What Did You Do In The Garden?

[ducks4you]

I put away almost of my tools Saturday morning before the possibly 3 inches of rain fell starting at 1PM.
I found a collapsible Finally I cleaned up my garlic bed. It needs another once over digging and amending before I plant...???
I noticed some of my garlic has dried out. Guess I will cut and continue the dehydration and storage.
When I was digging last month I found one German Red Garlic bulb which just fell apart, BUT, is viable for planting soon.
2025 wasn't a great year for garlic Anyway, so I'll take the harvest at a win. I went to the 2 acre in town garden in September and was surprised that Their garlic, same type, was 1/2 the size of mine.
I am reposting the shot this morning of my tow wagon, full of the trash grasses and weeds growing in my garlic bed, ready to burning soon. I found a folding chair in my basement with Illini logos--Salsa Party guest must have left it with me in the past--and I left it out for the rain to clean it up a bit before storage. Looks like this:

I also hung 3 canvas buckets on the fence for rain cleaning. As soon as They are dry enough, they will be stored for the winter, too. Put away almost all cheap tomato cages, too and covered my stacked stairs, formally on the porch, with a tarp to keep them clean until next year's party. They were awful next to my round glass patio table bc you couldn't sit and eat--I now have 4 Bistro chairs there for That--but Very comfortable as outside party chairs. Look this like;

WHen I boiught them from a local Ace Hardware with the glass table on clearance, they asked me what color chairs I wanted. I said, All of them. So I have brown, red, blue and bright green.

 

[flowerbug]

@ducks4you any garlic that grew this year if left in the ground should be ok for next season, but it will be a clump of bulbs and most of them are likely to be smaller. after several years what you will have is a larger clump of garlic (as long as it doesn't get overgrown by something else and gets enough water) where the bulbs within the clumps will take turns growing while others rest. it's interesting to observe.

 

[flowerbug]

i didn't expect to get out and pick beans but the weather was really nice and i wanted to do something even if it meant walking around in muddy shoes.

i have flats of beans out in the sun and breeze drying them off as much as possible before i bring them in later.

 

[digitS']

It has been dry enuf and traffic light enuf over the recent few days that I was able to mow the lawn this morning near the garden beds.

On a very pleasant Autumn afternoon, I was back out and back to shovel work. (I hope my back holds up for a little more .) Buried a good mixture in that bed.

It’s mid-afternoon but I’ve had enuf for the day .

 

[digitS']

More shovel work and double digging the beds.

With so few square feet here at home, it isn't the 33%/year that I practiced years ago for the veggie beds. They are all being dug out. There is a fair amount of material to plow into that ground. The beds that were treated this way, all the time that we have lived here, have a texture much like potting soil. Effort to move the soil out isn't effortless but ain't bad. Newer ground is evolving towards that.

There's about 8' of one bed left with the celeriac in it. It's holding up just fine and I may not get to it this week because the weather will be changing but severe cold is still quite a ways out there in the forecasts. It has been an easy pace but quite a lot of exercise for an olde feller . Breaks often involve trying to scheme out a plan for 2026 plantings.

 

[heirloomgal]

More shovel work and double digging the beds.

With so few square feet here at home, it isn't the 33%/year that I practiced years ago for the veggie beds. They are all being dug out. There is a fair amount of material to plow into that ground. The beds that were treated this way, all the time that we have lived here, have a texture much like potting soil. Effort to move the soil out isn't effortless but ain't bad. Newer ground is evolving towards that.

There's about 8' of one bed left with the celeriac in it. It's holding up just fine and I may not get to it this week because the weather will be changing but severe cold is still quite a ways out there in the forecasts. It has been an easy pace but quite a lot of exercise for an olde feller . Breaks often involve trying to scheme out a plan for 2026 plantings.

The 2026 plantings are in the works, you're a true gardener, the garden is in you as much as you're in it! @digitS'

 

[digitS']

I hardly know how it would be otherwise, @heirloomgal .

We all must eat. When I moved out of the sticks, I became a vegetarian for a time. Other than purchasing, I was no longer responsible for the animal proteins that I consumed. It didn't work all that well with family. For quite a few years, I had a backyard flock of laying hens. Since eggs are a primary part of our diet here at home, it made sense to me.

I have real trouble imagining the humanity of individuals who do not even shop for their own food. Think about that. Someone prepares everything that these individuals consume and it arrives in front of them. They have assumed a role in life that should be reserved for infants and the seriously disabled!

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

When I stopped at the small lot farmstead yesterday, they were offering large green tomatoes--free.
Some woman asked if I cooked green tomatoes. I said, no, but if she took some and put them in a bowl in the kitchen they would ripen.
She didn't know this...

 

[heirloomgal]

I hardly know how it would be otherwise, @heirloomgal .

We all must eat. When I moved out of the sticks, I became a vegetarian for a time. Other than purchasing, I was no longer responsible for the animal proteins that I consumed. It didn't work all that well with family. For quite a few years, I had a backyard flock of laying hens. Since eggs are a primary part of our diet here at home, it made sense to me.

I have real trouble imagining the humanity of individuals who do not even shop for their own food. Think about that. Someone prepares everything that these individuals consume and it arrives in front of them. They have assumed a role in life that should be reserved for infants and the seriously disabled!

Steve

One of the things that has been a major surprise to me since joining TEG is how common it is for people in the US to have backyard birds. It doesn't seem to matter the state either, but rather a cultural condition. To some extent I envy it, not that I need any more responsibilities than I have, and my local bear population would concern me if I had any, but as a gardener (and baker) I can't imagine a more practical addition. May I ask why you decided to step away from keeping a flock?

 

[digitS']

decided to step away from keeping a flock?

It was bothersome. And, I was gaining little economically.

As a child, I always had pets. This included birds that had to live indoors, and this continued even into DW's arrival. She was not very happy about the old parakeet spending daytime out of the cage in her tree – bothersome to DW.

At my country home, I took a very practical approach, realizing that a laying hen flock made practical sense. Much of the diets of #1, #2, #3, etc. Chicken consisted of what they foraged. That wasn't true on an urban size lot. Feeding them garden greens and such had to be done wisely. What protein goes into a young hen needs to be in surplus to their individual needs to arrive in their nest as an egg. I had a good deal of greens and such but little appropriate feed for the flock.

Meat birds were a fairly simple matter with purchases at the farm supply, limited weeks in a caged environment, butchering and freezer camp. My adventure with those laying machines Coturnix quail was also limited to store-bought ingredients and short term since they played out as layers quickly and needed to go into the soup pot.

Don't name your hens and only allow them out of the coop when you are spending time outdoors. #1 etc. is okay but naming your favorite after Olivia de Havilland was a mistake. She wanted to hang out with me and I allowed the last flock of 5 to pass naturally with Olivia outliving all the others. Of course, there was nearly zero eggs during those final years .