I feel like I haven’t dug in the dirt in weeks! I’ve spent a lot of Sept. indoors, but today we were out and about! I planted the greenhouse bed with lots of cold weather greens, once the are sprouted, but before they get eaten by cabbage moths, I’ll move the greenhouse over the top of the bed and weight it down for the winter. I think this will work much better than the containers I tried planting tender things in last year. It just doesn’t stay warm enough in this kind of popup greenhouse.
In these rows I have bok choi, chervil, romaine, kale, beets, kohlrabi and cress. Some of these are new to me and I hope they like this bed. This is an area that gets a lot of shade when the trees above have all their leaves, but should get a decent amount of sun in winter. Also, this is the first planting of this hugulkultur bed. I buried stumps under here in spring and have kept it mulched with grass clippings all summer, I refreshed the grass clippings twice to keep the layer about 2 – 3” deep. Now I’ve pushed the grass away from the rows, added some finished compost and mixed it into the soil just a bit before I planted the seeds.
I also took apart part of my old compost enclosure and used the stakes and chicken wire to create a pea trellis. This one zig zags across the bed and I planted the peas in between. This will not be greenhouse protected, so I hope there is enough time to get some peas before it gets too cold. There were some random morning glories growing up this in the other location and I didn’t bother to rip them all off. Come on PEAS!
Look at all those red tomatoes. I spend all winter dreaming of this and then by the end of the summer I’m letting them rot on the vine. What’s wrong with me? The nasturtium are so happy here! I never eat them, but they are supposed to be good pest control/companion plantings, according to pest control minneapolis, so I keep putting them in. They are pretty too!
Back there behind the Egyptian walking onions was where the Illini blackberry used to be. GONE! Oh, I hated that thorny monster. I cut it down and plan to rip out every runner I see. I’ve put a thornless variety nearby and look forward to harvesting THEM someday.
Isn’t that horseradish way back there huge?! I thought I took it all out last winter. Didn’t know if any would come back. HA! It’s bigger than ever.
This was where I spent the most garden time today. I divided and removed a hosta from the front foundation bed and spread it around over here on the side yard beneath the oak trees. I did the same with some liriope from the northeast side of the house. In place of that, I put the black currants that I had planted a little too close to one of the oaks. They weren’t happy there and though they are still alive, they are very small for being 2 years old now. I’m hoping they like the foundation spot with morning sun much better.
Look at the pretty sunchokes! They better be pretty. haha. The plants are HUGE and they didn’t need support until a few weeks ago after a good rain, now they are all leaning way over. I think if I had them up against a structure or fence they would do much better because they wouldn’t have to battle so much against the wind. But the flowers DO smell like chocolate and they just make me smile. I can’t wait to taste the tubers to see if I like them. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get them all out of the spots they are in, supposedly they are tough to move cause any little bit left in the soil will resprout, but I can try and just keep pulling them out when I see them coming up again in spring.
