Autumnal Equinox

Today is the equinox, and appropriately enough it has turned cool.  We even have a prediction of heavy rain in a couple of days.  So I'm really in a clean up mood.

I trimmed all the strawberry plants on the side of the house and weeded the whole area.  Then David extended the retaining board so I could put in six more strawberry plants.  I took them out of the other bed in the main garden, which is dying rapidly.

Next I cleaned out the bed with the fruit trees and beneficial flowers.  I've decided to widen the path along that area, because the berries are already hanging over and making it hard to walk.  We'll get some more wood chips to put down.

Pepper Harvest

I've picked a lot of peppers, but I hardly made a dent.  Unfortunately, the stink bugs have gotten to a lot of the peppers and really made a mess of them.  Most are still useable, but some are not.  Good thing I planted lots.

This is what the stink bug damage looks like.

Next year I plan to grow fewer peppers and cover them with netting. 

More Winter Stuff

Today I sowed a row of Pac Choi and four rows of mache in the bed where the dry beans had been.  I also sowed some more carrots, romaine lettuce, chard and kale.  The squirrels have been very busy burying nuts in every open spot of soil, so I covered both beds with some bird netting.  Hopefully, it will discourage the squirrels from digging in the nice soft soil.

The brassicas are looking really good.  I've caught a couple of white butterflies inside the netting, so I'll have to watch for caterpillars.

Beginning of the End

The blueberry harvest is officially over.  We picked the last handful yesterday.  The most impressive bush was the Legacy.  It started fairly early, and has been the only one still producing for the last three weeks or so.


I've pulled out the dried bean patch.  I ended up with six pounds of dry beans.  They're pretty, and they'll be great in soup, but probably not worth the water and (tedious) work shelling them.

Onion Harvest

The onions that have been in the garage for several weeks are now nicely dry.  Some of them are gigantic.

The PrimeArk blackberries are still producing, I assume now on this year's canes.

Winter Chard

Even though the chard I planted last spring is still going strong (and looking fantastic, thanks to the netting!), I sowed a little more as insurance.  I'd hate to have the early crop quit and be stuck without any chard.  I planted about ten seeds in the same bed as the early crop, then moved the netting to cover the whole bed.  I may move the seedlings later, but for now they're protected.  The variety I've planted this year is 'Electric Neon Blend' from Territorial.  It really doesn't seem any brighter than the rainbow chard I've always planted.

Dry Beans

Some of the dry beans are getting brittle, so I picked what was ready.  It was mostly Brown Dutch, with some Jacob's Cattle and a few Hidatsa Red Indian.  It was a little less than a pound.  Lots more to come.