Fall Garden

Autumn is upon us in great force here on the Wet Coast. I am sitting here listening to a storm passing by, with rain bouncing off the ground and wind whipping the trees. I have been hoping for a few more sunny days to do some much needed garden clean up, taking out some more summer plants, weeding and preparing one of my gardens for garlic planting. I had to use the one sunny non-work day this week to cut the lawn which has recovered from our summer drought like gangbusters! The continuing fall clean up will have to wait for the next sunny day

There are still some summer crops growing, like my cucumbers and tomatoes. I don't think that the smaller cukes will grow with the reduced sunlight, and I have brought in some green tomatoes to ripen inside (in a paper bag with an apple). Unfortunately many of the unripe tomatoes are beginning to rot.

My Banana Girl planted seeds from my cilantro in mid August and now we have delicious, fragrant cilantro for my salads and sautés. Yum!

The everbearing strawberries are at it again. After a lull in August due to the heat, they have produced berries again. 

The mini garden that my daughters planted mid summer is doing very well, and we have been harvesting lettuce and carrots for some time, and their kale is ready to start using now. Given how shallow their raised bed is and how crowded it is, I'm not sure how well their beets will do, but the carrots have grown so perhaps the beets will be fine. I am interested to see how their broccoli does, as the ones I planted in a container are not looking as good. They also have chard in the mix. 

Speaking of kale, I planted two different kinds in the spring and they are both going strong, which is a good thing as my girls love kale chips. I hope to have these plants last all winter. I learned an interesting fact recently while researching perennial plants for veggie gardens - kale is a perennial that we usually grow as an annual! I can see that because I overwintered my kale last year and it was still going strong in the spring. I took it out, though, because it was getting woody unruly. 

In September I planted a couple of Asian greens, pac choi and gai lan, which I have never grown before. The first batch I planted were completely eaten by something. I suspect snails and slugs so the next time I planted them I sprinkled crushed egg shells to repel them from the seedlings. While there are still bite marks on the leaves it seems to be keeping the plants alive. 

Cauliflower is another new plant for me so I have no idea of what to expect. I am watching this one with great interest. I think I planted them too close to the turnips, which are taking over, however. 

Mustard greens were the hit of our summer garden so I decided to try a different variety in our fall garden. Red mustard is supposed to have a spicier zip, and these are ready to start picking so we will find out soon enough. 

Look at these turnips! Wowzers! I'm excited because I love stews and soups in the cold months and turnips are a must. I've also discovered that I like turnips in my homemade fried rice. I wish I had planted more.

The pride and joy of my fall garden is my Brussels sprouts! It is a tradition for me to grow these and harvest some for our Thanksgiving dinner and the rest for our Christmas dinner. I don't know why I didn't realize this before, but I just learned that the leaves can be used much like cabbage leaves. I've been using the more tender looking leaves sparingly. The sprouts seem smaller this year, although there is still a couple of growing weeks to go before Thanksgiving. 

Next up is preparing my beds for garlic as soon as we have a dry day for me to get outside. 

Fall Garden Update

My goodness did time fly this autumn. I planned on journaling about my first attempt at planting garlic and my fall garden clean up much earlier than this, but life seemed to get in the way. My teaching job, my own children, my extended family, all kept me busy. Today I went out to mulch and harvest the last of my Brussels sprouts and I realized that December is almost upon us. I suppose my husband putting up the Christmas lights and decorating the front yard for the coming holiday season was a bit of a wake up call for me.

Beautiful, pungent garlic cloves separated and ready to be planted.

In late October I finally decided to plant my garlic. I fell in love with garlic scapes this summer via the Richmond Sharing Farm CSA (link) pick up and I knew I wanted to grow my own garlic. I planted some of my left over Sharing Farm garlic (one row) but the rest I bought at West Coast Seeds because I wanted to be sure that I was planting hard neck garlic to get scapes in the early summer. I chose the Russian red garlic (link).

Delicious scapes from the Sharing Farm CSA

My youngest daughter was such a distraction taking all my cloves helper in the garden. I don't know what I would do without her! I finally gave her a bucket of dirt, a toy shovel and pretend seeds so I could finish what I needed to before having to pick up my other two kids at school.

I planted tulip and daffodil bulbs the same day.

If I remember correctly I planted approximately thirty cloves in one of my two raised beds. I have been over-zealous in the past with spacing of my seedlings, so I hope I erred on the conservative side of spacing this time.

Finally today I remembered to get out and mulch the garlic bed. We bought two hay bales for our October display in the front yard and I had every intention of bringing those bales around to the backyard to mulch my garlic. However, much in the same way I am a lazy crafter, I am also a lazy gardener and those hay bales still remain in my front yard. My husband knows me well and suggested that the hay become part of our Christmas display and feed our illuminated reindeer. What a smart fellow. Then I realized that I have a lawn covered in leaves and I did two jobs in one by raking the leaves for my garlic mulch. Problem solved. I supposed I should have chopped the leaves up, but remember, I'm lazy. I may have to go back and redo this if we have another big wind storm, but as you can see from the photo, I have no shortage of leaves. By then I may have no more excuses for leaving my hay in the front yard and can use that to mulch.

Do you think the "leaves as mulch" idea was a good one?

My other raised bed has some kale from the summer that is probably about four to five feet high now and still hasn't bolted (I was waiting to collect the seeds). So looks like we will be having some kale chips soon. I also found a rogue beet and chard plant that I was unaware were growing. What a nice surprise. I harvested the last of my Brussels sprouts today because I am taking some into my class at school tomorrow. I found out that most of my students have never heard of or tried Brussels sprouts so I am going to take the stalk in and steam them for all to try (along with some beets to steam and kale to make into kale chips).

The poor Brussels sprouts are a little worse 

for wear after an aphid infestation, but still delicious.

So now the garden is all ready for its long winter sleep.

My next step, researching and planning my summer garden and begin learning about winter gardening for next year!

Autumn Crown Tutorial

My daughters collect so many leaves that I decided I needed to do something crafty with them.

I saw a tutorial for this leaf crown on line two years ago, before Pinterest, and I didn't bookmark the link (or if I did I can't find it in the mess of my bookmarks now), so I'm sorry that I can't give credit to the original crafter for the idea.

All you need are leaves. Plain and simple, right? The leaves cannot be thoroughly dried or else they will crack and crumble when they are folded.

Here are the steps:

1. Collect at least a dozen leaves outside. They can be all one colour, or for a more colourful crown, collect a variety of leaf types.

2. Start with one leaf. Fold it in half, with the stem at the side, so that you have the symmetrical points of the leaf touching each other.

3. Fold another leaf the same way.

4. Use the stem from the second folded leaf to poke two holes just above the line of symmetry of the first leaf.

5. Weave the stem of the second leaf in and out of the punched holes in the first leaf.

6. Once the third leaf is added there should be enough of the third stem to weave through the first leaf to make the crown sturdier.

7. Follow steps two to six for each leaf you add to the crown, until the circumference of the crown is large enough to fit over the prince or princess's head.

8. Weave the stem of the very first leaf through the last leaf added to secure the crown into a circular shape. Be sure to have the ends of the stems on the inside of the crown for a smooth outside.

9. If the leaf is too damp leave it to dry before using.

10. Place the leaf crown on the autumn prince or princess. Voila!

When the leaves become too dry and crumbly, just put them back outside, or better yet throw them into a compost container or garden.