Garden Review and Vegetable Thanksgiving...

November means more to us than just pumpkin pie, it means it's time to get the garden ready for winter and let it rest,  We haven't mastered gardening year round quite yet but hope next year to put in a small raised bed and plant kale there to get us through to at least December. I finally realized that I'm really not a lettuce fan (gasp!) and that I like greens so much more.  I think it's because greens are more nutrient dense and if I am going to eat greens, then I'm going for the greenest of greens.  So, in the meantime, we mulch our garden heavily with chopped leaves/grass and bales of straw.  Actually I'll let the straw decompose a bit and use it to mulch the paths next year.  

As you can tell, I use lots of pots to supplement our small garden space.  I also use them to plant a nice sized display of flowers for our front patio space...you can see what they look like here.  I have used all of our flower beds for herbs and perennials, so pots are the perfect remedy for always blooming annuals...zinnias, geraniums, alyssum, vinca, marigolds and even a fun elephant ear.

I've also used the pots for herbs such as thyme, peppermints, spearmint, cilantro, rosemary, parsley, chives and calendula.  Peppers, including Mariachi's and Banana, also grow in these pots.  I've been growing tomatoes in them, but will keep them in the garden next year as they didn't produce very well.  The biggest drawback to pots are the fact that they need lots of watering if they are in full sun.  My herbs don't and I keep them in part shade and they are happy campers. A great reason to grow in pots is that you CAN move the pots around if the temps start to rise and the plants need a break.  I move smaller pots around quite a bit.

One great thing about blogging about my garden is that it forced me to keep a visual record of the garden for the growing season.  So it was fun putting together this collage of the seasons and to see it all at once.  To be a continuous gardener, you must be visionary and willing to make mistakes.  There's always next year to try out a new method or new vegetable.  The visionary part comes in when you get the soil ready like the soil in the spring photo and can already envision the fall photo in your mind.
 If this garden space looks small, that's because it really is.  But don't let small spaces fool you...with effective gardening, you can get lots of fresh vegetables to eat AND plenty to can, dry and freeze for winter use.



















Case in point...these are just a sampling of the produce we got from the garden.  I was able to can 60 jars of whole tomatoes...plus still lots more for fresh eating and fresh marinara sauce.  Our beans and summer/winter squash came from our community garden plot; another option for those with small spaces.  This is our fourth year there and we've finally figured out what vegetables grow well there...tomatoes not being one.  However, the squash did well and the beans, so we'll concentrate on those vegetables.  We're going to try sweet potatoes there next year too as the soil is great for root crops. To see my favorite picks for this year's vegetables, click here.

Well, that's it for the garden 2012...I'll be reading up on some other blogger's great ideas for gardening over the winter while our soil rests and we rest!  SO thankful for all the great food we've gotten from a little space...it's the gift that keeps on giving!

Do you garden or plan to soon?  

Linked to these amazing blog hops...Homestead Revival 
Clever Chicks  Lisa Leonards Design
Farmgirl Friday Living Green Tuesdays
Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways 
Waste-Not, Want-Not Wednesdays Wicked Good Wednesdays
Simple Lives Thursday Farmgiril Friday Blog Hop

Making Your Beds - Garden Style

    We aren't this far along this year with our garden as of yet, but I had these pictures from last year, so thought I would talk about prepping your garden.
     We have an extremely small yard, but lots of enthusiasm, so we have this small garden in between our wood storage "shed" and our storage shed.  It's large enough for all our greens, some beans and whatever else I can think to put here.  
     Last year I grew several different types of basils.  Purple, Lettuce Leaf and Lemon to name a few.  

Todd, hard at work

     I always grow too much basil.  It just happens. I start it from seed IN the garden itself.  I've tried starting it in containers and transplanting it, buying plants from the store, etc...but the way it seems to work the best is to just plant it in the garden.
     I think if you wait until the soil really warms up well, it just takes off and always would catch up and look much healthier than any transplants.
      Todd is working hard with this amazing Honda rototiller.  A friend of ours who doesn't garden anymore is letting us use this as long as we garden.  It's a definite back saver! There are different theories about the usage of rototillers, some for them and some against their use, but it seems to work for us. We rototill leaves, grass clippings and whatever else right in so it will add to the soil.

     When we dig into the garden, we can actually see all the new "dirt" that has been made and the clay dirt mix of the original back yard....nice!  
     What helps with this is our compost bin.  I have a very lovely stainless kitchen bin that I empty into our large yard compost container.  Yes, all those veggie scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags (paper kind only), and eggshells all combine with leaf material to make a nice hummus-y mix.  It's a great way to recycle household waste, and use up yard waste to 

The robins love to go through the soil to find any stray worms!

actually make something that will benefit your garden.  We take all of the old flower stocks from the flower beds and place them in a big pile to work on breaking down.  This will become a nice bit of soil after awhile.


Why "make" dirt?  Have you seen the prices of dirt lately? It's crazy and if I can keep my garden waste out of landfill to make FREE dirt, then well, there you go!

Happiness is...my shiny kitchen compost bin, found online.

So, the compost begins it's life in the kitchen in this most lovely of compost containers.  It was actually a birthday gift a few years back.  I kept asking my sister for one for my birthday and she finally broke down and against all her love of shopping, bought me this beauty! Ahhh!  I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I have to say that the birthday I received it is forever burned into my memory as a very happy day indeed!

This was the garden growing in mid-June.  The large pyramid in back is for my pole beans.  I have lettuce going on on the far left, mustard greens and turnip green, arugula and broccoli raab.  Notice the raise beds too. During a bad rainstorm, parts of our yard can get a little flooded.  The raised beds actually help keep the plants above the water line.  Raised beds also tend to warm up faster and provide good drainage.  We also place a thin layer of grass clippings on the walkways to keep down weeds and eventually enrich the soil.  It's important to go easy putting on a lot of green clippings as they tend to steal nitrogen from the soil around them which is needed to help them break down.  

This is the garden when it's still a baby.  We have one more bed to the right which is out of the picture because it wasn't planted yet but was waiting for basil.  So nice!

Well, here's to dreaming about your garden beds...can't wait until ours gets done!  Very soon we hope!  Be blessed!