Let the Gardening Begin!

 

Dirt, compost, and soil builder

A few days' tomato harvest

Let gardening begin? Isn’t fall the time to harvest? We are still harvesting tomatoes, more tomatoes than I care to see the rest of the year. 😀 But squash was a bust, except for the pattypan squash. This was the first time I’ve tried patty pan, and it’s worth a try again next year. 

Pattypan squash

But to the topic of beginning, fall is the time to get started on next year's garden—from the ground up. I’m adding soil booster, a rich mixture of compost and organic matter that will allow better air to plant roots. Perlite, is an organic volcanic glass that improves aeration and drainage, and the addition of peat moss will enhance water retention.

Once the weather finally cools (we saw 90 degrees twice this week!), I can start transplanting blueberries and raspberries to new garden beds. I’ll have an entire 8x4-foot bed for each.

Rhubarb starts

We love fruit, and it grows well in my “yarden”, but dedicating three
beds to fruit doesn’t mean we won’t have some vegetables. I have six new rhubarb plants for a 3x3 bed, and will try moving asparagus to its own 3x3 bed. The latter may be risky, but the squirrels aren’t giving the asparagus much of a chance where it is now, and the new bed will allow me to cover everything easily, thwarting the squirrels.

After all that, the really big job begins when I pull the strawberries out of their 8x4 bed so I can enrich that soil before putting the plants back in. I have a lot of work ahead of me, but also a lot to look forward to! 

Just as fall starts, rain is predicted on Sunday. At least watering the garden is done for the season. 

Photo by John Noonan on Unsplash