"QUEEN OF CLOVES", indeed!Now you see why I put this section AFTER my "all cleaned up and good enough for company" pictures!!!
All together now: "GOOFY GARDENZ"!!.......... I always carry at least these many bulbs around with me on a daily basis...Vampires, you know! "Bwaahaahaa!" The bulk of last year's harvest was hanging in the shed or already in the kitchen. As we do each year in October, we put in about 300 bulbs or so. Heck, I'd fill up all five beds if I could, but then where the heck would I put the tomatoes and other stuff?? BTW, as if you hadn't already guessed, that's the 'maters behind me, and part of the basil crop. BTW: We've been ordering our garlic from Johnny's Select Seeds in Maine for the past 7 years. I can't recommend them highly enough. You can get completely organic or non-organic grown bulbs. Lucked into this one at a local garden center. It's the larger, 75 gallon model, from GardenersSupply. (Always check local sources before ordering ANYTHING from more expensive catalogs. You never know what you can stumble on right in your own backyard!) Rather than link it up to another barrel, we decided to get a piece of pool-filter hose and link it to a huge 55gal tub. It was the cheaper and easiest of solutions...at the time! But, live and learn....cheaper and easier isn't always the way to go. See those cinderblocks bolstered up against the side of the tub and the bungee cords? Well, when that puppy gets 55 gallons full, it b o w s out! While we managed to bolster the bowing, it created too much pressure inside and the thing blew a leak! Now, with the hole duct taped, we just use it to store garden tools and bags of potting soil. We'll have to rig up a better run off system or try linking it again. This time to a stronger, construction grade garbage pail. Throughout the winter, we use the shredded-leaf pile to dump our kithcen waste, etc. Admittedly, we don't turn it as often as we should, so it doesn't get that hot. With this year's Giant, Consistent Snow Dump, it was near impossible to even see the leaf pile, let alone attempt to turn it! But, just two weeks ago, after all the snow had finally disappeared Jim had the opportunity of giving it a good turn with our brand spanking new compost fork from Lee Valley Tools, compliments of a Christmas gift certificate from Jim's brother. You might just be able to make out some of our...er.."friendly visitors" from up the road. They're "waddling" right in front of my deck! Neighbors' guinea hen troupe! On the one hand, they're a hoot, and I know they go after ticks. But, they've started to eat all the sunflower seed and corn we throw out for the birds and squirrels. What's worse, their "chubby little bodies", play follow-the-leader through my flower beds! "Arrgh!!" Now, with starting many flowers from seed, I've had to cover those areas with pieces of row cover or Remay® to protect them. The other problem is when we apply the Corn Gluten Meal to our lawn in the Fall and Spring. After all, it's basically "corn", and it's fowl food. My neighbor managed to keep them corraled last fall, but they've been..uh....stopping by for visits again for the past couple of weeks. I guess I'll have to be on guinea hen patrol for awhile. Looking back towards the woods. Ah....aside from the lovely Hyacinth Beans in the foreground and some "future dried flowers" growing in the long bed inside the veggie garden...this is a lovely view of our septic runoff field! We ran the garden up to as close to the runoff as we felt comfortable. I know a lot of folks build right over theirs, but, ever since we had to have the whole shebang completely redug and reconstructed....I wasn't about to run the risk of planting anything else there that might have to be disturbed. This year, I'm gonna be prepared for them with an early placement of "Stinky Spring Soap" (a.k.a. Irish Spring) around the most vulnerable plants. Placed in old pantyhose or those mesh onion bags on stakes at least 3' off the ground ("deer-nose height"). Well, that's about it for now. I've no pictures of our tomato harvest..which, frankly...was pretty horrendous. The drought here in the East (and most of the country) last year really took its toll what with water restrictions, and even using drip irrigation. Being reliant on well water, we had to sacrifice the plants for our own water needs. May this season (may EVERY gardening season) be better for everyone! If you'd like to go directly from here and check out some organic/environmental links, that's cool! Gardenzlinks
Aw, Phooey! And there'll be no snickering at the legs, pul-eeze! They get me around the garden just fine, thank you. This was my "infamous birthday present" of last year. Hey, some women want diamonds or chocolate... I wanted a rainbarrel....uh...AND chocolate!
Veggie garden is on the left. House on the right. Shed and greenhouse..up ahead. In the lower right hand corner is the second, or in-between level compost pile. That's where we store all of our mulched leaves from last fall. Our finished pile is not in view, but is to the right of the greenhouse, just outside my back mudroom door.
Over there on the right is how we dry and store some of our onions. They're laid on hardware cloth hung from the rafters in our shed. After these dry, they're bundled together and hung in another part of the shed. Then another batch is laid up there to air dry. Last season we grew Red Burgermeister, Copra and First Edition. All long-day variety plants, which we ordered from from Dixondale Farms
Jim harvesting some romaime lettuce. Broccoli (I think it was Green Comet and Packman) is in the same bed. You'll notice the hoops and the row cover on the ground outside the box. Hoops are washing machine drain hose that's arced to form a hoop and then either pushed down into 3'pieces of pvc or pushed over 3'pieces of rebar. Hoops can be raised and lowered as crops grow. Spun bond row cover is protection from early/late frost and/or white cabbage moths that, whose larva develop into cabbage looper worms. The hoops can also be covered with 6mil poly for even further frost protection.
This is probably the earliest picture taken last season. It looks like it was right around early spring. The trees are still bare, but you can see a hint of bud growth. As you can see, I wasn't the only one in the backyard that morning!
Hey, there's a kitty and a few of his friends that would just LOVE it if you to paid them a visit. Just rub his belly!