Autumn Outside

We have had some fun stuff going on in our garden lately. Even the poor little neglected deck garden has been cleaned up a bit. Those red blossoming pole beans on the left are a variety called scarlet runner. I think they are meant for a cooler climate and I'll be saving some of the seeds for my Montana family. Although they didn't bear many beans their beautiful red blossoms attract hummingbirds. The boys have enjoyed watching the hummingbirds through the window.



This weekend we got a big chunk of work done. We went to the garden center and learned a very important lesson. Do not go to garden center to buy perennial plants with three small children or you may just come home with blueberries zoned for Texas. How did I not notice that these clearance (and thus non returnable) bushes are for zone 8-10? Perhaps the more important question is why would they even have these at the garden center? We aren't ones to complain (well, okay, if you've spoken to me in the last three days you will know I have been complaining...alot...about this) so we are leaving them in the ground to be a home for birds this winter and we'll search for some blueberry bushes next spring.



All of the summer veggies are out of the garden except the tomatoes. I'll leave them there until the first frost. The fall and winter garden isn't quite as far along as I'd like it to be the beets, chard, carrots, and kale are all chugging along slowly.



Beautiful salads are gracing our family table. This is a beautiful heirloom salad mix. It's funny I'm growing a mix again. Because last fall I wrote down in my garden journal "do not grow mix again, too hard to keep track of varieties of seeds". Which is true, it is hard to keep track of what is going to seed when I am saving and labeling the seeds when they are from a mix. But this spring is was kind of fun to see what popped up after I planted my seeds, "oh, I guess those where oak leaf". So, I decided a mix would be okay again after all.



I'm happy to report the food garden has made it's way to the front lawn! Here is a little strawberry patch I am starting from runners. This area only gets about six hours of sun a day. I planted soy here this year to see if it would produce in this partial sunny spot and sure enough we've got a freezer full of soybeans, so I figured if it got enough sun for beans maybe it will be enough for berries; time will tell.




Oh, and here's a fun little patch. I planted vetch as a cover crop when I took out our onions this spring. But I guess the onions went to seed and replanted themselves because we have tons of green onions mixed in with the vetch. It almost looks like I planned it that way.



We have been having lovely weather the last week. We've been enjoying a walk after dinner each night. And the mosquitoes are giving us a break so there has been lots of time to sneak in bits of garden work while the kids are playing outside.



And speaking of things growing like a weed. Precious little Oliver is 10 weeks old and loving his first attempts at sitting up.



I'd love to know if your family has anything fun going on in the beautiful Autumn weather lately.