Fall is in the Air

It is feeling rather fallish!!!  I love a long and drawn out autumn but have a feeling that this is not the year.  It just seems different.  My cottonwood trees are shedding a few leaves and am not sure if that is from the heat earlier or... gasp.... fall!!!

Beginning fall clean up chores while nurturing those tomatoes, peppers and beans to keep producing!  

Winter is time for the soil to do what the soil does! My job is giving it an environment to do that.

Putting in a new bed so the grass clippings can be doing its thing over the winter.

Watering deeply.  

Bringing home from the chicken house and barn bags of manure.

Sprinkling Epson salt on my yard and around the trees.

Pruning and transplanting.

Mulching and protecting.

Tucking everything in for the winter rest.

Fall is a good feeling.  

A sense of harvest and warmth.  Hope.

Pruning Tomatoes

The mornings and evenings are beginning to have a fall feel to them.  My tomato are finally turning red after the 3rd time of taking the shears to them.

What Worked For Me:

1.  I started at the bottom cutting the crowded stems and new growth.


2.  Pruned on the sides taking off the extra stems and leaves leaving only the main step with the fruit on them.


3.  Went over the top pinching off the new growth at the end of every stem.

Professional Know How

"A tomato is a solar-powered sugar factory. For the first month or so, all of the sugar it produces is directed towards new leaf growth. During this stage, tomato plants grow very rapidly, doubling their size every 12 to 15 days. Eventually, the plants make more sugar than the single growing tip can use, which signals the plant to make new branches and to flower. This usually happens after 10 to 13 leaves have expanded, at which time the plant is 12 to 18 inches tall. In the next few weeks, the entire character of the tomato plant changes. If unsupported, the increasing weight of filling fruit and multiple side branches forces the plant to lie on the ground. Once the main stem is horizontal, there is an increased tendency to branch. Left to its own devices, a vigorous indeterminate tomato plant can easily cover a 4- by 4-foot area with as many as 10 stems, each 3 to 5 feet long. By season's end, it will be an unsightly, impenetrable, disease-wracked tangle." http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/pruning-tomatoes.aspx

Random Pictures

Beginning Repairs such as filling in old holes where the boys were playing war!

The Old Garden Shed

Hanging plastic.  I loved using the staple gun!

Spray foam insulation.  Hammer in old nails.  Spread plastic sheeting.  Caulk holes and seams.  Someday-new siding!!

An old birdhouse made from my Great Grandparent's Barn.  I used caulking to put in on my post.

Beginning of the Russian Sage and native grass plus my Karl Grass!

Planted Potatoes using old salvaged tires against the old fence in my yard where it is hard to grow anything!

And they grew!

Constructive Thinking Time

Doing things seems to free my mind and my spirit to reflect and recharge.  The last few days I've taken off from work and "should" be doing many important things like cleaning my house or laundry.  

However, I have spent quite a few of my hours:  buying 6 Mil plastic and stapling the inside of my "new" shed, spraying foam insulation,  and caulking to fill in holes where the boys were attacked by an intruder when it was their fort.  While I painted, I was visited by wasp, garden snakes and butterflies.  My dog, of course kept watch!

I scored big at both the hardware and the lumber yard where I found light bulbs for plants that are perfect for my heating lamp and cheap!

I'm going to pull off an East Panel and cover with plastic, put up some shelves on that wall some hanging baskets.  Now to decide what to plant for fall both out and within.

Any ideas????

Outside:

1. Potato

2. Carrots

  

Inside:

1. Tomato

2. Pepper

Pruning, Pulling and Replanting

That wonderful time of year when the dead needs pulled or pruned!  The herbs cut and dried.  I also just planted beans and several different kinds of carrots where the old squash was.  Excited to check that out.

I wondered if any of you have tried this method of storing cabbage as I read in "The Backwoodsman" July/August 2011 edition?  My father-in-law shares his with us.  

Dennis Byrd from California wrote that his parents planted cabbage to be ready about the time o first snow.  "Once it had snowed the cabbages were dug and turned upside down, root up, into their own holds and covered with dirt and snow.  Over the course of winter you could dig these up, the outside leaves would be wrinkled and rotten, but inside was a fresh white head of cabbage."

Might be a new experiment I have to try.  I'm a beginner at planting a fall garden and am excited to see what that will be like.

I'm curious what you plant in your fall garden?  What works in the Midwest and what doesn't?  I'm looking for a mentor!!!

A Little Saggy!

My garden is looking a little saggy and weary after the hot and humid days they have faced lately.  They look slightly better after a rain last night. 

And yet... they continue to produce.  The tomatoes loaded and beginning to ripen.  Zucchini is piled at the door for the neighbors and blended and hidden in whatever I can sneak to the boys!  Peppers have been grilled and potatoes are dug.  In fact, I pulled out a potato that I thought was dead to find dozens of spuds in it's roots.

Herbs are growing like mad-now what do we do with them?  That's the new thing I need to learn!

Looking out my back window is a lesson in looking past the obvious to what is under and within.  When the plants were gorgeous without a dry leaf or a bug bite- they were not producing.  Now, looking a little worse for wear- they are providing for our table.

Makes one wonder if those times in our lives when we are a little saggy, shaggy, dry, beat up and wilted- is when we produce the most fruit?  Something to think about!