fairy.


The end.