Let the Hurricane winds blow!

Well, hurricane Irene left us high and dry! While the eastern half of the state was getting several inches of much needed rain, all we received was a lot of wind and a cloudy day. However, the cloudiness was exactly what I needed for my task for the day, planting some fall seedlings. I took off on a reconnaissance  mission at Southern States and I found that they had many of the things that I will be needing in the future, including chicken supplies and seed for clover, along with several other cover crops. They also have several varieties of chicks in late February, so we have a local supplier for chickens at that time. I like the idea of being able to pick several different types all at the same time so they grow up together; I know that at some time I'll have to introduce new chickens to the flock, but I'd like to start off easy. They also had some broccoli and cabbage plants; I bought four cabbages that I hope to turn into some lovely cabbage rolls in November and eight broccoli, because I found out in the spring that four are not enough for us! We really like broccoli. I had to both put water in the planting hole before planting and water again after planting since it is so very dry. Then I did the ultimate twofer; I mulched the plants with a layer of compost, giving the plants both nutrition and moisture conservation. I would post a picture of the plantings, but it looks just like the one I took in the spring, so I'll show you the little friend we found in the frame I was planting:

Our toad friend

 We always have toads in the garden, and I love having them there. They are little insect destroyers. I try to do what I can to attract them because we don't use insecticides and I love the free insect service. We really don't have a big problem with pests of the six legged variety, just the four legged variety. As you can see in the next picture, I have wire around the back of the tomatoes, and over the bed to keep the deer/bunnies/groundhogs out of my food.

Vertical Tomatoes

We are growing four tomatoes vertically in four square feet of soil, whereas if we were growing them in traditional cages or staked they would take sixteen square feet, or the whole square. In retrospect, I need to use either wire or stouter string for the trellis because this one is sagging with the weight of the tomatoes. See the almost ripe Cherokee Purple? The deer got all of the last ones because I let my guard down and left the wire off just before several tomatoes ripened.  In front of them I have recently planted a mix of radishes, turnips, beets, onions and spinach. I haven't seen any spinach yet, it think it might be too hot for the seed to germinate, so maybe it will turn up later when it cools down.

Seedlings

This seedling bed previously had onions, turnips, lettuce and spinach in it. I'm trying to get the most of the long growing season by planting succession crops this year, of course with the drought I'm having to water much more than I want to, I just hope that we will get some rain soon.