Tag: fall on the farm

Fun Fall Finds

It’s funny because the change of seasons always makes the tune play in my head “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” And I know that song is supposed to be about the Christmas season, but I think it applies to the turn of every season. I love the change that each season represents and Fall is so crisp and crunchy you can’t miss it.

One day I’ll walk outside and notice the brown, curled leaves dappling the ground in so many places.  As if they all fell the night before.

The evenings will all of a sudden seem darker at dinner time and I’ll want to put on a snuggly sweater while sitting on the couch.

The change of scenery is a perfect time to recalibrate our senses and pay attention to what is new and evolving. It’s so easy to be wrapped up in our to do lists and thoughts that we miss the beautiful magic right before us.

Speaking of, here’s a cute little nugget of Fall that crept up without me even noticing.  Last year, I threw my old decorative mini-pumpkins on the ground in front of my porch at some point in early December when they had become rotten and mushy. And in the last two months, look at this amazing little pumpkin plant that took hold (with no help from me, I will say) and is happily growing two adorable little mini-pumpkins.

mini pumpkin plant growing in my landscaping
mini pumpkin growing in my landscaping
mini pumpkin growing in my landscaping

These are the wonders of nature that keep me in awe. What are some of the fun fall finds you’ve noticed in your garden or nature around you?

Reminder: this is the time to start checking the big box stores for fall planted bulbs that will bloom in the spring. They usually go on sale in the next few weeks.

Give Cover Crops a Chance

I’ve never planted cover crops successfully. The last two years I’ve thrown down rye seeds at some point in the fall and just hoped for the best.  Well, as they say, hope is not a plan so that approach didn’t really get too far.

This year I bought two different ½ pound bags to spread across my three garden beds that are about 3’ x 20’ each. I bought oats and field peas mix and hairy vetch from Hudson Valley Seed Co. I have three other  smaller beds that are further from my water source and I had sprinkled seeds on these beds back in August but didn’t pay attention to watering them so guess what happened?  Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

oats and peas cover crop mix
hairy vetch cover crop

So what’s the deal with cover crops anyway?  What are they good for and why should you plant them? I’ve been hearing about cover crops for the last five years or so but I didn’t really think of the concept pertaining to my small-scale garden. But I was wrong. There are many benefits and advantages to be gained from planting cover crops in nearly any size space.  

Here are some of the points that sold me:

  1. Improve soil health – cover crops support all types of soil organisms that make a beautiful web of interdependence. Cover crops feed bacteria and fungi in the soil and worms and other insects eat the fungi and bacteria.
  2. Prevent erosion – cover crops help stabilize soil to better absorb intense rain and cover crop root channels help soil hold water in drier environments. 
  3. Fix nutrients – cover crops hold on to nutrients such as nitrogen that can be released the next season to help the next year’s crops.
  4. Capture carbon – Cover crops remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and build it into the soil.

So no matter what size garden you are working with, give cover crops a chance. It’s truly a privilege to be a steward of a piece of the Earth, so help it be as healthy as possible.

Put your garden to bed, and tuck it in with some garlic

As I’ve gotten a little older, I have grown to love Fall more and more. Of course from a gardening perspective, it represents things slowing down a bit and being able to enjoy the hard work and bounty of the harvest. On a personal level, I also see it as a time to take stock of all the good things in my life. Things get going so fast a lot of the time that it’s easy to always be on to the next thing. I’d like to think that after my year of enough I’m better at appreciating where I am and what I have, but reminders are always helpful too.

Have you ever heard that the best way to have a good tomorrow is to get good night’s sleep tonight? The same principle applies to your garden. As colder weather sets in and the hours of daylight fade, time spent in the garden for me is more about wandering, noticing, and pondering. Where do I want to move that?  What would grow better here? I’m sure you can see where this is going… my 2021 garden lessons and successes post will be coming soon.

Getting back to the concept of rest and replenishing, this is the perfect time to tuck in your garden beds for their winter respite. This involves putting back a lot of what has been taken out throughout the Spring, Summer and Fall. When you think about how much nutrition and mass leaves the soil throughout the growing season, it only makes sense to refill the tank so to speak. Like a bank account, if you’re only making withdrawals you’ll soon be in the negative.

Here’s How to Layer your Beds for Winter

  1. A layer of aged manure
  2. A layer of compost
  3. A layer of shredded leaves
  4. Put something on top, like cardboard or a tarp, to keep everything in place so that it gets all warm and cozy for the winter.
garden bed layered with compost and manure for garlic planting
two heads of garlic laying on garden bed
head of garlic broken up into individual cloves on soil
cloves of garlic planted in garden bed

Note: End of October/early November is also the perfect time to plant your garlic for next year. Identify whichever bed or section you want to plant it in, remembering that you won’t harvest it until mid to late June so factor that in to your placement. Then depending on how much space you can dedicate, each clove needs to be planted 2-3” deep and 4-5” apart, buy as many organic heads of garlic as will fit in your space. I bought 3 heads of garlic and planted between 27-30 cloves (plant the biggest ones) into the compost and manure I had just put down, and then covered with shredded leaves and a few cardboard boxes.

Fall garden update

With only about a month to go before the first frost, here’s how my fall garden is coming along.  Now remember, I did not plant anything at the right time (i.e. late July to mid-August).  I didn’t have the space in my garden due to tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, green beans, and squash being all over the place, so I waited for a few things to peter out before I uprooted them.  Hence, I planted my fall crops at the end of August and beginning of September. 

AND, I had the challenge of bunnies and/or mice coming in and eating seeds the day after I put them in the ground so I had to come up with a solution.  Not sure how you pronounce it (klotch? cloach? whatevs), but I went the route of water bottle cloches and that seems to have worked.  To outsmart these little garden critters, I cut the bottoms off of some plastic water bottles (not mine of course, cuz plastic water bottles are so six years ago) and twisted them in to the soil and then dropped some seeds in and then sprinkled a little more dirt on top.  Worked like a charm! 

So here is how things are looking towards the end of October, maybe 45ish days in. I’ll be honest, I’m concerned there isn’t enough time to see a harvest before it gets really cold so I may be constructing a quick low tunnel (cliff hanger…)

Peas and sugar snap peas (far right)
Golden and ruby beets (bottom middle)
Broccoli and cauliflower (top middle)
Russian and regular kale (not pictured)

Six brussels sprouts plants with three that have been eaten by cabbage worms
Five plants of broccoli and cauliflower
three each of golden and ruby beet plants
Pea and sugar snap pea plants trellising up

And my test run of brussels sprouts (left above).  I bought six seedlings to start and three plants were devoured by cabbage worms.  It was so sad. I came out every morning to squish the worms I could see and spray the plants with soapy, cayenne pepper water for about ten days and I still lost the battle.  But I’m dumbfounded why only three of the plants were attacked.  Anyone?

I did a little cover crop section of buckwheat that is so pretty in pink but I need to chop down. You may have also noticed that there are wood chips everywhere. I signed up for chip drop and we have tons of wood chips to use in the garden, flower beds, around trees, and in the chicken coop. So exciting!

four rows of ruby buckwheat planted for a cover crop

Plant-based progress and year of enough #4

If you recall, I set out this year to work on two “self-improvement” projects.  Not resolutions per se, but changes to my lifestyle and mindset that I thought would be valuable.  For the first six months, I’d say I was doing pretty well.  These last few months – July, August, and September – I’ll be honest, haven’t been as strong on both fronts.

In addition to all of the other uncertainties the external environment has presented, I’ve had some significant changes in my personal life. I know we are all dealing with a lot and I don’t think my load is any heavier or more difficult than another, but it’s my load so I’ve got to figure out how to carry it. That’s where the “year of enough” is more apropos than I could have ever anticipated. It’s a shift in mindset that runs counter to most of what has been drilled into me my entire life.  Achieve X, then feel happy/fulfilled/good.  But in reality, I need to start from a place of contentment and fulfillment in order to achieve the things that are meaningful.  It’s sort of a blend of mantra’s from Deepak Chopra (I am whole, I am loved, I am enough, I am worthy) and Neil Pasricha’s Happiness Equation.

And while I thought I was making good progress the first half of the year, nothing like a pressure cooker to test the strength and “stickiness” of my new habits. I hope I’m not the only one like this, but it seems like when one thing goes off track, and then another, and another, all the “good” habits I had like journaling and meditation and eating well and exercise go out the window and I’m a frazzled mess mumbling in a corner. What was the point of those healthy habits if they run out the door as soon as times get tough?  Well, I’m probably being a little harder on myself than I need to be because I usually only let myself wallow a day or two before I get back on the horse and that’s not too bad. So what is my point? We are all handling more than we probably want to right now. And some of it has to get done well and the rest can just get done. I’m giving myself the space to not get it all done perfectly and to let go of some things entirely. My expectations of myself and others are really high and that’s just asking to always be unsatisfied with the outcome.

Ironically, plant-based eating should have been easier than ever during the last few months with a great summer harvest and I just didn’t have the time or energy to focus on it. Lentils, salads, veggie burgers, and pasta are staples in my weekly lunches, but dinners are where I need to improve so that my whole family benefits from more colorful eating and I’ve really wanted comfort foods (read: fatty and salty foods). But soup season is upon us and throwing in tons of leafy greens, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, and tomatoes is so easy.  Yay for soup! One pot meals are my FAV-O-RITE!!! 

Waves crashing on the beach with blue skies

Sunsets

Cactus and I met online.  We’ve been together for about 11 years.  Online dating is no big thang now (which is a discussion for another day), but back in 2008 Match was probably one of the only shows in town. Well, that’s not true.  Craigslist was around back then, so was OK Cupid, and I think JDate (since Cactus is from that flock). We didn’t have Tinder, Bumble, Grindr, and what the hell is Coffee Meets Bagel?!?!?  Needless to say, online dating is now ubiquitous and seems to be the preferred way of meeting people.

Can you guess which site we met on?  Craigslist, the classiest of all. Recall this was prior to people getting killed on dates that were initiated on Craigslist so it was totally fine.  Not weird at all. And truth be told I was not looking for a boyfriend online. I was looking for a place to live. But being the efficiency focused female that I am, I got a two-fer.  It’s actually quite a funny story but that can wait.  

Anyway, were I to write an online dating profile presently it would definitely include my love of sunsets.  I always thought that was just a cliche, along with long walks on the beach, but since last Fall my opinion has completely changed.  Driving home each evening when daylight is shorter, I am chasing the sunset for about the last five miles. This discovery was pure luck and coincidence based on where our house is and the road that leads to it.  But man oh man did we hit the jackpot.  

Brilliant sunset on Farm Charm

The sunsets are striking.  They are beautiful beyond words.  I will likely never be able to take a picture that does justice to their dazzling colors.  The pinks, oranges, purples, and blues just stop me in my tracks. It’s like all the ideas, energy and deeds of the day have swirled together and floated up to the atmosphere and poof!

Dazzling Farm Charm Sunset

Here are just a few recent pictures taken with my phone (sorry!), since my DSLR seems to have elected retirement.  I’m gonna have to get better at dusk photography to capture this brilliance. Even though the last thing I want to do is go grab my camera during these fleeting moments.  I just want to stop and stare.