Thursday, October 15, 2009

last minute mowing and the once & future vegetable garden



We've got some weather coming our way and today, I must admit, was the first time I really felt the cold.
I have alot of lawn to look at...well, alot of grass mixed with other stuff that passes for 'lawn' and that's fine with me except I'm no fan of mowing. I've hayed fields and mown more than my share of landscape and it's not just the noise and using fossil fuels that bugs me. I don't get into the 'meditation' of it. I don't hate it, I'd just rather allocate the time for other gardening matters. Luckily it only falls to me about half the time.
But today I felt an urgency as we are expecting some white stuff and even if it doesn't stick it's psychological impact is strong. Anyhoo, I keep raking to a minimum so the leaves get mulched into the lawn, that's it for my fertilizing. Seems to work. So a final buzz cut. Hope is that much of this area will have vegetables growing on it in the not too distant future. The good news is that it was a veg garden in the past so it'll be relatively rock free. The bad news is it's a very wet area so some serious raised beds would be needed. But whatever is decided my mantra is to not bite off more than I can chew. (Good luck with that one, Randi)
So, the woodstove is pretty much on full time duty now and I find myself hunting down hearty recipes. I've got a fava bean chili going at the moment. Could be interesting.

3 comments:

El said...

You know, Randi, fall is the BEST time to start new garden beds...why not get out some newspaper, cardboard, etc. and lots of those leaves and grass clippings and start killing that turf now, eh?

How bad of a water problem? Is it, you know, at the bottom of something or is it just that it's on a hill? My garden is the latter: it's on the downside, so what I had to do is trench all the way around it and bury perforated drain tile. Fun!! But: dry garden. Not bad.

Just in case you thought your work was done, of course...

good luck with the white stuff.

Mr. H. said...

What are those lovely flowers?

I bet that you liked the fava bean chili. Fava beans are so dependable for us that they make up a large part of every bean dish we eat.

randi said...

Oh El, you know me so well! Actually, if we could afford it, which we can't, there would be a pond dug there...it's that wet. Ideally, there would be a little pond surrounded by gardens but..this property is wet everywhere as past perk tests have attested so I terrace, hill, and generally keep pinkies crossed.
Mike, that puple stuff is aconitum (monkshood), which you might know to be very poisonous so don't go munching on it. However, I have cut it back for years, often barehanded with no ill effects. But I often think I have developed immunities over the years when I see how sensitive others are to all sorts of stuff I handle regularly. Crusty old broad that I am!