Friday, October 18, 2019

Garden Friday




Welcome to Garden Friday!
Last weekend, I spent a bit of time
helping a friend plant her garlic.
These first few shots are of her fabulous homestead.
Yep, she's a chicken lady.


Her husband is a handy guy who fashioned this chicken tractor.
I love that it provides ventilation, shade 
and protection from both rain and predators. 
The best part is that it's mobile,
so they can graze wherever you move it.

Handsome fellow

white sweet potato bed

 Back at our place,
I did manage to plant some snap peas along the arches,
which promptly came up in about 5 days.
Another bed was filled with chard, kale, lettuce and spinach seeds,
and we're still waiting for them to germinate.
We were blessed with almost an inch of rain this week,
with more predicted for Sunday.
We welcome it.


 All of the sweet potatoes were harvested this week,
and are now curing for 10-14 days.
The orange sweet potatoes yielded only 3 pounds,


while the white variety offered up 18 pounds of spuds.
It was difficult to dig these up because
they got so long that they embedded themselves into the clay
beneath the bed.
When I grow them again, I will be sure to make the bed one layer higher
so that they will be easier to harvest.
Next year, I'd like to plant a lot more,
so that some can be donated to our local food bank. 
These will not last us too long,
as C and I eat them often.
Live and learn.

dried loofah gourds

Today I plan to plant the garlic cloves I grew last year.
It's a highly satisfying crop,
and the result was the best garlic we've ever tasted.
I'm hoping to get some beets, broccoli, and more kale planted as well.
With the weather finally cooperating,
it's just a matter of time before we have goodies
from the garden again.



4 comments:

  1. Sweet potatoes are such a good staple vegetable in the cold weather, aren't they? We still have to dig ours. Here's hoping we both get some more rain this weekend.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, they are very satisfying.

      Rain is on the way tonight!

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  2. Hi Daisy
    I grew sweet potatoes in those new "grow bags" that are all the rage this year and I LOVED it. I will definitely be using them again. I planted late (since we had just moved here in late May) and set them up under the drip line of our garage roof. I didn't know what to expect--I've seen mixed results on YouTube, but I had very good yield and they were so easy to harvest---just dump the bag out in a wheelbarrow. Most tubers were 6-7 inches long and about 4 inches around. I got USUALLY 6 tubers per 10 gallon bag. You might want to try that out next year.
    Hope all is going well. Hugs, Sue

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    Replies
    1. Hmmm, that's an idea. So glad you got you some spuds! I know you are trying to figure out the garden situation at your new place. It's obvious, there's no stopping the gardener in you. ;0)

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