Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Winding down the garden

Autumn is here in Ohio...


and we are getting festive for the season!


Check out all our homegrown pumpkins and gourds!


Our garden is winding down though we are still harvesting chiles, tomatoes, beets, carrots and many herbs.  The carrots and beets will be fine for a few more months outdoors. The parnsips will soon we ready and we are so excited!  We planted new patches of cilantro, spinach and lettuce in our cold frame so that should keep us going for a few more months and for the first time ever we planted garlic.  We planted the cloves about two weeks ago in one of our raised beds.  See the straw covered bed below.  They should be ready next summer!


We are preparing our finished beds for winter by weeding and edging and throwing those organic materials directly into the bed.  



Once we've piled up some nice organic matter we top the whole bed with compost, straw, mulched grass or mulched leaves depending on what we have on hand at the time.  The beds pictured below grew our squash this year and will grow our tomatoes next year.  We will pull the mulching back to plant, but otherwise leave it in place to compost and feed the soil. 


These beds were our main tomato growing area.  The goldfinches are loving the sunflower seeds!


We will tackle more of the garden once we receive our first frost.  Overall, our first garden here in Ohio proved INCREDIBLE! 

5 comments:

  1. I really do miss the feeling of autumn in OH. You guys sure have put in a lot of work into your new home and yard. I'm so impressed. Thanks for sharing your journey.

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  2. Incredible is an understatement!

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  3. Hi J&S...what a year huh!!
    You have accomplished so much .and the success you have had with your first year garden ...fantastic!!

    Grace

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  4. Hi Jennifer and Steve,

    Very fruitful year for you! So wonderful to see the garden in all it's stages this year, you both did so well! So much food from your plot, quite an inspiration. Fall, such a fabulous time of year! ~Vonnie

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  5. Such a fantastic garden. One day in my future home, I'll have you design one for us:)

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