Saturday, October 8, 2011

2011 Garden Season Comes to a Close

I am pretty much hanging up my gardening gloves for the year. I just had surgery on my right foot which requires me to wear a boot for the next 2-6 weeks, so work in the garden has pretty much halted. I spent an afternoon working out there this last week. I tore everything out with the exception of my green bell peppers and Jalapenos. My green beans were completely taken over with bugs so those are gone now too.I dug up part of my sweet potatoes. I still have quite a bit left to dig. The problem I was running into was alot of the potatoes were half eaten. I am so bummed.

I actually saw one of the little creatures responsible for this as I was pulling back the straw. It was a vole or family of voles by the looks of it that caused all the damage.

We had a great gardening year. We had lots of days where our daily pickings looked like this.We were able to put up lots of produce for the winter. Alot of our time lately has been spent preserving our fruits and vegetables. My youngest son has been my biggest helper. He is always eager to peel apples or take skin off tomatoes and peaches. All of my kids were suckered multiple times into helping snap beans.I am pretty sure I am done canning for the winter. I took inventory of all we put up for winter that I will share with you in an upcoming post.

I really wanted to plant a fall crop of peas and lettuce but I never got it done. I am afraid I am too late now. I may still try and toss some lettuce seed into some pots on my deck. It usually doesn't take to long to grow. I also want to get some garlic planted now for next spring. Does anyone know when I need to get that in the ground? I think I read before the first frost.

How is your garden doing? Did you plant any fall crops?

2 comments:

  1. I always plant garlic in late October.

    For fall, I planted lettuce which never came up. I also did beds of peas and green beans. I am just hoping to replenish the soil with those crops. I will let them winter over and then plow them in in the spring. they have sprouted, just hoping for more growth before the cold sets in.

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  2. My best solution for here in NM with the dry heat was to bury a soaker hose to get the water deep enough. and I use liquid steer manure to fertilize with. Take a large hand full of steer manure etc. put in 1-gal container then add water let set for three days use as consentrate with 1" in 1-gal fill to top with water, water color of tanned skin.

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