Autumn Garden Update

Today's the first day of autumn.

I'm not quite ready yet.  And, considering half of our tomatoes have yet to bloom, I think it's safe to say that I'm not the only one.

Chad, the kids and I spent a couple hours last weekend ripping out dead, dying and "failure to thrive" plants.  We dumped containers of soil into the main garden bin.  We trimmed and we discussed the successes and failures of the year.  And I finally talked Chad into adding two raised beds to replace a portion of our yard that is currently occupied by dead or dying grass.

For the record, I had nothing whatsoever to do with said dead grass.  I would never stoop so low as to purposely kill a plant in order to get my way.  And shame on you for even thinking it!

Although, I did sort of accidentally forget to water that portion of the yard.

For two months.

Moving onward!

I found some amazingly simple-to-read and hopefully simple-to-build raised bed plans on one of my new fave blogs. 

Side note: This woman is amazing!  She builds, well, pretty much everything.  I have to say that I'm inspired to put on my Handy Mandy safety goggles and give some of her shelving plans a whirl.  And I've actually started contemplating building a bunk bed.

Chad's sceptical over the bunk bed idea.

I'm planning on spending what is shaping up to be a long winter, building, improving my soil, drawing plans, dreaming of acres of farmland, devouring seed catalogs, and, most importantly, convincing myself that this year, this year I will be able to grow my veggie plants from seeds. No more Boxes of Death for me!

I'll start my "winter" garden in another month or so - snow peas, lettuce, spinach, beets, turnips, onion, garlic.  I'm going to finally start my worm bin in a corner of the main garden where Maggie likes to take naps.  I also need to read up on and get my head around drip lines.  I don't want to have to worry about watering the garden by hand next year.

And I might start tackling a couple of craft projects as gifts for my gardening friends.  To quote Forrest, "That's all I'm going to say about that."  After all, they're some of my most loyal readers.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying a tiny trickle of tomatoes.  My paddy pans are slowing down, but still producing and my basil is, miracle of miracles, still alive.

Maybe next year I'll put up a little statue of St. Fiacre.

Although, St. Jude might be more appropriate.