Composting...New batch

[hunter63]

As fall is heading our way.....I have been harvesting the latest batch of compost.....

Been there over year......Normally this would have been taken out and spread in the spring.....but several health concerns has slowed me down some.

Been top dressing the cleaned off garden...Didn't do much this year, but want to get it ready for next year.
Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.

Hopefully I can get a friend to till it for me.
Would like to cover with the new batch of leaves as they fall this fall.

Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.

Used to wait till spring to till.....lately haven't tilled everything....just seed beds.
As it has been pretty much left fallow this year....gonna do the whole thing.

So anyone else working at it?...till/not till?....spring/ fall?

[crashdive123]

As you know, my gardening is all via containers. This fall/winter I'm going to put up a framing system that I can cover with bird netting and a translucent to protect from the birds and direct sun next year. Just waiting for cooler weather to get started.

[Rick]

Our season is a bit behind yours. Fortunately, we're still harvesting but I will be tilling this fall. I like to have the garden ready so I can sow seeds Valentine's Day. That nets me an early batch of lettuce, radishes and spinach.

[hunter63]

I have seen pic'c of your container garden....fine job....
What do the birds bother?
Mostly we cover strawberries.....and the gold finches love the volunteer sunflowers.

Just chopped up the last of the sunflowers, and packed some brush for a dump run tomorrow after therapy.....used to shred everything, but 10 hp motor hard to pull over.

I can get about 4 wheelbarrow loads dug and spread....then time for a break....LOL

[crashdive123]

We grow mostly tomatoes, and I think they are like crack for the Cardinals.

Next year we're going to change over to tomatoes that are better suited for sauces. That and herbs will probably be the bulk of what we grow.

[hunter63]

Our season is a bit behind yours. Fortunately, we're still harvesting but I will be tilling this fall. I like to have the garden ready so I can sow seeds Valentine's Day. That nets me an early batch of lettuce, radishes and spinach.

My garden is cleaned off as we didn't grow much......
In the past I would just till up a small "salad garden" spot......for the radishes, lettuce, spinach and snow peas....No point making the rabbits look all over for them.

[BornthatWay]

Yep we did not do much garden wise this year due to several health issues. We have started to work on our garden using the lasagna method. We may not get the whole thing done this fall but we will have at least 50x100 ready for planting next spring.

[Rick]

The rabbits killed me this year. This is the first year I've had any problems with them and they wiped me out. I guess chicken wire is in order going forward.

[Winnie]

I'm just about at the end of summer harvests and as things finish, I'm digging over the empty space. Once everything is out and dug over, I'll cover with a few inches of good old farmyard manure and let the worms take it down over winter.
Things are still very 'fluid' as in it changes all the time, but I'm getting there. Haven't really bought any veg or fruit since middle of June and what I've got preserved and the winter garden should pretty much see us to christmas maybe beyond.
Sorting out compost bins is on the agenda for this winter. Now I have all the perennial weeds under control, I feel it's time to get composting.

I'm sort of like you H, do a little, have a little rest, do a little more, have another rest.lol

[hunter63]

I'm getting there...LOL...Hopefully get the garden back going next year.

[Solar Geek]

This year was overwhelming for me in my new garden. Because DD#2 got married in August at a destination wedding and then a WI wedding reception September 6th, non- stop company and entertaining. Wonderful, but kept me from really keeping on top of my garden.
Still harvesting fresh beans every day, tomatoes, (over 100 plants in the ground still producing!), herbs, brussels sprouts and cabbage still coming, just beginning to dig potatoes, bags and bags of fresh herbs to dehydrate and/or simply clean and use, and amazingly still zucchini and butternut squash and and cucumbers for pickles.

Hunter I am north of you I believe, approximately 1+ hours from Madison. First time ever growing in this area and it is very different than 30 miles west of Lake Michigan.

Just beginning to pull out of the vegetables and starting a fresh compost pile as we have one just for weeds and the other for vegetable detritus.

I figure at this point I'm still getting about 30–40 pounds of produce per week from the garden. But with the cold weather moving in fast I expect this will slow down and quit within the next two weeks.
Many many batches of sun-dried tomatoes, basil pesto, tomato sauce, roasted tomatoes and such put away. Hoping to use what I learned this year in failed crops (ex: really poor crop of peppers, acorn squash-not a one from 15 plants that I put in grew!!)

[hunter63]

This garden is in Kenosha for the Lake Michigan seasons apply.....
I just wasn't up to it this year....hoping to get back next, so my prep this year has been cutting weeds and spreading the compost.

We will see...but putting it neatly to bed does give me a good feeling.

[hunter63]

Neighbor came over this morning,...helped me empty both bins.......and he tilled the whole garden.

That always make me feel better....kinda like erasing all your mistakes on a black board.....so you can start over.

Now to head out to "The Place" and start in on deer hunting, and shutting down, after a side trip to N.C.

[Winnie]

I've just started doing the same. The summer garden will be ripped up tomorrow(weather permitting) and I'll start digging.....

[Roel]

I made a kind of a strainer for our compost, especially my back is very pleased with it...

DSCF8168.jpg