Sunday, September 20, 2009

Senescence, Rest and Dreams of Rebirth (Part 1)




All things, in their time, must rest. It is true of so many things; people, relationships, animals, plants and our earth. The fall is a time of mixed emotions…sadness and hopefulness and thoughts of not so distant joy.


This week, I cleared out some of the summer plants from the garden. Many of the tomato plants were leggy, past their prime and not productive. These needed to be removed; I dug the last of the baby carrots, summer beets, the remaining shallots, onions and a few other items. There are brussel sprouts, peppers, egg plants and another tomato plant still in the garden and producing, so I will leave them alone for now.


This process helped me clear area to move soil. In a raised bed, it is difficult to do any sort of crop rotation. In addition, I needed to add soil to the beds to make them full 12 inches of raised space. I took the cleared soil from one bed and added to the other to fill the bed to its top. I then added soil, peat, sand and compost to the donor bed to bring it to level. The recipient bed will be home to my garlic this fall as well as be the root crop bed next season. The recipient bed with new soil will rest over the winter and be the above ground crop bed; holding cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and the like. More fall work yet to come...stay tuned!


Happy Gardening!

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