Home and Garden Friday - Fall Garden Reset

Well...

I was 'planning' on being further along in the garden before now. However, it has been too hot for me in the garden until this past week. So now I am 'digging' it. 

Other than the fact my entire yard looks like a disaster area - or an abandoned homestead - I am slowly, but surely getting things in order. 

This past week I ...

• Tidied the two raised metal beds in the front yard. I removed the arches and the cherry tomatoes and spent pole beans. 
• In those beds, I crumbled up two used mushroom blocks and covered it with hardwood mulch. Hopefully, I might get some mushrooms in addition to it adding nutrients to the soil.
• In my metal round raised bed, I threw in a packet of Oregon Sugar Pod peas and dumped a container of soil on top. Hopefully, I will get some peas from it. If not, then I will chop and drop because I want to put some potatoes in there come February (I think). 

In the back yard I have...

• Cleared the two 3x8 beds and the 2x3 patch between them.
• Planted 1 bed with garlic - mainly elephant garlic. I put in about a 3 foot row of bunching onions and another 3 foot row of Petit Sweet carrots. 
• Some of the elephant garlic bulblets were thrown in with the main garlic bed. I also threw some in a container to see if they will grow. A few cloves of Nootka Rose garlic were also slipped into one of my beds in the front yard. 
• Turmeric container was moved into the greenhouse to see if I can grow it on and let it grow taller. I want to move a couple of pepper plants into the greenhouse to see about overwintering them. It's not heated, but it is on a sheltered south-west side of the house. Against a black brick wall. Fingers crossed.
• The 2x3 patch was planted with 2 types of fava beans. 
• The second 3x8 bed was planted with 4 types of lettuce, 2 types of spinach and 3 types of carrots.

Just a note for those who are curious. 

I have a LARGE bin of seed packets. More than any sane person should have. While 'seed saving' is a thing, some types of seeds, like those from onions and carrots, have a very short life span if not kept in a very controlled environment. Nothing about my environment is controlled. Therefore, one of my goals is to get rid of a lot of seed as soon as possible. 

Instead of carefully spacing out seeds while planting, I am sowing whole packets in short rows. If they all germinate, I can thin them out or transplant some. If they don't germinate, then I can replace with another packet of seeds. Hopefully, this will whittle down my seed stash.

There is one long row I still need to remove the weeds and plan on planting winter wheat and barley in it. Why? Because I can? Not sure if I will harvest and actually process to eat or just chop and drop.

In a second row I want to grow up more sugar peas and more bunching onions, beets, Swiss chard, and more greens.

Then...

While there is still a lot to tidy up and set up in the back yard, I have 3 metal raised beds I want to place on the slope down to the back yard. I plan on terracing them down the slope which means I will have to sink one side into the slope a bit to make them halfway level. Then I can start filling them for planting. 

There are some saplings growing up in the yard. I will cut them down and place them in the raised beds before adding grass clippings and soil and getting them read for planting. This will be a project for the next couple of months. I would like to get the deeper bed ready first so I can plant potatoes in it in February. 

Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and stay pleasant enough not to die from heat stroke.