Mad Dogs and English [Wo]men

Megan, Ann and I arrived at the old house Saturday at noon. 

We were greeted by the first bloom of the season.

We got to work right away. It took a lot of effort but we weeded the garden leaving only some garlic, onions, flowers, and what I'm pretty sure is zucchini but might be cucumber. John showed up shortly thereafter and cut the small patch of grass out back with the push mower that decided to work now that there wasn't a front lawn to cut. We threw out all the things that needed throwing out, and cleaned the whole house.

Results of the tidied-up back yard.

Final Harvest

I got sun sick and had to take some Tylenol and nap with an ice cold beanbag to get rid of the headache that was bad enough to make me queezy... but I'm glad it's done.

Wrapping Up for Winter

Did a bunch of work in the yard today including flipping the rain barrel so it wouldn't fill & freeze.

Obligatory before shot:

We harvested what we could of the parsley and kale before pulling everything up and turning in the leaves.

I know that kale and parsley could have survived til next year but we're going to most likely be turning in a lot of things to the beds and it's not like they were hard to grow.
The cauliflowers found in the centers of the plants weren't even big enough for a snack.

Tiny

Less Tiny

We already have two big mason jars of dried parsley, a large container in the freezer of frozen parsley... so hopefully we can find this fresh bunch a home with friends.

What was left of the parsley.

And of course, the obligatory after shots:

Shed & compost piles

Trellis tied for wind stability

Lonely potted calendula.

Closer shot so you can see, the new compost pile is off to a good start.

Learning from 2012

We learned quite a few things this year:

• I don't actually have the time or desire to keep track of seeding/transplanting/harvesting every week on top of watering and weeding.
• I don't mind drying/freezing/canning our produce and would much rather have a big harvest to store than a continuous trickle that will most likely get wilty and gross before we eat it
• We don't need half as many varieties and would probably be much better off planting more of what we'll definitely eat
• The seedlings were leggy because they didn't get enough light
• The transplants did poorly because they were not properly hardened off
• The garden in general did poorly because the soil's still terrible and we didn't water nearly enough
• The front lawn is a waste of space(even tiny as it is) an no one wants to mow it even if the mower were working

What did you learn this year?

Final? Harvest

Weather says possible snow tonight and the pepper plants were already showing signs of frost damage... So we got the last of the food out of the garden, (except the cold hardy cauliflower, kale and herb bed) and cut down the bean vines, and pulled the pepper plants. I can't say it's been a good year but it has been an informative one.

Big bowl of parsnips... and a few baby carrots.

A massive pile of parsley

Some smallish green peppers and a demented twin eggplant.

Harvests & updates

It's been a long hot summer and I actually managed to grow a social life of sorts. I haven't been taking pictures, I haven't been weighing harvests, I haven't been planting, and I haven't been updating... bad girl.

I offer an apology to my readers, and an approximate description of harvests and current garden conditions, as well as info regarding future plans.

The onions never matured.

We did eat a bunch of these already. Very tasty!

Garlic, garlic, garlic!

We've been picking peas and snap beans as they mature and recently have been able to pick some cherry and plum tomatoes as well. I've also just harvested the onions and garlic.

And now for the garden tour:

Garlic Harvest

The tops of the garlic didn't really flower, it... budded.

 They look like little cloves and I'm going to plant them this fall.

These are the four garlic heads from the front of the house.

They're VERY dirty and don't seem to want to come clean. 

I may have left them in too long because the stems came right out of the center.

Small head gave 4 cloves once peeled.

They smelled and tasted delicious. A bit more "fresh" or "green" tasting than I'm used to with store stuff but this was store stock so... *shrug*.

Harvests recorded.

Brought the cost vs harvest page up to date:

http://barefoot-squarefoot.blogspot.com/p/cost-vs-harvest-2012.html

Harvest Update

Almost forgot to tell you! 

We harvested another 6.1oz (179g) of salad greens and parsley on Wednesday!

Sooooooo taaaasty!

First Harvest!

3.5oz (99g) of salad greens

The greens were getting crowded so I had to pick some even though there wasn't anything to pick with them.