The freeze is on!

It is official, the outdoor growing season is over. We had record low temperatures on Saturday. It was down to 15 F. There were major accidents all over the city. I was side ways at one point on my way to work.

It has taken me many years to convince Sy that we can support much of our lifestyle with our small suburban spread. As I reflect on the past growing season I am proud of our accomplishment. Sy was amazed at the amount of food we had this summer from the garden. We ate plenty. We were fortunate enough to share with family and friends, some feeling the effects of the recession. We have canned, dried, and otherwise preserved enough to last us through the winter.

We will spend this winter reviewing our notes, and getting better prepared. We will review our failures such as the potatoes, and do more research. We had great vines this year, but they never flowered, meaning of course no potatoes. We haven't had much luck with carrots, but there are a few carrot sprouts from a fall planting. Carrots will continue to grow in winter here.

Over all we had great success and next year we set the bar a bit higher. In the near future look forward to a short video of our 2009 garden. Take care and have a great day.

W.U.F. Update 06.09.09

The garden is doing well. We got quite a bit accomplished with Carols help today. The weeding is nearly caught up. I got the remaining tomato seedlings planted today. We now have 35 tomato plants of two varieties in the ground. I also got the long Island Cheese Squash planted. I also finally got the Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds in the ground. I have wanted to grow a giant pumpkin for years but have never gotten it done. Maybe this is the year. We now also have four or five potato plants poking up out of their mounds of straw.

The corn is about 10 inches high. The onions and garlic are both doing well. The broccoli is producing new heads. The cherry tomatoes have fruit on them. We have harvested approximately five pounds of spinach already with no signs of letting up. I got the pole peas tied up yesterday. Next year I will have the infrastructure in place so I can grow them taller. They laid on the ground for too long and now they have bent stalks. All of the squash are doing well, and we expect to have more squash than we know what to do with soon.

All four of the mints are doing well. We are going to try and make some orange mint vodka and some pineapple mint vodka. We are experimenting with some horehound mint cough syrup with good results so far. The spicy oregano, and the rosemary are doing well. The bronze fennel can be harvested anytime.

We have had blueberries and strawberries. The raspberries are doing well, and we have harvested the rhubarb a couple of times. The rhubarb is ready to harvest again. I can't wait until it is time to get Colorado Western Slope Peaches and make peach rhubarb cobbler.

We also planted marigolds, dianthus, and lobelia between the stones and the mugo pines around the sacred circle. We mulched it with straw. The next step will be to get the grass out of the circle and replace it with creeping thyme.

I will get pics up in the morning. I wanted to do it tonight but ran out of daylight. More to come soon.--Jeremy

March Update

So far March has been a good month at W.U.F.  We have managed to get two varieties of peas planted along with beets, onions, leeks and carrots.  We also planted a new raspberry bush and a blackberry bush to supplement the two raspberry bushes we planted last year.  The spearmint is back with lots of new shoots.  The pineapple mint is pushing up through its mulch.  The strawberries are coming back strong and already showing new growth.  The chives are ready for the first harvest of the year, with one plant going to seed already.  The fennel just popped its head through the mulch yesterday.  

We started digging a new bed last weekend, and it appears their is a brick path under the lawn.  It looks like somebody planted grass right on top of the brick.  Our house was built in the fifties, and we have found a lot of small treasures in the lawn, but a brick sidewalk was completely unexpected. It will be out by the end of this weekend so that we can prep the bed.  We are planning to plant our lettuce and spinach here to fill in the space until we can get squash planted and sprouted.  The lettuce and spinach require a fairly short growing time and will hold the soil until the squash is ready to spread out.  We will plant other beds with lettuce and spinach as well.   

I am trying to get a slide show up with updated pics every week.  I will also begin labeling posts so that folks can find things that fit their specific interests.  I hope everyone has a great week.