Trying to beat the rain

With rain in the forecast for later in the day (we ended up getting 3/4” overnight, which for us is like a flood!), we had a small window to finish prepping a few more garden beds. I’m really trying to do a few at a time so it is not quite so overwhelming, but once we get that frost, there’s a lot to do all of a sudden!

Steve used his new machete to chop down the sunflower stalks in the left-hand bed. They are formidable! He cut off the flower heads, and I gave those to the chickens. I will let the stalks dry out a bit more, and then I will pull off the remaining leaves and stack them up for Montana to use for her trellis projects next year.

This middle bed held a variety of flowers and spinach-like veggies. I finished pulling out the remaining plants, which Steve rolled down to the compost to break down. I then used the compost we pulled out earlier this season to cover the bed, and then we raked and planted it in winter wheat. The irrigation lines will be pulled up and stored along the fence once Steve ensures they are fully blown out.

I made it about halfway through cleaning up this bed. I harvested the rest of Montana and Elijah’s peppers (see below) and pulled the plants out along with a few leftover tomatoes from the left-hand side and the marigolds and beans from the right. I detached the remaining cattle panels that were being used as a trellis (you can see them laying on the ground), but I will need some help getting them fully de-tangled and stored. Steve will have to get the fence post puller out and remove those t-posts. Then he will till it up, and I will spread whatever remaining compost material we have from our stash on top. Then we plop on some winter rye seeds and hope there is enough time for them to sprout before the real cold sets in.

The right-hand bed is being repurposed to hold a few perennials and some bulbs. So we got the bulbs planted and then recovered the area with some straw. It is the one bed in the garden that does not have any kind of fabric barrier, and I predict I will HATE having to weed it. That landscape fabric is THE KEY to being able to maintain the garden space. But with bulbs popping up who-knows-where, it’s just not conducive to an orderly landscape-fabric’d space. So we will see! 50-50 odds that we will end up tilling this area up and planting something else here next summer.

Added a few more items to the mini gourd display on the front porch.

And since the county burn ban was lifted a few days ago, we were also able to get some of our tree trimmings burned! The coals burned all through the night, even through the rain.

You can tell from my socks (they are supposed to be pink) that I was in the middle of garden work, taking a break to enjoy Steve’s fire.