Warm Season Wrap Up

I finally got off my butt and out from behind the desk this afternoon. Spent some time mowing the leaves and weeds - most of the grass long ago stopped growing for the season. I'd love to be able to compost my leaves and grass clippings, but with so much of that God forsaken Bermuda grass in the yard, there's no way I'm gonna risk getting any more of that crap in my garden. I've already got one brand new, never planted bed I built for next year just full of the stuff. Nothing works, not even Roundup, and I'm not willing to use anything stronger. I don't like chemicals.

I ended up pushing the mulched leaves and grass up into loose piles around my apple and peach trees. The apple trees are only one year transplants, so I don't look for anything from them anytime soon, but the remaining peach tree is now a couple years old and should start producing in the next year or two. Still waiting to see what kind of tree is growing from the rootstock of the one that died. I'm guessing that it's got to be a Prunus of some kind, but that covers a lot of ground. Patience, Grasshopper.

It looks like this year we're finally going to have a decent winter garden. A month or so ago I planted a few carrots, some cabbage, Chinese kale, bok choy, and lots of collards and mixed leaf lettuce. All seem to be doing well, although I think we lost a good bit of the cabbage. The walking onions that we planted last fall are still doing well. They make great scallions, but not so much for slicing - small bulbs and a very strong flavor. Note to self - next year, need plant regular onions too.

The asparagus bed suffered a setback when I decided to relocate it from its original location last fall, but most of the roots survived and are now doing well. I pretty much buried them under rabbit manure a month or two ago and they seem to really like that. Maybe next spring I'll finally get enough at one time for a meal or two. Perennial vegetables rock!

Speaking of perennials, this year's crop of sunchoke roots are looking much better than the first two years. Diane calls them fartichokes with good reason, but she's agreed to give them another shot after first frost since that's supposed to improve the flavor. I can't say they're my favorite food, but the whole idea was to plant a few things that would naturalize and provide us with a food source no matter what kind of train wreck the gurus on Wall Street create. Better to have it and not need it than the other way around.

Last year we planted our first crops of garlic and shallots. Both grew well, but many of the shallots rotted before we could use them. We've still got plenty of garlic left - some of them are whoppers. I think we'll plant a bit of extra when the time comes in about a month. Maybe we can take a few to one of the local farmer's markets next year and sell them or barter for something we don't grow. Garlic is something I can't recall seeing there, although we don't get to the markets often enough to really know.

So that's the plan: more garlic, more beans, and as always, more 'maters. One can never have too many tomatoes.