A day of destruction

Moving day is fast approaching, so I spent Saturday doing some final garden clean up. The first thing I tackled was the potato planter.

The design worked exactly as planned. After I pulled all the plants out, I unhooked the hooks and eyes, and pulled the front side right off.

In the process, I disturbed a big ant colony. I really messed up their world yesterday.

Then I unscrewed the four screws holding the rest of it together and had all the parts down in no time.

I did have supervision.

With all of the rain we've had, I half expected to find nothing but rotten potatoes. Instead, I found some really good new potatoes.

I then cut the cucumbers off the trellis. There are several plants growing along the ground, and I left those. If nothing else, they will help deter weeds.

I used up the last of my straw bale putting a layer all over the empty areas in the garden. I just don't want it to be too full of weeds when the buyer gets here.

The most unsavory thing I did all day was take down the black composter, which is where the kitchen waste went. No pictures of that process because it was messy and there were too many creepy, crawly things that I had to keep my eyes on.

A large portion of the compost was really close to done, so I buried it in the middle of the other composter. Since buyer didn't ask us to remove it, she's getting that one. In the notes I leave her, I'll let her know that it should be nothing but good soil by next spring if she leaves it alone. The black composter got hosed off and is now ready to load up.

The last thing I did was pull my garden sign out from under the cucumber vine. I'm looking forward to finding a new place for it in the next garden.

Zucchini!

My first one ever.

Up until this point, all of the little zucchinis that have formed have kind of shriveled and rotted away. This is the first one to properly mature. I made zucchini noodles with half of it (sauteed with garlic and olive oil), and the other half was shredded and frozen.

Yesterday, I noticed several more little zucchinis that look like they're going to be edible. If they aren't ready in the next week, thought, I guess buyer will get them.

Spilling the beans

Or, more accurately, why there are no beans.

Big changes are on the horizon for K's garden.

The garden - July 26th

We're moving! No, we're not moving to an acreage in the country, but we are moving to a house with a much bigger yard.

We weren't really planning on moving, but at some point in May, we started looking at what was available in our area and found some things we liked. The next few weeks were spent painting, cleaning, and generally finishing our current house to get it ready to go on the market. Knowing we likely weren't going to be around for the full garden season this year, I decided not to plant everything I'd originally planned. I never planted beets or beans, and I gave the sweet potato plants to a friend.

There have been a lot of ups and downs along the way, but we now have less than two weeks to go before the move. The garden gets a little sadder every day.

The hugel has been deconstructed. I didn't want to leave a big mound filled with logs for an unsuspecting buyer.

The sickly Amish paste tomatoes have been completely cut down, and the worldly tomato jungle has been given a good trim.

Since I don't want to leave my tomato cages behind, I'll be cutting the tomatoes down completely right before we leave. Until then, I'm going to savor every tomato I get. To date, that's been two for me, while the tomato thief has had five.

The cucumbers, zucchini and squash are still very much taking over the garden.

I'll have to cut down the cucumbers, so I can take my trellis, but I'm leaving the zucchini and squash for the buyer. It looks like I might get one zucchini before we go, but the two squash I've been watching won't be ripe in time.

I have no idea what our buyer thinks about gardening. She didn't ask us to get rid of the garden or the fence, for which I'm grateful, but that doesn't mean she's going to keep any of it. I've started a note I'm going to leave for her that tells her a little about what's planted here. I think she should know that she may have strawberries and rhubarb next year, but she'll have to wait until 2017 for asparagus. She also needs to understand that the bluejays and squirrels will be counting on her for their daily peanuts.

One of the hardest parts of this whole thing has been not composting. I didn't want to leave a huge pile of unfinished compost for the buyer, so I've been bagging all of my yard waste, weeds and other garden stuff for more than a month. It's such a bother and feels like a huge waste. Oh well, it's temporary.

I'm very excited for the new house. Part of what started us looking was the idea that we might be able to find a bigger lot in the city, and we did just that. Our current lot, which isn't terribly small by urban standards, is 7500 square feet (a little more than 1/6 of an acre). The house we bought sits on a lot that is 14,000 square feet (almost 1/3 of an acre). There are some flower beds and a couple trees, but there is so much room for me to plant whatever I want. I've got lots of plans already, but one of the first things I'm hoping to do is plant a couple peach trees.

Since I'll basically be starting from scratch, I'll have a lot of things to share along the way. I'm very excited for this new chapter.

Tomatoes and a thief

I planted seven tomato plants this year. Due to weather, I planted four of them on one day and the other three a week or so later. They are in different locations, but I have been shocked at the difference in their growth.

The early ones, planted in the asparagus bed are becoming a jungle. This picture is a week old, and they practically look twice this size already. These are, from left to right, Mexican Midget, Nebraska Wedding, and two Italian Heirloom. A veritable globe of tomatoes.

The others, planted in the main garden in a spot where I had tomatoes two years ago, are spindly and pathetic looking. These are Amish Paste. I know there could be many reasons for the difference, and I'll never know for sure.

I've been keeping a close eye on the developing tomatoes. Surprisingly, I still have no ripe cherry tomatoes (the un-politically correct Mexican Midget), but the Italian Heirloom plants are loaded with big, beautiful tomatoes.

I finally noticed an orange blush the other day and started dreaming about things like bruschetta and Farmgirl Susan's tomato and pesto pie. Imagine my horror when I looked out the window this morning and saw this:

I couldn't actually see it that well from the window, but I could tell something wasn't right with that tomato on the bottom. Somebody chewed off half of it!

I saw this little guy making himself at home in the bed at lunch today.

He was suspect number one until I got home from work tonight. The tomato is completely gone, picked right off the plant. The only sign of it is one tiny, little piece of tomato laying on the ground. Little rabbit couldn't have done that. I'm afraid he had a co-conspirator. We're on high alert for tomato thieves.

Onions and babies

That could be a recipe in the cannibal cookbook, but it's really just a garden update.

The onions started falling down well over a week ago.

I dug them up Tuesday night.

There certainly were a lot of them, but they varied in size drastically. Why did so many of them stay so small?

They are now covered and I'll let them cure for awhile. I'll just have to use the little ones first.

On to the babies.

Isn't that a cute little zucchini? I've never grown zucchini before, so I'm kind of excited. I understand that will wear off, but this is a plant designed for small spaces so it hopefully won't get too out-of-hand.

Another baby:

A teeny, tiny Japanese climbing cucumber.

Last but not least, tomatoes:

I can't remember what kind this is. I planted new varieties this year and forgot what I planted where. It's either Nebraska Wedding or Italian Heirloom. Either way, I should be eating tomatoes soon!

Eating from the hugel

excuse the window screen

Not what you expected?

Garlic

Befoe

I decided to pull up the garlic on Monday. I'm not great at judging the right time, but the leaves were turning brown, and I didn't want to wait too long.

None of it is very big, which is supposedly the result of spring planting, but small garlic is better than no garlic in my opinion.

I'm guessing the bigger ones are the few that survived winter.

After