The Last Days of Fall
Due to other circumstances, we have decided that this past year was our last year for our farm garden and we are proceeding full steam ahead on our urban garden. The radish crop was a success until the local deer population made it a failure so the fence solution is tucked away in the building in this picture to be installed first thing in the spring. With the lack of additional nutrients added to the soil with the decimation of our radish crop, I looked around for sources of composted manure. We have some on the farm but it would require a lot of effort and time to get it up to here and scattered out. The farm compost is also full of weed seeds which guarantees a lot more future effort in weeding, for weeds types currently not a problem behind our house.
So after scouting around, I walked into the last place that had any of it in bags still available and bought all they had, 95 bags worth. I carted the bags down and scattered them out using the wheelbarrow and then my kids and wife worked at opening, dumping, spreading the composted manure across the garden. We applied it much much thicker than it recommends on the bag themselves but it will have the rest of the winter to mellow out so I think it will be fine.
We also made a trip down to the farm garden to haul back our our tools, fence posts, hoses and assorted other things that we kept down there that will be useful up here. They are also stored in the nearby shed ready for spring.
Our gourmet group met not to long ago and we were assigned a rustic plum and honey tart (see picture below) for the dessert course. It turned out to be quite delicious. What surprised me the most was the "cream" that got served along side it. It was a sour cream with vanilla bean mixed into it. I couldn't imagine it tasting so good but it did.
As I write this, the Thanksgiving holiday is nearly upon us so most of the week will be preparations for that, giving back to our community, and perhaps a few assorted odds and ends. Then it will be waiting for winter to arrive and hopefully soon after spring.
I just finished my garden for the year--pulling the last of the turnips and cutting a lot of lettuce just before the temperatures plummeted. I had nursed the lettuce along with coverings, which protected it when the temperatures dropped below freezing but I don't think it'll survive two days in the teens... You have a nice looking garden spot and I admire your greenhouse and that tart looks delicious.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I wish I lived a bit further south where a winter garden of some sort, perhaps in a greenhouse, were possible. But most of the time I am thankful for these four months I have as a break before we start it all over again.
DeleteSo does your garden smell rather pungent? Or is the manure composted enough that the smell isn't too bad? Good job getting everything ready for spring.
DeleteI'm eager to see the results of your slide experiments!
It was pretty much odorless though I do admit, I didn't stick my nose closer to it than my feet. It looked like really black soil.
DeleteI think your garden is off to a good start.
ReplyDeleteHopefully anyway.
DeleteThat's a beautiful tart. I've had my cyclamen in the garage for the past week due to cold weather. I know it's getting near winter, but still. At least the skies have been blue!
ReplyDeleteI had to google what a cyclamen was. It sounds like it is suited to the Mediterranean Basin and I've read that the closest the U.S. has to that climate is along the Salish Sea.
DeleteOh my your tart is beautiful! Almost too pretty to eat. Good job on the garden! Next year after the harvest plant some beans and then work them up the next Spring...I hope the fence keeps your deer away. 95 bags is lots of work!
ReplyDeleteI hope to try fall seeding again if it works out. We are often harvesting from our garden up until frost and our falls are so dry, I'm not sure I could get something to grow without stopping short on the growing season and watering. Case in point, one of the plots of land on the farm was seeded in wheat about a month ago and is still ungerminated seed sitting in dry dirt, at least until the most recent 3 inch snow that came and went.
DeleteOh, that tart looks SO delicious! with sour cream and vanilla beans? Too cruel!
ReplyDeleteIt was a delight to eat!
DeleteI have the capability to easily make mountains of composted manure at the farm, but I have the same problem of moving it easily to the garden. One year I loaded it onto a trailer with the tractor and then had to unload it with a shovel and wheelbarrow which quickly took all of the enthusiasm out of the job. I was able to cover the garden with a thick layer of compost which lasted for a lot of years because I didn't want to unload a trailer again for a lot of years.
ReplyDeleteNow, I just bring it home in buckets and I only have to fill the bucket and spread it in the garden. Half of the time I use the tractor to load the buckets, then throw them in the back of the pickup for the trip home. About four buckets will cover about a 50 foot long row, so it only takes about 20 buckets to cover a third of my garden which works out to about a 10-15 ton/acre rate which is plenty for an application every 3 years.
Moving compost 10-12 buckets at a time is almost no work at all, and you'd be surprised at how much you can move in a few trips.
We hadn't raised livestock in years on the farm so manure wasn't available... but we knew people. A neighbor cleaning out a barn was kind enough to dump a large load up near the road and it has been composting there for years. Last winter, we took a couple scoops of that with the tractor and bucket and put on the garden and worked it in for the first time. It worked out well but all the weeds that had been growing merrily on the compost pile also came with it and it was quite the chore. I wasn't real keen to import all those seeds up to the new area behind our house.
DeleteI like your bucket idea and I actually have a lot of buckets. I guess what farmer's son doesn't? But I have no real good way of hauling them short of inside a minivan or a small SUV, neither of which I want to spill a lot of composted manure inside. So I guess I'll see what the future holds. I'm not opposed to buying more bagged composted manure as it was reasonably priced for the convenience of it and hopefully it isn't full of weeds seeds. I'll know that answer soon next year.
That tart looks dee-licious!! I bet you are going to enjoy gardening all the more next year, not having to travel to do it.
ReplyDeleteI'm really enthused about the upcoming season. We are both talking about what we would like to plant and how we are going to fit it all in.
DeleteDoes your town have many trees? Folks rake them up, put them into compostable, paper bags and place them by the curb for pick-up in the town closest to me. The town has "pick-up" days in the fall and again in the spring.
ReplyDeleteYes, there are trees everywhere, including about an acre and a half of the three acre lot I own and many spend countless hours bagging them up and letting the city haul them off only to need to fertilize their lawns later. I prefer to just mulch them up and keep all the good nutrients in place on my own lawn but in this case, I'm shifting them a bit to the garden.
DeleteHope you had a great Thanksgiving and good luck with the new farming strategy. Sour cream and vanilla bean? It rhymes so I might have to give it a try.
ReplyDeleteIt is really tasty, especially with a big slice of plum tart!
DeleteLooks good Ed! I will be interested to see how the urban garden adventure develops.
ReplyDelete