Thursday, October 11, 2012

October in the Hoop House...

Another good day... I went out to the hoop house and pulled out all the tiny little weeds, watered, and had to replant a few things.  That's what I get for taking a chance on old seed.  From now on, I think I'll just go ahead and buy new seeds each year.  This has set me back, on some things, a whole month.  Not worth it!
 Here are the little green onions coming up from those onion sets I had saved back in the Spring:
 Baby Kale... most of which did not sprout, so I filled in the row with new seeds.  I buy some seeds locally and the ones I can't find here, I get from www.shumwayseeds.com  ~ they have the best prices I've found so far, and I've always been happy with their seeds.
 See the cute little radishes?
 Two happy rows of "Spicy Greens Mix" :
 Turnips.  They are laying over a bit because I had just watered them.
 On the advice of a friend, I brought the Swiss chard plants from outside and transplanted them into the hoop house bed!  They don't look like much now, but I had already taken the old plants out of here and I think this will be a good thing.
 Not much to look at here... just the bed where I planted a new crop of Mache (corn salad.)  Mache is extremely winter hardy and a wonderful and versatile green.  Mild tasting, good in salads, soups, sandwiches and stir-fries.  I always just "broadcast" my mache seeds instead of planting in rows.
 At the end of this hanging shelf, you can see my tray of wheat grass.  I've already cut it once, and will get one more cutting out of it.  I don't have a wheat grass juicer, so I just cut it up and put it in the Vita-mix blender with a little water, and then strain the nice green liquid out.  I freeze it in ice cube trays and use it in breakfast smoothies.
 Bunched up over on that bench is the floating row cover that I'll use when the weather gets really cold...
 and it will be supported by these wire wickets:
 A baby Swiss chard plant that actually did sprout!
 and a closer look at one of the transplanted "Bright Lights" Swiss chard plants.  I love that variety.  It is delicious, but I also enjoy the variety of colors it presents.

One more thing I did today in the garden.  I prepared a bed for, and planted this year's garlic.  Here are the little furrows with 26 cloves and then farther down the row, 30 seeds.  By the way, I still have some seeds if any of you have not gotten your free seeds from me yet.  It is not too late to plant.
After planting the garlic cloves and seeds, I covered them with soil, put on a little compost and mulched lightly with some spoiled hay:
It's a little sad to me that most of my gardening is done for the year.  I'll need to keep the hoop house bed watered for a while, until it gets colder, and we do still need to do some cleaning up and tilling, but mostly, it's done.  I'll just tend the bit in the hoop house, and I hope everything I planted today will still come up.

This post is linked up to Simple Lives Thursday #117

4 comments:

  1. The hoop house looks so nice. I miss gardening....

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    1. I know. When I've lived places I couldn't garden, it was frustrating.

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  2. I cant wait til I get my moving done so I can get into my new little greenhouse. I plan on building one raised bed at least each year because I am not getting any younger and hopefully by the time I really really need them I will have several built.
    You are a good steward of your greenhouse and manage it quite well and faithfully. I am impressed, good job.
    debbieo

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    1. Oh my goodness! How nice that you'll have a greenhouse. I think your plan of building your beds over time is excellent. For one thing, it's not free, and also, you'll be able to figure out what you want to do over time instead of being overwhelmed. Thank you! :D

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