What have you done today in the Garden?

Cutting down the finished Asters, Boltonia, Rudbeckia, and annuals in customers gardens to tidy them for the winter. I usually leave some Rudbeckia standing for birds to eat, and it's pretty look in the frosty months. Cutting it down helps to keep it from reseeding and spreading too much.
Today is warm and very windy; the air is dry and dusty. AhhhChooo!

 

Odif and Cayuga, you both have my admiration.
I suspect I have a few years on you. That's my
excuse and I'm sticking to it.

 

The garden is still growing... unbelievably. we have had two light frosts, too. I see the zukes are like they got frosted but I still have tomatoes and peppers beans and peas and carrots and beets. I have been picking the tomatoes and peppers to put out to the stand. not much is moving now. I guess people think there is no food left even if I have a sign out. ah well, it leaves me to be working on other projects like jam and jelly. I have made about 10 dzn jars so far this week for the winter markets and come Spring. Today I suited up to pull the honey supers to find next to nothing in them. I full super per hive. it was so dry here this Summer again. I left all of it for the bees for winter. hopefully they will make it through again to try for more next year. we sure could use a bit more rain throughout the Summer for honey production.

 

We had a light frost in the garden about 1 month ago, this is about 6 weeks before our normal frost date. Like you Carolyn, my courgettes don´t look to good, apart from 7 that are in a more protected place. Yesterday, I made a big harvest of beans and peppers and I was just thinking what to do with all this when a friend came round and took them all, She wants to sell my vegetables and those of another friend. She is ideally placed and we will now work together, the three of us, this is excellent. She left with lettuces and beans and peppers and aubergines and cucumbers and pumpkins and a load of basil.

Growingpains, I turned 50 this year, so I still have a few seasons left at full power.

 

Carolyn, it frightens me to think of the loss of bees. Insecticides should be banned. Most people simply don't understand what our world would be like without bees and butterflies.

Odif, my memory still allows me to recall being 50 Keep up the good work.

 

GP, unfortunately I wouldn't have raspberries without an insecticide. there is no way to get soft small fruit without one with the invasion of spotted wing drosophila fly that has been introduced from Japan. We do have a huge misuse and over use of insecticides/fungicide/herbicides problem though... too many people using things that they think will work and are spraying a totally inappropriate spray to control something... and it doesn't work so they try something else... not knowing what they are doing. everyone should need a spray license to even buy a spray. We do spray as late in the day (like almost dark) to avoid spraying any pollinators. we are targeting only the swd nothing else. I would like for all my pests to just die without me having to resort to any means to control them. I still see cucumber beetles in the garden and I have no cukes out there. they are on the beans and zuchinis and peppers and eggplants... they are everywhere. I need to invest in a trillion dollars worth of nematodes.

 

I understand the difficulty. I grow only for our food. Therefore I handpick Cabbage worms off. Same with the ugly, green worms that devour tomato plants. I believe netting sometimes works. I make homemade sprays which usually keep pests away, but not always.

 

I tried neem on my asparagus as it was getting clobbered by asparagus beetle. Like you, Carolyn I only sprayed it at the very end of the day. It worked pretty well.

 

Well today was the day. Our community garden had a cleanup and rototilling day. I am exhausted. Truly. Even too tired to want to eat out!!
We did a great job. At least an excellent start anyway! The 2ND photo includes my potato plot ready for spring. The first shot shows my 20 healthy asparagus plants!
I haven't included other gardeners plots as I don't have permission.

 

We still have lots more to do. Check out our overgrown compost pile. It actually is a 3 bay compost bin but you'd never know it.

 

It is wonderful to see what all you have done there. You have a great place and it all looks so well-cared for. The backdrop of the magnificent fall colours just highlights the foto's.
Could you describe to me what all I am seeing on that first foto (the veggies, I mean)? What's going on?
It looks very nice and tidy.

 

Thanks Sjoerd! In the first photo, you can see my asparagus at the back (1st row),
then in the 2nd row, the bare plot awaiting potatoes in the spring, a large bok choi, some seedling bok chois for greens. Out of sight in that row is more bare soil & a rhubarb.
3rd row is bare soil, out of sight are golden grex beets sitll growing.
4th row is my beginning patch of strawberries (I intend to make it bigger, and some leeks (cheek-by-jowel) that a neighbor stuffed in there, then a stand of kale. Out of sight is a sowing of baby lettuces for fall eating. I will have to cover them with a row cover. At the very end (out of sight) I just planted a 3 X 5 rectangle of garlic.
5th row is bare except for a stand of swiss chard.

I have thrown down some white clover as a cover crop. What do you think of that? I am hoping that is not a mistake.

 

Cayuga, I'm impressed. Sjoerd asked my question about the background trees.
We must be blessed. Our Asparagus has never been attacked by any pest.

 

GP: bugs are one of the downsides of joining a community garden. The critters zip from plot to plot, so much to eat!

 

Hiya Cayu,
White clover is a pretty good cover crop...I say that because the farmers here use it some years to replace the nitrogen in the soil of their fields. White clover is in the same group as beans and so they take nitrogen from the air and store it as nodules on their roots.

I never use it simply because it can be a bit difficult yo remove from the lottie. Some blew in or was deposited by birds a few years back and it is still with me in cracks between stepping stones.. hahaha.

Thanks a mil for the explanation of what is currently in your beds. It all looks so good there. I like the looks of your soil.