Harvesting and Fall Gardening

Since the last post, we have been busy harvesting and also planting Fall crops.  Most of the original plantings have completed their growth cycle and been harvested and cleaned up.  There are still some tomatoes, okra and flowers that are contributing to our harvest totals.  The amount harvested to date is 988.75 pounds.  The total is, frankly, far beyond my most optimistic wild dreams.  This is the "before" picture.  We have harvested the sunflowers and the remaining corn.  Beans have been taken out as have the cushaw and spaghetti squash.  There a couple of pumpkins that are developing, but perhaps not fast enough to beat the frost.   

Total weight of the sunflower heads picked was 103 pounds.  Some of the heads went to our intrepid work crew,  some to the Community Clothes Closet for sale and the remaining went to the Senior Center.  The sunflowers were one of the must do crops for the garden.  They were an attention getter, and have a high perceived value.  Next year, in addition to the mammoth variety, we hope to plant some of the more decorative varieties. 

As most of the vegetables have been harvested, we have created some flower arrangements that were distributed to the clothes closet, the mayor's office, library and the senior center.  It is a nice touch as people generally like flowers, and it does spread goodwill and recognition for the garden.

To help arrange the flowers, a plastic soda bottle was sawed with about 4 inches of the top and neck remaining,  The flowers were picked, arranged, and pushed through neck of the bottle.  This keeps the flowers in place and makes it easy for recipients to place in a vase.  For some of the smaller arrangements we used the bottom portion of the soda bottle as a vase. We will continue with the arrangements until the frost. 

We have planted Fall crops to extend the garden season.  Fortunately we received rain after each planting.  The weather is still unseasonable warm, but the day length is getting shorter, with the first day of a Fall next week.  We planted mustard, kale, turnips, radish, and lettuce.  All are now up.  With the first frost date about a month away, we hope to have a good Fall garden harvest. 

One thing we noticed at the garden was an almost total absence of birds.  There was one persistent Robin, but very little else.  This week there were adult and young Cardinals and quite a number of Goldfinches.  They perhaps had their eyes on the sunflowers, and we did leave a couple in the garden for our avian friends.   Bad bugs also considerable outnumber the good.  The land had been in pasture for at least 40 years, so there was probably little insect or bird activity for years.  We would like to place a Bluebird house or two around the garden parameter for next year.

In the next week or two, we will exceed the thousand pound level and I'll total all the harvest categories and post.  It is also time to start evaluating the successes and failures of this year's adventure.  We are talking about whether we should use cover crops, getting the compost pile established and cooking, and creating a more permanent solution for the pathways.  The cardboard and black plastic did the job, but is not a long-term way to go.  The dream is to expand the raised beds to create a true community garden with some plots that would be available for rent to community members.