Around the Garden

It has been a bit of a whirlwind around here this week, in a good way. The garden is being tended to daily, my most important chores are watering, as we haven't had rain in about two weeks, and picking off cabbage worms. Yup, they are here in full force, but I think I am winning the battle. I think. Add to that daily harvests coming in, mostly beans, snow peas, snap peas, and kale, and life is pretty full.

If you were to stop by you would either find me in the garden, tending or harvesting, or in the kitchen canning all the goodness from the garden. It is definitely a good place to be, this abundance, and I am loving every minute of it.

The garlic was harvested this week, the best harvest to date. It is drying, and will soon come in to be stored for our use. I am not totally sure, but I think we might have enough to get us through to our harvest next summer. That would be our first time making it harvest to harvest with the garlic. Next up for harvest is beets. There is enough ready, I think, for at least two batches, maybe three, of gingery pickled beets. I can't tell you how delicious those are in January when it is freezing outside, and the snow just keeps falling. So darn good.

This weekend I will be moving the straw from the garlic bed to the asparagus bed, and the garlic bed, the cold frame and one other bed will get a good layer of compost worked in as I prepare them for our fall/winter garden. We are expanding our fall winter garden a little bit this year, using one of our larger raised beds, a small raised bed, and the cold frame. Justin has a handy way to cover the large raised bed to make it easy to access when the snow flies. I am leaving it to him, and hopefully it will work.

As I look around our yard I am slowly finding more space to grow food. Oh yes I am! A decision has been made to take out one of our perennial beds, it is quite old, and in need of a little TLC. Instead of replanting perennials, we are opting for more herbs, with a few bee loving plants. I have been sneaking herbs in here and there wherever I can around the gardens, but to have another dedicated space in which to grow them would be wonderful. It was an easy decision.

We have also been talking a bit about the hugelkultur bed we are creating. We thought at first we might grow wild flowers, but our thoughts have turned to more herbs. There is such a pull for me to grow medicinal herbs, they are not only beautiful, but they are what I use to keep my family healthy. To dedicate more space to growing these powerful plants seems like a good choice. I am sure we will chat more about this throughout the fall and winter, and by spring know exactly what we are going to do.

It is hard to believe that our garden conversations have already turned to the fall/winter garden, and to ideas for next year, but it is happening. You see, we still have dreams for this land we call home, and this part, the dreaming part, keeps us going, moving forward, and building upon this life we are so very fortunate to be living.

So, tell me, how are things around your garden this week?

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Did you see that last photo? It's our bee house, and we are so happy to see that some bees have taken up residence. So very exciting!