Happy October.
The brick sidewalk is finished. Some tweaking remains to pull up some bricks and level off some others. DH decided to fill in the triangles, where the brick walk angled to accommodate the “Z” to get from the house to the drive, with concrete stained a charcoal color to match some bricks. It looks good. He did a great job.
While he could not figure things out last week, he was right on target and quick to figure out how much mix and water was needed to finish the concrete. I guess we will all have our days. (There is a medical appointment set for early Dec. I have a hunch it will be to deal with his borderline sugar levels, but also, when we had our check-ups in August, I asked the doctor how to treat days when his thinking was fuzzy. We’ll see. Maybe he needs to start eating jellyfish.)
Temperatures are supposed to drop to freezing this weekend. The earliest snow I remember was Oct. 12 here in gardening zone 4, and there are snow threats for this weekend. Time to dig the carrots and parsnips, and pull the dried black beans. Plus, take a walk through our woods and gather kindling before it is buried under the snow.
Someone mentioned garlic. I have never planted that. Can I just take apart some garlic cloves from the grocery and put them in the ground? I have a spot for that. Does garlic like to be a companion plant to other crops?
Green Bean Report: I planted one bed with only green beans – Provider Green Beans on one end and Blue Lake Green Beans on the other. I planted the entire packages of bush beans on the same day, (although I did not count the beans therefore I really don’t really know how many plants there were of each) and they got the same treatments. I planted parsnips in the middle of the bed and zinnias for color and pollinators. Only half of the parsnips ever come up, no matter where I plant them, but they seemed to like being with the beans. Since nothing needs to be done to the parsnips, or carrots, all summer long they do fine hidden in the middle of the bed. I weighed each harvest of beans and this is the report:
Provider Beans =19.2 pounds. Blue Lake Beans 14.75 pounds.
The Provider beans produced earlier on bushes that were smaller in stature than the Blue Lake. The Blue Lake Beans grew seedy more quickly and I prefer the green hull rather than the bean seed. Later in the summer the B. Lake also seemed to have a mottled green surface that I had not seen before. Too much rain? After I weighed the beans I mixed them together for processing. And I stopped weighing them a couple weeks ago since there was little more than a handful from each.
So, my little experiment showed me that, in my garden, the Provider beans are the better of the two. I have a caveat, though, I have never planted pole beans so I do not know how they perform.
Since it is going to freeze this weekend, I am going to cut off some of the leaves from the Brussel’s Sprouts and cut/blanch/freeze them to use as stir fry greens. Perhaps the cutting will encourage more of the little sprouts to grow. I need to rethink the broccoli for next year, too. Not very many heads. I wonder if it was too shady where it was. My three-bed broccoli experiment failed.
Assessment for year’s garden: stagger the lettuce planting, more herbs, more onions, and find a way to avoid the gophers! Perhaps try some celery for the first time. I had enough paste tomatoes, but not enough cherries (only two plants). I had planted the cherries for eating out of hand and in salads. I had forgotten that I needed some for dehydrating. This year’s plants were tiny compared to last year’s, too.
I also decided that next year I am not going to put in the little plants of Pak Choy. I planted one entire bed of it and it was too much, too fast, all at one time. If it was not harvested, it bolted to yellow flowers quickly. Next year, I think I will intersperse the cabbages with some Pak Choy for early harvest before the cabbage needs the space. More of the larger Bok Choy plants for me; more leaves there and less stem.
Gardens are a continuous science experiment. They keep us guessing. People who say, “I can survive. I’ll just plant a garden,” are delusional. The gardens my mother and MIL had were just for the summer, with some pickles and tomatoes for the winter. Up here in zone 4, I know most people could NOT survive the year on a summer garden. I cannot yet and I have a large area dedicated to vegetables and it increases in size each year. I enjoy gardening, but really appreciate the freezers and pantry filled with produce.
Now, what to do with my acorn squash.
Time to harvest. Talk to you all later.