The State of My Garden

In a word...scary.  Seriously.  Take a look.  Would you want to walk in here?

I certainly haven't wanted to in quite some time and it shows.  I'm afraid of what I might scare up.  I startled a little bunny rabbit last week and I also saw a beautiful Western garner snake.  But I'm not sure what other sinister critters may be hiding out in this mess.  I only have one garden bed that is still growing stuff and that's my sweet potato bed.  And I peeked in there a couple of days ago and oh my goodness, will I have sweet potatoes!  But that's for another post :)

The current state of my garden is also very embarrassing for me.  I have Never.Ever. let my garden get so overgrown and messy.  I still can't believe it looks so bad.  But this summer, it has just been too darn hot to get out there and work it.  And it still is.  It was 99 degrees yesterday...and it's the end of September for crying out loud!

Anyway, I have been procrastinating long enough.  It's time I did something to clean up this mess and get my garden back!  And I've also done something else I've never done before concerning my garden.  I actually hired a crew to clean it out.

It pains me to admit this.  I've always taken great pride in my garden, in how productive and beautiful it is (usually), and in doing all the work myself.  But I finally admitted to myself that I needed help.  And look what they've done!

They cleaned out all the beds

mowed all the weeds down to the ground,  laid a weed mat around the entire garden floor and put down a 6-inch layer of mulch, turned over all the soil in all the beds and spread a bag and half of compost I had laying around.  I was out there yesterday morning before they finished the job and couldn't believe how much better it looked already!

Of course the puppies were very curious as to what this was all about...not to mention all these great new smells!  It was also a treat for them because my garden is usually off limits.

And see what it looks like now!  I have my beautiful garden queendom back! 

Many thanks to Mark and his crew for all their hard work!

Harry and I leave in a couple of days for two weeks in Paris and Holland.  When we get back, all I have to do is add some compost to a few beds and plant my fall and winter garden.  Yay!  I'm anxious to get back into my garden.  I've really missed it these past couple of months.  I'm also anxious to get back to blogging.  I've missed that and y'all too!  Of course, I probably lost a lot of you guys too during my lil break :/

Thank you all for your patience and encouraging words in my last two posts.  Hopefully, I will be back online by the middle of October.  Until then, bon voyage! :)

Recent Garden Happenings

My fall garden is winding down.

The only thing I have left out there are carrots, beets, Brussels sprouts and a single head of cabbage.  I'm still picking carrots and they are still scrumptious!  Check out these beauties...

 

And the Brussels sprouts are doing very well also.  I picked two stalks for Christmas dinner and made a delicious (and easy) dish I've been wanting to try, Creamy Braised Brussels Sprouts.  Stay tuned for that post!

 

And my beets got hit pretty hard by several hard freezes; but aside from the greens looking pretty ragged, they are growing and are quite tasty, although not very big.  But that's OK...I prefer baby beets anyway :)  I made a baby beet, goat cheese and toasted pumpkin seed salad the other night, (adapted from a recipe from The Whimsical Gardener).  Thanks, Cat, great recipe!  I'll post that one soon as well. 

My green onions are finally growing!  Once I took out the oak tree that was blocking the sun from my garden, the spring onions began to sprout and are doing quite well.  They are somewhat shielded from the frosts by the Brussels sprouts so that helps also. 

My fall garden has done fairly well this year, although I am disappointed with a number of things.  Again, most of these are due to lack of sunshine from that oak tree:  None of the spinach, kale, or Swiss chard that I planted germinated; my beets were pretty lame; and the green onions were very slow to grow.  But, all in all, it was a successful fall garden, but not my best by a long shot.  But that's OK...there's always next year :)

First Frost of the Season

The hills of Boerne had its first frost this past weekend and although the temperature warmed up into the mid 70's later in the day, it was a beautiful, but chilly, way to begin a fall day.

And the fall vegetable garden doesn't mind the frost.  In fact, the cabbage, broccoli, beets and Brussels sprouts actually like a frost.  It does something to the vegetables to make them a bit tastier.  And it's so pretty too :)

 

Frost-covered lantana

And beautiful old boy Tyson is always close by as I made my way around the property this frosty fall morning.

Fall Garden Update

Well...so far, so good.  My fall garden is progressing nicely with a few exceptions.  None of the spinach seeds I direct sowed has germinated; same goes for the kale.  I think the soil may be a bit heavy.  So I replanted these seeds in little containers in seed starter mix, brought them in the house and placed them under my grow lamp.  I think I may have better luck this way as a few spinach seeds have already begun to germinate.    

But everything else is doing beautifully.  Take a look.

Arugula

I don't mind thinning the arugula as the tiny leaves are delicious in my summer salads! :)

Carrots

Beets (which, BTW, I've already thinned :)

 

Broccoli

Cabbage

 

Brussels sprouts

Green onions

Radishes

As you can see, the vegetables are thriving and growing very well.  But as always, it's a constant battle with the bugs! :/  The cabbage loppers and mealy bugs have been particularly bad this year.  Every other day I pick a few cabbage loppers off the broccoli and Brussels sprouts...GRRRR.  I also spray the plants every couple of days with GreenLight BT worm killer.  It does a pretty good job of keeping the bugs at bay, but it requires constant vigilance on my part. 

I'm pretty pleased with the progress of my fall garden so far.  And my new fence has done a *wonderful* job of keeping the deer out.  We were gone for about a week at the end of August/early September and nothing got in my garden to wreak havoc and destroy all my hard work!  And that makes me happy :)