Hey, it’s me again. The weather here has been five star Autumn weather. Because of the very dry September with only one inch of the normal 2.86 inches of rain fall, major leaf fall as begun. The trees in my yard are almost totally bare. Only the Maple trees are hanging on to their leaves. They normally drop their leaves the first week or two of November but who knows this year. So far this month we have .95 of an inch of rain which again is far behind the average rain fall for October of 2.42 inches. It’s only fitting that the garden year should end with the same bipolar attitude that it started the year. Don’t you think? All of my blogger garden friends have similar stories about a less than productive garden experience this year. I am kind of glad this year is over and am already planning next year’s gardens. With the new property looking like a go, the potential is practically limitless for a couple years.
The Mesclun weed cuisine … errr, ah, lettuce mix has come to maturity and harvesting has commenced. I caught one of those fat leaf munching worms in the cuisine patch the other day. Funny thing was that it was on a wild bind weed. Hmmm, even the worms prefer weeds to Chef Platt’s Mesclun lettuce mix. I will say one thing about Mesclun lettuce and that is it’s some pretty hardy stuff. I had given up on the whole experiment and just left it to die. I didn’t water it and water has been pretty sparse the last six weeks. As you can see it not only lived but thrived and the rabbits didn’t touch a single leaf. Hmmmmm. I guess I’ll give it a taste but if there are weeds in the patch, I’m not sure I would know the difference. If you don’t hear from me for a while, call the cops because I’m laying in the Mesclun salad face down on the kitchen table from eating a poison weed by mistake.
OK, so here’s the first harvest along with almost the last harvest of tomatoes. The tomatoes look pretty pathetic with old dried up vines but the green tomatoes just keep on getting ripe. I suppose I’ll just continue to let them ripen on the vine and rip them out after the first frost which is any time after the 15th of October. So let’s get started and see what this stuff tastes like.
Well, a good wash and torn leaves not cut was first on the list. A garden fresh chunked up tomato and a sprinkle of chopped onion should bring a good salad to the table. It still kind of looks like a mess of weeds to me but it didn’t taste all that bad but then again I can make any thing taste good when I drown it in Blue Cheese dressing. I know that just ruined the whole organic thing. Didn’t it?
I give you one last parting shot of the trellis planting this year from the poor man’s living patio. It did turn out really well this year but I suppose the daily watering and the shot of Miracle Grow every three weeks probably helped some. As you can see it definitely has the fall look to it.
I’ve been working on a backyard patio that will have a fire pit on it during the summer months. I’m not sure I’ll get it finished this year as the weather could break at any time. I have the foundation completed for the retaining wall. This bricks for the actual patio surface will be concrete formed individual bricks. It will look great. The bricks will match the retaining wall which will be red with black swirled through it. Each one of the first layer of retaining wall blocks will be glued to the concrete foundation blocks that are buried into the ground with construction glue. In this picture I just have them set in place to see how things will fit together.
I’ve been over to the new property again. I spent some time cleaning a swath to get a look at just how much work it’s going to be to clean up the property. Whew, a lot!! I’ve been thinking about a name for the new property. I came up with the name “Terra Nova Gardens”. Terra Nova means new land or new earth in latin. I figure that I will be kind of making the land new after it’s long time slumber of eleven years. I haven’t heard anything yet so probably the owner will not respond to the notice sent to him/her. Here’s another video with something interesting that I found.
I hope all of you are having a great time enjoying the fall weather. Until next time, keep those canners canning, those dryers drying, and keep those delicious fall soups coming.
