Garden winding down
October 3rd, 2009
It’s been crazy the last four weeks during the home improvements. I finally moved back in two nights ago and it is very cold. We have to insulate somehow before winter totally hits. The garden is mostly done for the year. I am just getting in some of the last vegetables.
The pumpkins turned out beautiful beyond belief. I gave four of them away since we didn’t get pigs like expected. I’m not sure whether I will can the pumpkin or make pumpkin pie. I will toast the seeds though.
I got three Lady Godiva’s. I thought I was doing well until my mom told me that she got 37 Lady Godiva’s off of her two plants. Somehow I think my mom’s nice soil combined with better bee pollination really makes for an amazing turnout. I’ve already cooked some of the seeds. I heated up oil, dumped them into the pan, and then salted them generously and they turned out amazing. This is a plant that I will definitely be growing next year. Even the pulp and rind didn’t go to waste as the chickens love them.
My Banana Pink Jumbo winter squash is very big. I plan on just cutting them up and freezing the chunks to later use in hot winter soups. One thing that I noticed being really off in the garden was the pollination of almost all of my squash. I barely got anything off of the plants. Lee plans of getting honey bees next year so that should really help out the garden.
I got a few melons that barely made it in time before the cold weather hit. This was another first for me to grow. I didn’t get them in early enough due to some seedling failures. A couple spoonfuls and that was it.
Finally, I am trying a new weed block approach. The weeds got a little away from me this summer. This is what one of the garden pathways looked like. Not good.
For next years garden I am changing the row layout. Along with that I am using cardboard and straw for the garden pathways. I made sure to strip off all the tape on the cardboard and to make sure there weren’t any staples. Then I just laid the cardboard down in the walkways and put a nice thick layer of straw down on top of it. My garlic bed got the first trial out for this weed block approach. I plan on saving all my cardboard this winter and then when the new garden season comes, just using this approach for the rest of the garden.
October 4th, 2009 at 10:41 am
Robin, we will absolutely have to compare notes on cardboard mulch, *LOL
I am very envious of your pumpkins and squashes. Mine didn’t do so well; very disappointing.
October 4th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Leigh, don’t be to jealous of my pumpkins and squashes. I had two pumpkin types and only one did well. My squashes and melons overall did really poorly. Basically I only got a couple of fruit off of them each. It was also very disappointing for us. Lee is really desperate for honey bees. His nephew and brother just started hives last year and said that their garden and fruit trees production was out of this world. Not to mention the honey didn’t taste to bad either
If we do end up getting bees next year it will be neat to see what sort of difference we would have in the garden.
October 5th, 2009 at 2:27 am
Robin – It is also starting to get cold here in our house. We didn’t get too much insulating done this summer! We, too, will have to work on that! I’m shivering here right this minute, and it’s only in the 60’s inside.
Your pumpkins look awesome! I will definitely have to do pumpkins next year! Our squash did so well this year – I was so surprised, so I bet if I had pumpkins, they’d do good, too! What’s your mom’s secret for 37 off 2 plants??
I know what you mean about the weeds! This year was my first garden – I tried to weed it, but the weeds were ferocious & time-consuming. I’ll have to try the cardboard & straw thing. Plus I plan on enlarging my garden next year, the squash took way more than they’re fair share of the garden this year!
I’ve been trying to talk my husband into honeybees – my step-dad had honeybees when I was a kid. It didn’t look like alot of work, and the honey was great.
Thanks for the tips, as always!
October 5th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Bees?!? I hate bees. Do I get issued a bee-suit when I come to visit?
October 8th, 2009 at 12:18 am
Lynn- During the summer I was wishing it was cooler. Now that it’s getting cold I’m wishing it was warmer! Lee says that I have a half degree comfort level and anything above or below that makes me complainy. We got moved back in and couldn’t use our fireplace due to the tarps over the roof for the re-roofing job. It was in the 40’s and below at night. The only way I could bear it was with two down comforters on the bed along with wearing wool socks and hat. It gets a lot colder over where you live at so I guess I shouldn’t complain. Guess we will both be doing insulation during this winter huh?
I absolutely loved growing the pumpkins. It was the first time for me and just watching them grow made me ridiculously happy. I think it’s that bright orange color that seems just so cheery. My mom used horse manure from their horses so the soil is pretty rich. Along with that she had a big patch of Borage which attracts bees galore. I’m going to try planting some of that next year. I wish that I had some of your squash output here. This was the first year for me that my squash didn’t do super well.
Hopefully the straw and cardboard trick will work for the garden. One of my neighbors said that she used newspaper and mulch and it did a good job. That and it makes the soil really nice after a few years of doing that from breaking back down into the soil. I need to try something different as it felt like a jungle trying to walk through the pathways towards the end of summer.
Do you think that you will be able to get Randy interested in doing honeybees? I have to say that I probably wouldn’t do it (kinda scared of bees) so it will be Lee’s project. It doesn’t seem like very much work at all from talking with Lee’s nephew and brother.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:24 am
Jessica, boy if you need a bee suit to visit things must be going down hill. I’m not planning on having the bees in the living room you know. That would put a severe strain on me wanting to go home….