I have been so far behind the last few years, with the trees we lost in storms or because they had become danger trees, and then having to rebuild half of my shed and my chicken coop. So now I am FINALLY catching up around here, and things are looking much better. I have been raking leaves and hauling them to my raised beds and the compost pile, barrels and containers. I redid the boards on my raised beds also, and dug up those huge clumps of some kind of field grasses and gave them to Horsey. She liked that. I have lots more leaves to rake up, but they will get used in my compost and garden beds and added to containers. I did put layers of cardboard under the leaves like they say for the no dig gardens. I had that done in my one bed with the potatoes and beans, and it helped a lot. I did get a decent yield on my scarlet runner beans, and have some in the freezer, and sent a few to my Mother. She could put them in a soup. We had not had any in many years. They have never grown for me before--I have not gotten any kind of beans to grow for me before--so this year was a first. My blue lake bush beans did okay. I got a few servings of them, which since they were zero yields before, I considered that wee bit a 'bumper crop.' Maybe next year I will have a LOT more beans? I got loads of garlic. I have it condensed down to two large paper grocery sacks. It was in a wheelbarrow and a large crate, but after shaking out the extra dirt, it got smaller, but still heavy. I don't know how much because my scale won't cooperate. Last year I had about 12 lbs, but this year's is a lot more. I shared some around with friends too. I saw some chicken videos that claim chickens like garlic? Apparently, they do as they ate most of the garlic leaves I gave them this morning. My tomatoes were not as big as "slicing tomatoes" should be, but I got enough for salads every week for church. My salad recipe is: chopped up tomatoes, a chopped cucumber or two, chopped onion, some dill, some chives, and some chopped parsley, some lemon juice and a bit of salt. It got wiped out almost every week. I had large red tomatoes (Better Boy) and some large yellow tomatoes but forgot what variety. I never use oil and vinegar on my salads. I did get about 7 or 8 lbs of sweet potatoes, and some white potatoes too. I did some other odd jobs around here, rearranging stuff, and making a primitive set of shelves in my shed. It keeps things neater. I want to get the baby garlics back in the ground, and do some serious WEEDING in my flower beds. I got one of those dry erase boards recently, and my to-do list is as long as the board. I did plant some more Egyptian walking onions, and transplanted my horse radish. It did not like its former location. I guess it is a bit late for much of a fall garden here in zone 6b? I may try a few things like carrots and some parsley though?
AA. what a marvelous garden you have described. Lot of veggies to harvest and as gardens go we seem to always be playing catch up. I love butternut squashes and your garden time is long enough for watermelon too.
