Just In Time

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together. With weather predictions of nighttime temperatures possibly dropping into the 30's by this weekend and our average first frost date of October 15th looming on the horizon these beauties are just in time. Although they can take a light frost I sure love having a last round of fresh ones before winter sets in. Fresh peas are such a treat around our house and we never have enough of them it seems. A small fall crop of peas helps to extend our stash in the freezer just a little longer. 

With a few leftover for adding to the totals.

While I am at it I thought I would answer a couple more questions for you. 

Donna in KYSeptember 28, 2013 at 6:28 AM

I have a couple questions please.
You started a Heuglekulture bed last year, I was wondering if you used it and if you saw any difference?
Did you reuse any of the Tattler lids in you canning this year?

Thank you for all you do to share with us. You are an inspriation and I enjoy visiting with everyday.

Donna in KY

Donna indeed I did start a small Heugelkulture bed last year and I did not see the extent of difference that others see. I think maybe because I made it at the edge of an existing very fertile garden area and once you reach a certain level of fertility that is it. I am going to continue to experiment in other areas with it though. 

As to the tattler lids I did buy a pack but have not done anything with them at this point. That is one of the things on my list of things to do and hoping maybe when everything slows a little that will be a project.  

Thanks for visiting and your kind words : )

Kellie from IndianaSeptember 28, 2013 at 6:31 AM

How do you prep-winterize your garden?

My God woman I am hungry! Reading your posts are hazardous to my waistline! ;)

Above is the soil in the garden with a fresh supply of rabbit manure and a green manure (the green plant matter) that has been disked under. Notice there is also some left over straw mulch that was also turned under. Basically this garden becomes a giant compost pile over winter. This will be allowed to rot over the winter and by spring will add a great deal to the soil.

Different gardens get different treatments. I leave my gardens uncovered until a good freeze or two because I think it helps with the pest population when they don't have a protective layer of fresh mulch to hide under. Once it freezes then I mulch some gardens over winter such as strawberries and rhubarb areas. I will go ahead and prepare a place for my peas for next year because that is the first thing to go in and it needs that extra preparation so that it will be ready by early march. 

I disk the big garden where the corn and such grows after adding manure and amendments such as gypsum and compost to help break up that clay. There are areas of my farm that have higher clay content than others which can be challenging.   I make sure that my blackberries, grapes and raspberries all have a good layer of mulch to overwinter . I also will trim any crossing limbs etc off of my fruit trees. 

I'm off to apples today and hope you all have a great one!

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter