Getting There

I had a long list of things to do. It isn't complete yet, but it is getting there. I finished sifting all the leaf mold. Yesterday I cleaned out three of the beds and put on compost. Today I did the last two that needed to be cleaned up for now and covered them up too - with compost and bird netting to keep the cats away. Half the beds are totally cleaned up now and a couple are half done, but still have some small harvests left.

In addition I got all the chard frozen. I left them in as they might still produce. Doubtful, but you never know what the weather will bring. Sometimes we are frozen or snowy by mid November, but not always. I've completed half the kale, but the other half is still to go. Kale is a slow process. I've got aphids in there. Not a ton, but enough. They tend to be in clumps, but I have to go through them and clean them really well.

I still have things on the list. I need to get out and pick most of the parsley and cilantro and freeze them. I need to clean up the front zinnias that are dead (the ones in the garden are still going strong). Sunday I need to collect leaves for next year's compost. At least nothing is horribly urgent anymore.

And I thought I was forgetting something in my last blog post. I was. I had to plant the garlic. I always do it in the last week of October. So today I finally got out and got those in.

I picked all the biggest cloves from the biggest bulbs to plant. I plant on a six inch offset grid. Though I haven't made up next year's garden plan yet, but did check my records and alliums have never been in this bed before and the bed had corn and squash previously. So it seemed a good bed to use. Hopefully everything else will fit together with a good rotation.