So you’ve probably noticed the massive shortage of gardening posts these days when we should be ankle deep in produce. Our aquaponics system is doing ok but our tomatoes still have a ways to go before they turn red. I really hope they start turning soon because the weather is starting to turn cool here already. And I fear that we’re not going to get anywhere with the tilapia in this weather…just way too cold.
We did harvest a lot of lettuce out of the little beds in our courtyard as well as our salad table (and I’m going to try to plant some more seeds in there this weekend), and we also harvested 3 very hot chilies from our pepper plant in the aquaponics system.
But other than that, we’ve barely even been in our garden behind the barn this year. And we haven’t yet gotten our new beds in the courtyard filled either. I’m really still not able to lift things too much heavier than Mackenzie. And considering our accident in June, it’s a really good thing we had such a late start on our garden.
We will be harvesting our apples this weekend in our little orchard. It seems that we’re going to need to do a whole lot of trimming to our trees…and probably take several of them out. From the 19 cherry, apple and mirabella-like plum trees we have, we’ve currently only got one well-producing apple tree. So we hope doing some massive trimming will bring the others around. I fear there may have been a lot of standing water down there this year…and it apparently wasn’t very good for any of the trees. Our neighbors lost a really lovely corkscrew tree that I would have loved to get a cutting from.
Anyway, now I’m just wondering what (if anything) we should plant for the fall and winter…especially since Nico was here recently and has pulled most of the weeds in the backyard. At the most, we’ll only plant two of our raised beds. We’re past the point of growing way more stuff than we have the capacity to maintain. The other beds we’re either going to cover with thick black pond foil…or perhaps a nice thick layer of newspaper, old sheets and then something to weigh them down. I hope that will then be enough to kill off most of the weeds growing in the beds…and will leave us with a really nice starting place for next year. I think I need to consult a few more of my books and google that idea a bit though. We should have some composted material and a bunch of straw also…so perhaps we can even get some sort of real mulching process going.
We’re actually giving some consideration to doing something totally different in the garden since we really want to grow our daily vegetables (tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, bell peppers) and a bunch of herbs in the courtyard. That would just leave us with our peach and apricot trees, whatever we put in the greenhouse, and probably a few bigger things like zucchini, strawberries, carrots, squash, pumpkins and so on.
But I’ve also read a lot about permaculture lately and I have to wonder if we shouldn’t just take out the beds and put in something that will be easier to maintain…like keyhole gardens of various herbs with the veggies mixed in. I’m not even sure where to start…but I do like some of these gardening ideas and have considered mixing up several of those elements like a small water garden and a bit of a cutting garden here and there too. Actually, what I’d really love to have is a tropical garden –but the weather in Germany is just never going to support that! Especially if our winter trend of -18°C for a week or two at a time continues!
What would you put in your garden if you could do anything in the world with it (and have help, too)?
Talk about dreaming – having help with the garden (like someone comes to weed – which I hate doing!)! Well, our garden didn’t do much this year and I’m ready to chuck the idea of doing another one. My plans for next year are some containers on the deck (had some good experiences with that this summer), plus we planted plum and apple trees this year and we have a grape arbor in one corner that actually produced this year! Yay!! If I could dream…raised beds, fenced in, large pumpkin patch, no weeds, carrots, onions, peppers that actually produced (ours didn’t this summer), and more. {sigh} I’m just glad to know we’re not alone!
Dear Tiffany,
I have been following your post religiously all summer and anquishing about the disruption in your lives the accident has caused. It’s horrid just thinking of your arm, how long it takes to get it fully back, and everything you’d like and need to do in the meantime. But Mac seems none the worst for wear and it’s easy to imagine her giggles, laughter and just shear delight in her world looking at her photos. Our oldest grandchild (Juliet is one on Monday) has moved from Oregon with her parents to about a mile from us. They are still adjusting to new work schedules but I imagine I’ll be doing more and more care to help them out. It’s an easy YES!
Your Garden. My arm is fine, but we are out of town alot and I’ve found some things are just not worth the effort. And I’ve decided that is OK. I figure if I can support local farmers for somethings they can do better, why not. Let’s see how we do when we get our chickens this spring! Will that same mantra end up applying? Here beside San Francisco Bay, everyone’s supreme challenge is tomatoes. It’s been a cold foggy summer, more than usual which doesn’t help. Cherry tomatoes work the best here. Mine are in my garden but I know some people who have big planters, they stay warmer, or wine barrels and we all stake which seems to help. I actually have red cherry tomatoes in abundance-but no regulars. So Southern girl, I know you know about green fried tomatoes, but there are also some great green tomato chutneys on the internet you might try. Blueberries can be found to match your particular climate and because we don’t have acid soil here, out come those half wine barrels again with azalea mix. Mac would love to pick them I’m guessing. And they are usually very pest free. Strawberries seem to be easier to keep from the snails and slugs in those wine barrels too. Do you have raspberries? We have 2 apple trees espaliered against a wall. It’s a great thing to do to fruit trees that you can grow there. And if you have a south facing wall I bet you might even get a fig tree going. Or some other iffy tree that needs more warm than just out on it’s own. Do you have grapes on any of your buildings? We are nuts nuts nuts for nut trees. I know you can do hazelnuts and you can keep them small since they really are kind of shrubby anyway. We even have them in our courtyard in Hochhausen as well as in our orchard. Do you have any walnuts? We are also crazy for mache which you can grow really late in the season and really early. We have some other stuff here in Piedmont California that you can’t grow, but after visiting countless open air museums in our area of Germany, which we study to learn how to do certain things to our property, I noticed every kitchen garden had current bushes. There was a real disease problem with currents years ago in the US and you just can’t find them commercially. I did find one red one and it is happy here in Piedmont. I want to get another for Hochhausen. The green leafy vegetables I think are hard because they all decend on you quickly and it’s hard to kepp up and hard to find that balance between over planting and under planting. Planters or raised beds for these I think helps keep that problem slightly more in check and it’s easier again on those pest management issues. I am loving things I can extend because of their keeping abilities on the vine/bush/tree or off. Either through preserving, freezing, or just keeping abilities such as root veg and winter squash. I guess the balance needs to be that the garden is more serving you than you it, if you see what I mean. Heal well Tiffany. I broke my wrist badly years ago, but the bone mend was quicker than anyone thought it would be. What suprised me was the months of throbbing, especially at night. Hope that is not the case with you. We land in Frankfurt on September 29 and spend a few weeks in Hochhausen. We’ve never been to Berlin and so we are flyiing back from there on October 19. Relatives from Switzerland may come for a weekend and we are looking forward to seeing all our German friends. We have plans to rebuild a stairway and a railing system to our top story in the house, thank you open air museums for you inspiration! Our friend and master builder, Franz is coming to help with his knowledge, old fashioned axes and tools. It will be constructed with centuries old oak, hand worked joints and pegs, but no nails. Can’t wait. Would love to see you but wonder if we are the cursed!
Sue
Tiffany, as an original Texan I feel sure that you are familiar with fried green tomatoes. Another ploy to use on unripened tomatoes is, just before frost uproot the whole plant and hang it in a barn or shed where it won’t freeze. The “mature green” tomatoes will ripen on the vine that way. In Tennessee we call them “barn tomatoes.”
Radishes are a must for a winter garden. Back in my gardening days I planted a variety called Chinese Winter Rose which is about the size of a carrot. My wife and I have actually picked them during sleet and snow storms. Left unwashed and kept in a bucket on our closed in but unheated back porch they stayed crisp and sweet, with a little bit of peppery bite, through the winter and into early spring. I even brine pickled some of them like sauerkraut, delicious!
Tiff,
You can take your tomatoes in as it gets cold enough to freeze and put them in yourbig window and they will turn red as they ripen.We did this several years ago and had tomatoes in Dec/Jan. Wonderful…
What about Meyer Lemons and grapes? Grapes need the cold. The hard winters you have over there should produce great peaches,nectarines and plums.Our friut trees went bananas as it was so cold here last winter.