seeds

I ordered some seeds from Burpee's this evening. I save my seeds from year to year, so I didn't have to buy everything, but I still spent more money that I probably should have. March is usually when I start planting my seedlings, so gardening season is not too far off!

weather

The weather has been crazy warm this month. It would have been a good year to try the fall planting bit. The good news is that I was behind on a lot of things outside and now I'm almost caught up. If the weather can just hold out for one more weekend, that should do it. More next weekend (hopefully)...

enjoying fall

We have had a few nice days in October (besides the ones where it snowed), so I have been getting some stuff done outside. It's nearly impossible to get anything done during the week since it gets dark so early, so that leaves the weekends.

Today, I harvested the Brussels sprouts and removed them, the cabbage, and the broccoli rabe plants from the garden. But, my garden is not empty--I planted garlic today. I like the fact that something is growing in my garden 365 days a year. My ultimate goal is to lengthen my gardening season. It's too cold around here to do 4 season gardening, but it's not that difficult to extend the season a little and start it a little earlier, too.

Besides that, I finished the first (of many) garden paths. This one leads from my garden to Jake's playhouse. Why, the playhouse? Well, once Jake outgrows it, we're going to put a greenhouse in the same spot. It's going to be so cool. I'm also going to lay a stone path around the other 2 sides of the garden. I still have some stones so, with any luck, I'll be able to continue working on this project until the ground freezes. We're also going to put in a path from the patio to the shed, but I don't have the details on that figured out yet.

Here's a picture of the final path. The first part of it (between the garden and patio) has been done for some time. The plants you see growing in that portion are a type of thyme. I had to plant something for two reasons. One-to keep the sand in the joints and two-to keep the weeds down. As it turns out, it also looks good, so I guess it's serving three purposes. Here's a picture of the finished path:

fall is here

Fall is pretty much here weather-wise. I still have a lot to do outside. Hopefully we will have some nice weekends in October so I can wrap things up.

All that remains in the garden is peppers, broccoli rabe (of which I harvested some last week), cabbage, and Brussels sprouts. I'm waiting for my garlic to arrive so I can plant that mid-October.

Last weekend, I started working on the garden path again. I really need to wrap that up before it gets cold. I have a pile of rocks sitting in the driveway and they have been there way too long.

Also last weekend, Brian built me a screen for sifting my compost. I screened the first load of it and dumped it in the garden--it looks great!

garden wall continued

Here is the completed garden wall project. This evening, Brian cut the pieces for the corners so that they'd fit properly. Scratch another one off the "to do" list.