Winter Beds and Goldenrod

All the seedlings were transplanted into the Winter beds – the beds that will be under the hoop house once we move it from its Summer position, after the tomatoes, peppers and basil are done.

These are all under one layer of row cover now (Agribon, from Johnnie’s). A third bed is loaded with kale and broccoli. The fourth bed holds onions, scallions, chives and sorrel that I sowed at the beginning of August.

I’ll reserve the empty spaces (about 4 sq. f.) in the fourth bed for transplants from the other beds (I put the broccoli and kale a bit too close together), and I might use some of it to keep some compost from freezing. Some empty space will also come in handy in Spring when I can move the more hardy seedlings there and out of the basement growing area.

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Yesterday I found myself back  in Amie’s school garden. “Back” is not quite the right word because it turns out that the garden I weeded last week was not the garden the teacher meant for me to clean up! (No harm done, I did what I love for a couple of hours and got  to harvest all that dandelion). In any case, there I was, staring at the other garden, trying to decide what they would consider “weed” and “legit”. A lot of the plants were borderline, in my opinion. Luckily the other volunteer came up to help, and she said to pull the lot.

“Even the goldenrod?”

“Of course, that’s  a weed!”

“I’ll take it home, then – they’re great bee plants.”

I hope these do better than the ones I grew from seed this Summer. Those got all those juicy little green buds, but they never flowered into yellow before withering to nothing.

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I also disconnected and rolled up and stored all the garden hoses. Man, that 50 foot long one was a pain! I’m keeping a weather eye on the forecasts. Soon I’ll be empty the rain barrels and store those too.

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Did you know that oil companies won’t come and do a burner tune-up unless you have an oil delivery contract with them!