As our fall garden starts to come in, we’ve been working on cleaning out some of the summer plants and moving things around to maximize our growing potential.
The first order of business was cleaning up the compost area. Our dachshund dug a two-feet deep, four-feet wide hole in our garden area while we were still in the planning stages. One of our kids used the dog’s creative excavation as a swimming hole, which prompted us to make the compost pile.
I have about half of that cleared and the compost turned over. While clearing it, I made sure to not cut the vine for our apple pumpkin.
During the clearing out, I’ve found various ripe vegetables for us to eat. While it’s been cool to find these little gems, it’s also been disheartening to know my lack of knowledge prevented me from giving these particular plan a more productive growing season.
I also cleaned the tomato cages and repurposed them. Some of them are for my pea plants to climb while others are holding our zinnias up.
The zinnias are still going strong. If they could stand up straight, I think they’d be as tall as some of our sunflower plants were before a hurricane knocked them down earlier this year.
I’m keeping them in place to help the pollinators — mostly butterflies and winter bees at the moment — stay interested in the garden. We’ll see what happens when the vegetable plants start to bloom.
I’m also moving some of the plants the squirrels planted when they stole seeds out of the garden. I think some of the plants may be more morning glories, so I plan to let those get run over by the lawnmower. The rest, which look like squash and the okra experiment, will go into the garden. They are taller than anything I planted. Maybe the squirrels are better gardeners than I am.
Our local extension office is offering free soil-sample readings and a free gardening classes, so I plan on taking advantage of both opportunities this fall. Maybe it will help the garden be more successful in 2021.
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