Sunday, November 16, 2008

November 16, 2008

Well, I bet you didn't expect to hear from me anytime soon.  I must say, today was a good day.  I haven't been able to say that for a while.  Sure tomorrow will be hellish as always, but I expect to be home at a reasonable hour for a change.  Of course I won't be able to garden without a flashlight, but I hope to actually take DoubleD's proding and have a salad with dinner tomorrow.  She was right, my spinach should be eaten. 

Anyway, today was a day with the family.  I spent a good part of the morning outside with the kids, allowing my wife to do some work for the school.  She's part of the auction team to earn money to help the school relocate in the event the building where it's housed is sold by the school district. 

So this morning the kids and I went out and raked up the leaves.



Well, they raked the leaves off the concrete while I mowed the leaves off the grass.  All of the leaves in the back yard went into the compost bin, along with two bags of Starbuck's coffee grounds and a bit of grass clippings that came up with the leaves.  However, when it came to the front yard, I didn't feel like hiking back and forth with the mower bag, so I started to fill a yard waste container.  In the end, I had a ton of stuff in there but it was so heavy that I couldn't lift it so I gave up and left it for pickup.  If I can't figure out how to get it in there I won't worry about it.

And while I was out there I took a pic of my fall storm ravenged hoop covers.



And finally today, I was showing the kids the fall colors on the blueberry bushes and noticed that I had a half dozen sprouts on my garlic!



Of course I found 6 out of 40 cloves planted.  So I think it's early.  And it's a good time to let you know that all I know about garlic is that you plant it in October and harvest it in summer.  If there's something I should be doing that you now of, let me know, hehe.

Finally, I really hope to have time to post more often.  I still won't have a ton of pics during the week, as my flash on the phone doesn't work that well.  But if you're a regular visitor, check back more regularly.  I was looking at my calendar on the site and I recall back when I was upset when I missed a day of posting.  Not sure I'll have something to say every day, but I'll try.

Enjoy your garden!

2 comments:

  1. That is the cutest pic of the boys doing the raking! :)

    I noticed Sunday that my elephant garlic is all up and a couple of the multiplier onions, shallots, and just two regular garlic plantings had sent up shoots. More will appear as the weeks unfold. There is nothing to do (for now) on the garlic - just watch it get some growth on before the really cold weather hits. It will then go "quiet" until early spring when it will take off again. About late March, I like to give it the first shot of fertilizer and I gve it another feeding in May. The bulb size is dependent on the amount of top growth you get (as limited by the varieties genetic capabilities). I use the same schedule with all the onion family plantings.

    Sounds like you got a good compost brew going from the leaf raking. I got about 2/3rds of the leaves raked up yesterday too. My husband plans to wrap the rest up himself this week. I need to stop by starbucks and grab some grounds myself - to add to the leaf compost bin.

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  2. I need garlic advice. Do you remove the scapes?

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