It’s not fall yet on the calendar but it sure feels like it. Our nights are getting chilly and the forecast for this week is for cooler days too! I don’t mind as I feel much more invigorated when the days are cooler. I seem to get a lot more done outside. One of the first chores is to get the tomato cages put away in the barn.
There is still a lot to be done in my gardens. The dead seedpods need to be cut back along with the dead flower stems. Eventually I’ll be cutting the hostas, daylilies and iris back to the ground but for now I’ll just cut back the dead stems and neaten up the garden beds.
Believe it or not I still have a lot of blueberries ripening up. I go out every other day and check our bushes. The chickens are always so curious; they love it when I throw them an occasional blueberry!
I’ve been picking beets too. There are still a few left in the garden. I love cold beets on my salad!
There are still some carrots waiting to be picked. I like to leave a few in the garden until we have our first frost; it sweetens them up a bit.
I’ve finally been able to pick a few ears of corn. They are so delicious!
Now that most of the tomato plants are pulled I’ll use one of the raised beds to plant our garlic. One large raised bed full of garlic seems to be just enough to get us through until the next harvest.
Planting garlic is so easy. I’ve been growing our own garlic for the last couple of years and I don’t know why I never tried it before that! I find that garlic is one of the more satisfying plants to grow in the garden. Once the garlic bulbs are planted there is not much more you have to do. Planting the garlic is very easy. Prepare your garden bed and break the garlic bulbs into individual cloves.
I plant the hard necked garlic, which does very well for me.
Plant each clove about 4 inches into the soil, about 5-6 inches apart. Cover lightly with soil. They should be far enough into the soil so the frost doesn’t push them up.
Once the garlic is planted mulch the garden bed with straw. Nothing else to do but wait until next summer when it’s time to harvest! In the meantime I’ll be enjoying the garlic I harvested this year!
Linked To: TuesdayGardenParty, GardenTuesday, OutdoorWednesday, WildcraftingWednesday, FreshFoodsWednesday, GreenThumbThursday, FromTheFarm, SimplyNaturalSaturdays, FarmgirlFriday
Nancy on the Home Front 