Garden Friday

It's slim pickins' this Garden Friday.
With the seasons seemingly going from summer to winter
without much autumn in between,
the garden is at nearly a standstill.
The only thing growing with any vigor is the kale.
I pulled up a few teeny carrots just to take a taste.
Sweet as sugar, but not enough to feed a mouse.
I left them for the resident bunnies to find.

 About the only thing that got my juices going this week
was the sight of the cover crops sprouting.
We had a couple of days of constant rain,
and that was enough to germinate these seeds.
This is my first experience with cover crops,
and it will be exciting to see how it affects these raised rows in the spring.

 For the most part,
it's leaf invasion time!
Our lawn is strewn with a crinkled and crunchy cover.
I see raking in my future.
Big K will most likely run the mower over them one more time,
to break up the bigger bits.
This way, they can be gathered up to use as flower bed mulch,
or left in place to feed the soil for springtime.

Our neighbor has bagged up and donated her stash,
so that it can be added to our leaf bin.
This leaf bin was here when we bought the house
and we just continue to add to it.
I haven't been good about turning it,
but I can imagine it will make a great soil additive. 
Here's a fabulous video about making leaf mold.
I like his idea of keeping the leaves in the plastic bags,
and just poking them with a pitchfork to aerate.
I'm gonna try that this year with some of the leaves
and then note how they break down compared with those in the open bin.
If you don't already subscribe to this chap's video channel,
you're really missing out.
Every couple of weeks he sends a link to his latest gardening video
and there is always something to learn.

Big K scored bigtime when he was perusing a local swap-n-shop site.

The folks were cleaning out their garage and found this "Lawn Buddy"

that they no longer needed.

He got in touch with them right away and we went to pick it up.

It looked brand new and was a real bargain for $15!

These little carts are so useful in the garden.
Even if you have raised beds, it's sometimes necessary to bend over to tend them.
With these cute gadgets, it sits at just the right height
so that you can weed, plant or harvest while seated.
They can also assist with hauling tools, seedling pots, soil
or small harvests and the lid folds over to use as a handle,
so that you can pull it behind you.
My farmer friends Faye and Lynn in Florida have a few of these
and they are invaluable.
What a great find!

We are hoping for a few more autumnal days
before the harsher December weather kicks in.
Garden Friday may be taking a hiatus
if nothing much is worth reporting.
We'll see how it works out.

What's happening in your neck of the woods?