Wednesday, November 9, 2011

warts and all

fall aster, basil, potatoes, chard, tiny lettuces, and plumbago in one of back vegetable beds

I was going to wait until I'd weeded the vegetable beds to post any photos, but since I've been such a delinquent blogger lately, I decided to post what's been going on here, warts and all.

at least they're taller than the weeds: chard, red winter kale, dinosaur kale, red cabbage, golden beets, Romanesco broccoli, parsley, dill, sage, cilantro, mustard green, volunteer tomato, and Thai basil

I started all my fall vegetables from seeds (except the mustard green) from Botanical Interests or Seed Savers Exchange. Because of our continued drought, I hand watered the seeds three times a day until they were 1-inch seedlings then cut back to a quick watering once a day. Now that it's a little cooler, I can give them a drink every other day and a once-a-week drip soaking. So far so good.

volunteer butternut squash (probably from our compost pile) and red cabbage seedlings

The ivy that's covered our garage shed finally died, so husband Kurt spent all afternoon carefully removing all those twisty vines intertwined in the beautiful old board and batten siding to reveal, what else? The beautiful old board and batten siding, circa 1941, although it's showing its age.

shed sans ivy

My first salvia madrensis is jazzing up the corner of the shed.

I'm pleased to have already harvested one big bowl of "Contender" green beans and to see a few beets almost ready to pull. The squirrels have been digging up various seeds, which has forced me to do successive seeding, something I've never had the planning or discipline to do before. Never thought I'd have a reason to thank squirrels. 

In the back beds, my potato, broccoli, cauliflower, snow pea, carrot, and beet plants are all doing okay. Now I just need to get to weeding them!

6 comments:

Annie in Austin said...

Good for you, Iris! The horrible squirrels made us give up on vegetables for the time being. Your greens promise deliciousness & and the shed looks pretty cool without the ivy.

Buds of Salvia madrensis are just appearing on my original plant. It didn't come from Renee. I bought it at Natural Gardener in April 2008.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Iris said...

Thanks, Annie! The squirrels have made me want to give up plenty of times, but I guess I'm stubborn when it comes to growing vegetables. I'm glad you think the shed looks pretty cool without the ivy. Pretty sure it's better for the shed's old wood to NOT have the ivy on it. Thanks for the Salvia madrensis correction. I changed it.

reneesroots said...

Iris, your stubborn determination has been rewarded with a lovely crop of greens and vegetables. Wouldn't it be great if we could teach the squirrels to dig up weeds instead of seeds? And LOVE the new vintage glamour look for the shed.

Iris said...

Thanks, Renee! I love your "vintage glamour" shed description.

Kathleen Scott said...

Wow--your garden looks amazing. Hard to believe you could nurse it through our dessication.

Thanks for sharing.

Hannah said...

The critters never give up, do they? I have to fight hard just to get anything. I planted a lot of nut trees when we moved here 18 years ago so I don't have much squirrel trouble but never get any nuts. I have voles, moles, mice, slugs, and deer to make up. The folks at Gardenweb nwest forum have a lot of posts on dealing with squirrels. Your garden looks great anyway! I wish verbena could live through the winter here.