What did you do in your garden today?

[FarmerJamie]

Picked a few peppers and taters to make stuffed peppers for dinner. Sampled a few sunchokes

 

[FarmerJamie]

Long story short, the stone engraving was free.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That's beautiful!!

 

[flowerbug]

dug a trench in a garden, then went down the middle of it another shovel deeper to help break up the hardpan layer that is down there from eons of farming compaction and no deep ripping at all ever that i've seen any evidence of, oh and they never seemed to grow cover crops either.

whenever i've done anything to the top of the subsoil layer (pretty much anyplace we have not brought in fill is all subsoil quality) there is very poor drainage so any organic material that is not held in place somehow will get washed away by any heavy rains or winds.

if i get a cover crop of alfalfa/birdsfoot trefoil going for a few years and cut it back once or twice a season and leave it there for the worms to get at between the worms and the plant roots i can get the top foot of an area to turn into really nice looking garden soil which is still heavy from all the clay yet it is really fertile and grows anything but root crops very nicely. tomatoes i've always had pretty good results even in the worst year i've had. i'd like to grow winter wheat and winter rye (the grains) so they can keep the weeds down and provide a nice cover crop through the winter but Mom does not like it so ...

all that said the trench got filled in with half the debris from the garden it is in plus some stalks from the neighboring lilies. the 2nd trench i dig (tomorrow or Saturday) i won't be going as deep. one of those is enough for my bod this week.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

dug a trench in a garden, then went down the middle of it another shovel deeper to help break up the hardpan layer

That sounds like a whole bunch of no fun at all! Glad you got it done though...

 

[flowerbug]

That sounds like a whole bunch of no fun at all! Glad you got it done though...

i do enjoy it and my body needs it what i am not happy about in the process is that it takes time and i can't get it all done at once. if i didn't like dirt therapy i'd never have been able to do what i've been doing all these years. the amount of headwinds that Mom provides at times has not discouraged me - i remind myself that we're very different people with different attitudes towards life and of course have very different histories behind it all.

last night it rained so i won't be doing any gardening today but i have some hoses that need to be unhooked, drained and brought in for the winter and i can do that later today and return to garden digging and putting up the other half tomorrow. at least that is the plan. . .

 

[FarmerJamie]

The Hail Mary red beets did not work out. Got them planted about 3 weeks too late. Nothing bigger than marble sized. Pulled them up, cleaned up the bed.

Cleaned up the asparagus bed. Happy that even though I had a late start planting additional crowns this year, every one of them pushed up stalks. Now have a dozen growing

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I tucked in a few turnip seeds in a few bare spots. Then I looked at one of the empty beds and tried to decide if I could get 25 broccoli plants in there. Hmmmm, AI said 4 - 11! I dunno about that - I think I can do better, lol. I was thinking more like 15 and maybe 18 if they're really friendly, lol.

 

[FarmerJamie]

Wife surprised me with this

 

[Mini Horses]

I saw those at TSC. Didn't buy, too much temptation.
In my cleaning/re-org efforts, I found some seed I'd misplaced. Added back to the huge stash! My packet of round carrots, best find been looking for those.