starting the winter garden

This weekend was about trying to get my winter garden started.  I let my garden go during the heat of the summer.  Last year, it meant there was not much to dig out.  This year, we had rain.  I am fighting weeds.  But one spade full of dirt at a time and the work gets done.  I know you cannot see this from the picture but it is a mud bath.

One of the things that I knew I needed to plant this time was flowers.  I had not planted enough in the spring garden and I missed them.  I had my Beloved pick up some mums while I was at work today.  Yes, I know they will not last but I will enjoy the blooms.  I also planted one bed with flower seeds.  That is how much I missed my flowers.

I still have many beds to dig up.  Hopefully, the rains will stay away long enough for me to get some actual work done.  Maybe by this weekend I will have all the vegetable seeds in.  I hope!

from the garden

The garden has been bountiful.

My Beloved picks tomatoes every day.  Five pounds on Saturday for the sauce I made.  He picked more on Sunday that had ripened in the heat.

He says there are 15 more pumpkins in the backyard.  That does not count the ones in the front.  

The sunflowers are beautiful.  Zinnias are blossoming.  And he picked six eggplants, not counting the huge one in the top picture.  I like eggplants for the flowers and like the fruit too.

He picks kale and chard for his smoothies every day.

The garden is an adventure where there is something new every day.

where I have been spending a bit of time

My expermintation in permaculture has worked really well.  If not so well it is overwhelming!  I have told the neighbors to pick what they wish because every tomato is a volunteer plant and they ALL have fruit!  There are 15 different winter squash fruit in the yard too.  This is the biggest one so far.  It is ripe.  In June!  This is unheard of where I grew up.  The heat has not really started here yet so it will be interesting to see how all this continues.  I really need to get in and pull up some grasses but there is no space to move.  Maybe when some of the tomatoes die back with the heat.

I have also been enjoying my time on my skateboard after work.  I was riding to the library here with my Beloved and the Small Mister walking.  I had a gentleman stop his BMW, roll down the window, and yell "so cool!"  It feels so cool.

And when I think I will be going a bit faster, I put more pads on.  Still need the elbow pads.  My family tease me that I am a hill junky.  I think they are right.  It does make me smile and relaxes like surfing when I cannot get there or there is no surf.

Permaculture and skateboarding.  I think it says it all.

flowers and vegetables

I have been trying to spend a bit of time in the garden every day.

But sometimes it is raining so hard that the mud tries to suck me under.  Or paper work gets in the way.  Or my body says only a few minutes can be spent working this way.

I am finding time to pull up the weeds that are coming up around the tomato plants.  

I just make sure I do not pull up the flowers.  I have never grown larkspur before and I am enjoying the blues and purples.

Most of the lettuce has bolted, but not all.  The chard and kale are still good.  The squash are trying to set plants.

And we got the first eggplant, a green tomato, and a almost rip tomato today.  We will soon have many tomatoes because at least one bush is larger then I am.  

My garden is always an adventure, even if it is just for a few minutes a day.

gardening in a permaculture fashion

We spent time in the garden this weekend.  It is very hot and breaking heat records.  But it is time for fall/winter planting.  I decided to try something different.  I watched videos about Sepp Holzer, a Swiss permaculturist.  I am trying something very different with my garden.  Probably at the worst time since it is a drought but if you do not try, you do not learn.  I mixed all my seeds together:  vegetable, fruit, and flower, and then sowed them.  We will see what happens.  Hopefully, we will have vegetables, fruits, and flowers.  If not, I am still going to try again.