The 2011 Growing Season Has Begun!

Faithful blog followers have been begging for a post, so here it is! Before I get to 2011, a quick update on 2010. About 60% of the garden is done for the year, so I turned that portion over (with a shovel) and planted it with cover crops. I spread a mixture of oats and hairy vetch. The oats are supposed to grow quickly in the fall and die over the winter while the Vetch will grow slowly over the fall, survive the winter, and grow again in the spring. The Vetch is a legume and should add some nitrogen to the soil. The Oats grow quickly and should add a bunch of organic matter, and may help the Vetch survive the winter. Its definately later in the year than these cover crops should be planted, and the vetch might not survive the winter, but it can't hurt to plant them. Here is what it looks like after I had done about 40% of the garden.

As you can see in the picture, there are still some things growing. In the picture you can see green onions and broccoli. There are also still some cherry tomatoes, pepper plants, pak choi, lettuce, and brussells sprouts. Recently there was a forcast of widespread frost everywhere in the area except right by the lake, so I harvested most of the remaining peppers and tomatoes (most of which were green). It didn't end up frosting, so I'm glad I left some of the stuff on the plants. Below you can see that harvest.

In the bottom of the picture, you can see some garlic lined up. That brings us to the 2011 part I mentioned. I planted a dozen cloves of garlic. It should theoretically overwinter and be ready for harvest in the late spring or early summer. Those cloves came from a few heads of garlic that we got from the CSA this summer. Hopefully that means that they should grow well around here. Here is what the garlic patch currently looks like.