We haven't had an accumulation of snow... yet. There have been snow sightings around the are just not at 'our house', so in my mind it doesn't count! So here's what I've gotten accomplished the past few weeks.
Project 17: Take down fence and store materials.
* Mostly completed by Jeremy. We took down fencing and all posts. We used sections of the fence to go around the 2 new apple trees to keep the deer out. The posts and remaining fencing were put in the garage. Yay!
Project 18: Till!
* Waiting until next year, for a couple reasons. We decided we needed a chest freezer more than a tiller this year. We thought about using my mom's tiller, until she had her garage broken into and had it stolen! Yup, sad world when someone steals a tiller...
*Instead of tilling I decided to do the work by hand. Seemed like a good idea, but I am sore. Yesterday I hard raked (with a metal rake) the entire garden area, twice. The ground is not level so that was part of the 'hard work'. It looked pretty good though I must say! Today I had the little boy help too. I raked again, he dug up weeds and rock, and Jeremy helped with a large rock and monster-root. I expanded the garden in all directions.
We had an extra find too! There must have been a building of some sort in or around the garden area .We found 6 large pieces of really old cement (cement with marble to golf ball size rocks) buried along the wood line, flat on one side in a short row. This area was used for sheep a long time ago, so we are thinking there was some sort of a shed or barn type building. Little boy threw the cement pieces in the pond.... kersploosh!
Project 19: Trees
* Jeremy cut down two trees for me with the chainsaw that were leaning over the garden. Then a few trees around the garden were pruned and I decided to cut down a lot of small seedlings that sprouted over the summer. I will be expanding the garden each year, but I really have a limited space. If I am able to keep a few trees a year from taking over it will be that much easier for expansion.
Garlic and Onions:
* The fall planting is officially done! The garlic and onions took up a larger space than what I expected but that's okay. I planted a total of 8 garlic bulbs and 30+ onions. I used small decorative metal fencing to box in the planting area. The fencing worked perfect for holding in the 5+ inches of leaves I added instead of mulch. The fence will keep the leaves in place and will be a perfect reminder of where I planted the rows. It is a long time between now and next year planting and believe me if anyone could forget something in that time it would be me! I don't have much completed mulch yet and am really hoping the dry whole leaves work as well as the mulch would. I have more raking to do and want another layer (2-3 inches) of leaves and forest grasses on top of my little garlic and onions.
(I'll add a picture later, it looks good but it has been dark for an hour so definitely wouldn't be a good pic!)
*Garden 2012 was addressed with the hubs. I showed him the ideal size of my 'dream garden' for the gardening space. He is all on board! However, what we have is all we have for gardening space. Remember, we really do live in the woods... Last year we couldn't get the whole space useable because of the time, or lack of time, we had to get the area ready in the spring. Digging roots, rocks, dead trees, cutting down small trees, and plowing new ground was a lot of work. With most of the prep work out of the way this fall it means for Garden 2012 I'll have almost three times the gardening space. Only to be expanded slightly in the next few years after. Exciting!
Non-Gardening related photos of the weekend:
Project 17: Take down fence and store materials.
* Mostly completed by Jeremy. We took down fencing and all posts. We used sections of the fence to go around the 2 new apple trees to keep the deer out. The posts and remaining fencing were put in the garage. Yay!
Project 18: Till!
* Waiting until next year, for a couple reasons. We decided we needed a chest freezer more than a tiller this year. We thought about using my mom's tiller, until she had her garage broken into and had it stolen! Yup, sad world when someone steals a tiller...
*Instead of tilling I decided to do the work by hand. Seemed like a good idea, but I am sore. Yesterday I hard raked (with a metal rake) the entire garden area, twice. The ground is not level so that was part of the 'hard work'. It looked pretty good though I must say! Today I had the little boy help too. I raked again, he dug up weeds and rock, and Jeremy helped with a large rock and monster-root. I expanded the garden in all directions.
We had an extra find too! There must have been a building of some sort in or around the garden area .We found 6 large pieces of really old cement (cement with marble to golf ball size rocks) buried along the wood line, flat on one side in a short row. This area was used for sheep a long time ago, so we are thinking there was some sort of a shed or barn type building. Little boy threw the cement pieces in the pond.... kersploosh!
Project 19: Trees
* Jeremy cut down two trees for me with the chainsaw that were leaning over the garden. Then a few trees around the garden were pruned and I decided to cut down a lot of small seedlings that sprouted over the summer. I will be expanding the garden each year, but I really have a limited space. If I am able to keep a few trees a year from taking over it will be that much easier for expansion.
Garlic and Onions:
* The fall planting is officially done! The garlic and onions took up a larger space than what I expected but that's okay. I planted a total of 8 garlic bulbs and 30+ onions. I used small decorative metal fencing to box in the planting area. The fencing worked perfect for holding in the 5+ inches of leaves I added instead of mulch. The fence will keep the leaves in place and will be a perfect reminder of where I planted the rows. It is a long time between now and next year planting and believe me if anyone could forget something in that time it would be me! I don't have much completed mulch yet and am really hoping the dry whole leaves work as well as the mulch would. I have more raking to do and want another layer (2-3 inches) of leaves and forest grasses on top of my little garlic and onions.
(I'll add a picture later, it looks good but it has been dark for an hour so definitely wouldn't be a good pic!)
*Garden 2012 was addressed with the hubs. I showed him the ideal size of my 'dream garden' for the gardening space. He is all on board! However, what we have is all we have for gardening space. Remember, we really do live in the woods... Last year we couldn't get the whole space useable because of the time, or lack of time, we had to get the area ready in the spring. Digging roots, rocks, dead trees, cutting down small trees, and plowing new ground was a lot of work. With most of the prep work out of the way this fall it means for Garden 2012 I'll have almost three times the gardening space. Only to be expanded slightly in the next few years after. Exciting!
Non-Gardening related photos of the weekend:
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| We took off Friday and went to the Pumpkin Patch in Grand Forks. |
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| Jeremy and Cole went to the Haunted House... I did not... |
