October is one of my favorite months, honestly. A chill in the air, bonfires of all the sticks fallen in the yard all summer, lots of tea, and crocheting gifts. The one downside is that it's also time to put the garden to rest. I thought I'd write a bit about the successes and failures of my 2015 garden.
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| Lots of bees this year, too! |
This year in Maine we got a late start since winter would just not let go! I direct seeded everything this year except for tomatoes that I got from Odds & Herbs (as usual). I did cucumbers, zucchini, patty pan squash (planted later in the season), pole beans, snap peas, basil, garlic, kale (curly and dinosaur), swiss chard (beet and golden), arugula, popcorn, and the aforementioned tomatoes. Everything did really well! I planted way too many cucumbers (ever year it's something, haha) but that just means I also canned lots of pickles. The patty pan squash were the sleeper hit and since I planted them late they kept us in squash when the zucchini slowed down. The popcorn was the only failure. I planted a pack we got free from Boom Chicka Pop (the popcorn company) but lost most of the ears to earwigs. It was still a fun experiment. The stalks got so tall! The tomatoes got blight pretty bad and we didn't get many of the larger tomatoes from my rainbow heirloom pack. The Juliets on the other hand did awesome and I think I've decided next year to only plant smaller tomatoes (cherry and small plums like the Juliets). They seem to produce more and we eat more of those. Powdery mildew was a problem on the cucumbers, zucchini, and patty pan but only near the end of fruit production. We had a good crop this year. All that's left now are the greens and some giant winter spinach I planted for the fall. I've still got to get my garlic in too!
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| The garden in Spring |
Now that my time outside is coming to a close I've been crocheting a ton. I made a whole mess of autumn leaves with leftovers from the Jayne Cobb hats I made for my husband and my Dad and turned them into pretty garlands. I've made a mess of stuffed pumpkins too! I've almost finished a Minecraft hat for my little cousin (her idea, not mine :) ). I've got a bunch of afghan squares to work on but I'm in the mood for quick projects these days.
Well, I just realized this is my first post on here. I had another blog but pretty much abandoned it. I haven't much in mind for this one, just wanted a place where I could write a bit. :) So maybe I should do a bit of an introduction! I live in Maine, I'm 27 years old, and I live with my husband and 2 dogs (plus chickens, ducks and rabbits). I've been a vegetarian for around 10 years now. I love to cook, garden, can, crochet, and read (grandma things, mostly). I recently quit my job that was making me miserable. I am a super introvert and being around people all day would make me grouchy and miserable when I came home every day. I am very frugal and enjoy finding ways to save money. Goodwill and thrift stores are my favorite places to shop, too! I hope to find a bit of time every couple of days to write a little something. Most likely it will be crochet related now that the cooler weather is here. :)
