Fall into Winter Yard

My garden was cleared out early this year and I am still getting peppers and tomatoes, the artichokes, garlic and beans are still going strong.

The beans are going crazy, we put many plants in so there is a lot of variety and figuring out what the beans are is an adventure.

These long ones are dried out and were ready to pick.

We didnt get many beans... but we did get some. I will probably mix them in with other dried beans to cook and eat them.

My peach tree was thought lost at one point but is still hanging in there. The rhubarb that I had planted next to it did well while the corn was there around it but died as soon as the corn came out, perhaps too much sun. 

The pomegranete tree is still doing well. I will be pruning it even more this winter as it just keeps getting taller. We got a good crop this year which we finished off a few weeks ago but you can still see some empty red husks there at the top of the tree, way out of reach.

Here you can see what is left of the lawn that I planted. Most of it did well but there are bald spots. I reseeded and fertilized last week, if it sprouts before it freezes there should be an improvement in the Spring. The grapes are losing their leaves and we will be doing some structural work on the trellis when they get pruned.

In the mostly cleared out garden we have finally planted a winter crop. This is a mix of seeds for plants that are beneficial to the soil. The idea being that you grow it over the winter and in the spring you till it into the soil and do not have to add fertilizer or mulch. I have very healthy soil due to the addition of large quantities of mulch over the years, we hope this will keep the quality ip with a lot less shoveling. 

The next project in the yard will be to finish clearing out the garden once it freezes, surprisingly this has not happened yet. Until it does we will keep picking tomatoes and peppers from the garden. 

Getting the garden going

This year I want to use the unused side yard for some planting, probably corn and maybe some squash will go over here. First though it has to be cleaned up. The very tall juniper trees that were in my front yard when I moved in and were removed as well as the cottonwood trees that were growing here have all just been stacked in this area. 

It is sort of a brush pile.

We began by using loppers to cut some of the smaller branches so the would fit in the green waste bin.

Of course moving all this stuff around unearthed various bugs that needed to be examined.

The larger branches are going to need to be sawed down so for now I pulled them into a separate pile.

Meanwhile the tiller has come back out and the main garden area has had its first tilling. The soil is nice and dark and smells great. The work put into in over the last two years had definitely paid off.

And how can any four year old resist a whole lot of fresh dirt.

Katie ran around in it for quite awhile, exposure to dirt is supposed to strengthen a child's immune system  plus this exhausted her so it was a win win.

In the garage this is happening

Seeds have been planted for broccoli, kale and cauliflower. So far so good....

Rain Delay

Work outside has been delayed by all of the rain in the last week. Even walking in the tilled dirt can be slightly hazardous in the rain. Basically its more than a little muddy. Plants have been planted though. There is also a soaker hose for when we start watering again.

The dirt is settling down a little.

Since some plants are now outside and many others are ready to go outside my brother has planted more seeds keeping the plant stand full. Katie of course keeps a close eye on her "babies".

Beginning the Garden

The weather has been warming up and spring is coming so of course it is time to start the garden. My brother is the master planner of the gardens this year and has started a blog about it. He started by building a shelving unit that has lighting for the seed germination. 

Last week on my day off we started planting the seeds. I was able to get a bunch of these trays at the end of last summer on clearance so they were quite a bargain.

Katie was very excited about this process and was as always very willing to help.

She helped Uncle by putting the seeds in the holes he made. The seeds were going night night and had to be covered up so they could sleep.

Once all the seeds were planted the trays were put on one of the shelves just under the light. One tray has a seed heating pad underneath it as well. The light is set on a timer so the seedlings get the proper amount of light each day.

Half a week later we already have the first seeds that are waking up. Katie and Uncle like to check and see which ones have woken up yet. The beets are exciting because Katie loves beets.

So far some of the beets, cauliflower, broccoli, oregano among others are coming up. By the end of the week round two of the planting will take place.

Garden

Now that we finally have a house with a yard we plan on starting a garden. Mike has a bunch of seeds he collected which I recently sorted through to figure out what to plant.

Here is what we started with:

A closer look:

Some of these things I had never heard of. This week I hope to plant the seeds and see if they will germinate. We also need to build some boxes outside to put the plants in, its going to keep us busy!

Of course Katie helped...