I have to get compost going and soon.I'm already late. I need to use it on my banana plants real soon plus fertilize raised bed. We haven used chemical's yet [ other than hydroponics]. or homemade concoction from ammonia, dish soap and sprite. Will plant some beans and start sweet potatoes, have lots of sweet potato slip's growing in bedroom window now. I think we can keep them going till October here.
I just took these pic's a few minutes ago.Potato slips,banana plant ,raised bed. We put worms we raised in the worm farm house in bed last month and covered it with cardboard.
Our gardening season is slowly coming to a close. It has been 40 F. the past two mornings although it has gotten into the 60s for highs both days. Our cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, peas, dill, and peppers (greenhouse) have done quite well. Some of the pumpkins and squash are doing okay. Currants and honeyberries/haskaps have done reasonably well also. Tomatoes are lagging and cucumbers did poorly, although we may get a few more jars of pickles and relish done before frost. Everyone's apples and melons did very poorly partly due to the rain and cold early in the season. Pollinators couldn't fly. Beans are doing poorly, partly due to weather and partly due to rabbit predation. We had to go to Washington as the weeds were accelerating, so there is weed pressure too. Corn and sunflowers may not yield at all. That was not a problem it past years when we had pigs and goats who would eat the stalks and such, but we now only have chickens, so those crops will be composted. The salmon are in the back yard in numbers we haven't seen in years. It perhaps bodes well for the future, as the spawned fish will lay eggs and the result will be felt 3 years from now when they return. Swans have 7 cygnets--the most we have ever seen here, but the migrating ducks have been very few. The State Fair starts nest week and my wife will have to do 2 garden displays--one for herself and one for the garden club, but she also judges produce (but not her own stuff, obviously).
Yep, a creek behind the house. When we get large runs, everything stinks of rotting fish as they die after spawning. Every evening is spent on the deck or patio watching the goings-on on the water.
None of our squash, summer nor winter did well this year. Hubby bought special seeds for me to make him a pie since the pumpkins last year were mostly jack o lantern variety. So now he is bummed. Ya know what? Pumpkin pie is better when made with buttercup squash. I may buy a couple to cheer him up. The amount of potatoes we will get soon is a bit scarey, if anyone wants some. They will probably cover the whole basement floor. Daughter says her beans are done (only one planting) so she is stealing mine. But she has more tomatoes than I do soooooo....and cauliflower. Their was a weird smell in the garden after the rain. Fresh rabbit manure? Nope bunny parts. Barn cat Bonneroo is old but I guess still has 'it'. Daughter said our wild plums are huge. Not enough for canning, but this was a tree I was going to take out a few years ago. And apples and pears are a manageable number, along with peaches. No salmon here but I settle for bull heads.( a kind of cat fish)
Our squash and pumpkins didn't do great this year either, but there should be a few to last the winter. Butternuts and acorns don't do well for us for some reason, but buttercups, pumpkins and spaghetti squash usually do okay. Wife harvested for her fair display yesterday and potatoes, carrots and beets did better than I expected. Still mostly in the ground, but we got a sample of the future harvest and it looked not great but okay. Our garlic harvest was the best in many years. Last year voles ate the entire garlic crop, so I started with new cloves this year. I usually grow the "Music" variety, but this year I got a garlic sampler at a farmer's market there, so I have 6 new varieties for next year (planted soon). Our old barn died died a couple years ago and that is when our voles exploded. We lost our last dog in November. Wife says no more animals.