Reflections on the Season

Well, needless to say the summer got away from us. It's now mid-November and after a very rainy and windy weekend, I think all the leaves are finally on the ground. Thank goodness we borrowed a leaf sweeper attachment for the tractor. We accomplished in a few hours what it has taken months worth of weekend to rake up in the past. I'm seriously considering making a bonnafide compost windrow with the leaves as a base. Put that on the long list of projects to get to...

But for the garden we had a great first year. Good eats with a whole bunch of lessons learned along the way:

• Tossing the peat pellet things for seed starting in favor of homegrown compost trays
  
• Getting spinach in the ground (and lots of it) much earlier
• Definitely planting bush beans to get an early crop of green beans (the pole beans were prolific!)
• More roma tomatoes for sauces (and better tomato trellising all around)
• Perhaps building trellises for the summer and fall squashes
• More corn!
• Looser soil for better carrot development

We'll definitely expand the number of beds -- maybe even double them. We're eager to try potatoes and onions; strawberries; artichokes perhaps; and an expanded herb selection. Also of interest is getting some dwarf apple trees in the ground. The kids just love those apples!

So while it's getting cold outside, we'll be seeing how long those compost piles stay warm and looking forward to the seeing the seed catalogs arrive in the mail. In the meantime, we'll try to keep some posts going as we find things of interest to share. Until then, here are some more photos from the season that Sara took: