Thursday, October 28, 2010

End of season report

A strong wind last night blew most of the leaves from the trees. More and more, they have the barren winter look. We have been picking kale and chard from the garden about once every couple of weeks, also there are a couple of heads of lettuce that are ready from the summer planting. It was a good season for learning more about gardening. In particular, we have an appreciation for how succession planting from May through July will allow us to harvest greens from spring into winter.

Also, we have come to the realization that there is just enough sun in the backyard to grow tomatoes and not really enough to grow peppers. Next year, we will experiment with planters for tomatoes and peppers on the front south facing porch. The planters that we built for friends did much better than our frames and increased sunlight and warmth is most likely the reason. The plus side of less sun in the backyard, is that lettuce and other greens can be grown throughout the summer with less chance of bolting. In other developments, we have decided that broccoli does not really provide much in return for how much space it takes up.

I am looking forward to the winter and the opportunity to relax from outside work. Next year, I will look forward to planting some fruit trees, strawberries and raspberries and adding a few more garden frames, as well as growing warmth loving vegetables on the front porch.