September garden harvest & crunchy leaves in Fall

I have a love-hate relationship with Fall. Everyone gets that seasonal feeling in them- a mysterious urge to walk off... to go hide by a tree, feeling the crunchy leaves...

Fall has its perks: Little camp fires with cozy seating, changing moods that urge transformation or revelations... I've learned a lot about myself many times in how I have reacted and behaved in the Fall season. If you start a new school years with different or more peers in August and September, that's the same feeling...so, maybe there's an association there.

But, I encourage you to feel that uncomfortableness, if you have that seasonal urge as well. Garden plants tend to wither, wilt, and brown. But, the fall flowers will bloom vastly to say one last goodbye and hoorah! 

That's what I feel when I harvest these foods and enjoy some time outdoors, to say a final hoorah...

Garden harvest of squash, pears, cucumber

This was one of the second batches of beans and squash. 

Squash & green bean harvest

Vegan, coconut based pumpkin pie 🥥 🎃 

Kieffer pear picking

Cold hardy fig trees, fruiting

Sunset in September 

"The Grandkids" Scarecrow family decor setting

His name is Pumpkin head 🎃 

The Fall blues can set in, but give in to the temptation of decorating to help your shifting mood as the seasons change...dedicate a space that represents this change.

Fall decor setting

December Winter Garden

I realize it's been a month since last posting. The gardens have been feeling weary, barely growing. The cauliflower and broccoli seem to be making head way, pun intended. But I think the snow froze the cauliflower to its core. 

 

The rows of cauliflower, broccoli, kale and radish were covered with cloth then covered with plastic sheeting overtop the hoop piping. 

Last week when the snow came, there was an ice pond on top of the plastic sheeting which became weighed down and hurt the plants. This past Sunday, I readjusted the cloth and plastic sheeting, and reinforced the hoop piping with metal stakes in the ground. This particular garden is very cold, and has a dark, chilly hillside as it is North facing. 

At my other wintery garden. I have kale and radish growing. They're covered the same way, with cloth over top and plastic sheeting over the hoop piping. This acts as a mini greenhouse. This garden is South facing and gets mostly full sun, so this garden tends to thrive more than my other garden. 

I have a picture here of one of the weirdest radishes I've grown this garden year. I had some large radishes this year, and this one is definitely one of the largest, but it's mostly the weirdest shape. 

Out of everything this fall and winter, particularly this garden year in general, I have picked mostly radishes. The kale this past fall season grew enough for a couple of harvests to eat, but it has been a slow grower this winter. 

The remaining winter, I will be tasked with cleaning up debris, organizing supplies, ,storing materials, composting, mulching, cutting back brush and weeds. You name it, I'll be doing it. 

Overalls, swamp boots and a thick coat and gloves are an essential this cold season, so don't forget to use them!

To keep busy in this time, we either stay indoors doing crafts or fiddling with the indoor plant garden or work in the gardens outside. 

Pictured here, I have decorated our door with pine cuttings and ribbon. And a picture of the indoor potted plants with Prince, the cat.

Pickling, canning, & starting fall garden

There is better news to report this week. I harvested tomatoes from the garden and have already used all of them in dinners. 

My grandparents gave me cucumbers that they were donated, and because there were so many, I picked them with fresh dill from my apartment garden. For seasoning, I added mustard seed, dill seed and black pepper, and the brine was made with half white vinegar, half water and salt. I used my instant pot on the steam setting for 1 minute to water bath can the pickles. To be honest, that was my first time water bath canning with the instant pot and I am still skeptical if I processed the pickles safely. I have always just used a large pot with a lid to water bath can pickles for 10 minutes, and that has always been successful. 

And, I have attempted the fall garden for the third time this past month. I hope this time it is successful, as I purchased 40 dollars worth of broccoli, cauliflower and kale plants.

As you can see below, the gardens are at different stages of growing. With the plants I purchased, I put up a fence around the patch to make sure to deter animals. I have put salt around the plants to deter bugs...we shall see I'd that helps...

Corn growing to the sky. 

I had to fix the tomato plants on their posts. I retied them, made sure every limb was on the post, and added any extra posts to secure the planta, as needed. 

In these garden beds, theres radishes up growing. Some carrot seed germinated and I hope they do fantastic amongst these Coxcomb plants.

Some if the remaining broccoli and kale i had went into these garden beds. I use netting to keep my cats out and course salt to keep bugs off. 

My grandmother's Coxcomb plants look even more extraordinary by the day.

HUGE & EPIC radish harvest!

I have not stopped picking leaves for soups, salads, and sandwiches. I have noticed while the greens grow slowly, the radishes grow quickly!

Now I have 4 rows of radishes growing intermittently with greens and onion, and some strawberries. So  I have a large quantity of big radishes.


Today, I pulled up a patch of radishes and below you'll see that epic harvest.

After I pulled up the radishes, I worked the soil and sowed some peas, and covered with additional soil mix.

From here, I bagged and dated the radishes to give away or sell. Of course, I have been doing more giving than selling. Here are some additional pickings from the garden...

Asparagus 

There are many side projects behind the scenes...laying sand for ceramic tile in between the garden beds, tilling and hoeing the other gardens, filling pots and grow bags with soil mixes for planting. I have 45 garden pots and probably 20 grow bags filled with mulch and compost. In those, I'm going to plant melons, squashes, peppers, and tomatoes. I have potatoes already poking throigh the soil in the grow bags.

At my other gardens, I have potatoes growing in bags, buckets and in the ground. I am helping my grandparents in their landscaping endeavours as well, so I have made several flower beds and started additional flower bed spaces.

Like I said, there's so much going on, it's hard to detail all in one post. But, I'll keep y'all updated! See you soon.

Garden harvest & Tulip photography in April

Last week I posted pictures of covering my garden and fruit trees for frost protection. The good news is, the blueberry fruits are still growing, and veggies are very hardy; the bad news is, all the fruit trees are not so hardy. You can see small black fruit dangling from the pear trees, the grape vines are wilted, the mulberry leaves died, the pineapple sage died, the plums that speckled the sky all turned shriveled and black.

I'm not sure if any of the fruit from the peaches and nectarines survived, but I still see some hanging on for life.

Still, I harvest food everyday. I have so many radishes and little greens to prepare salads, vegan seaweed rolls, garnish for ramen, salad wraps, and other pasta dishes loaded with garden food.

I have also been delivering garden food to elders that are social distancing, and to coworkers as well.

Garden veg out for delivery

Spinach & arugula used for tomato pasta dish

Potatoes in grow bags

French breakfast radishes poking out from the soil

Yesterday I planted more pockets of seed around these strawberry plants and other bare spots in the garden beds. I sowed spinach and basil seed which are supposed to be companion plants to strawberries. I sowed the spinach and basil seed around additional bare spots in other garden beds.

Strawberry plants and lettuces

Cilantro bed

Arugula and spinach bed

And the tulips rise, regardless of the frost. However, as of tonight, there's not a petal in sight. The Irises will be taking their place in the upcoming weeks--once again brightening the landscape.

Aronia berry plant blossoms