Donna Flores » Simplicity & Sustainability through minimalism

 

It is hard to believe that our long hot summer is over.  Probably that is partly because it is still in the 90’s most of the time!  My garden has been ready for fall planting except for an exceptionally productive cherry tomato plant, my eggplant, and the sweet potatoes that are still maturing.  Oh, and a late bloomer that surprised me, a Sweet Meat squash that is developing some fruit!  I am so excited, because the other vine only produced two nicely formed squash.  I am not sure why, it may have been the extremely high temperatures.  Our back yard is exceptionally hot.  Next year I will be putting the tomatoes and other heat sensitive plants in our newly developed front yard veggie garden.  Daniel was such a sweet heart, he worked out in the heat for several days getting it ready for the fall planting! He also amended the back yard garden and helped me reset the Ollas.  You have to raise the Ollas up a few inches because when you add mulch they tend to get buried.   The Ollas were a big success!  I have learned that it is better to have larger Ollas and heavy mulching is a must.  I am converting to using a layer of cardboard and then heavy mulch each season, instead of disturbing the soil and releasing carbon and disturbing the micro-organisms in the soil.  The sustainability movement has proven that this has reduced soil erosion, improved soil fertility, and is a sustainable method of organic gardening.  Worms love the glue in cardboard and it seems to be a worm aphrodisiac :-)!   By the way did you know that most of the glues used in cardboard production is soy based?  That is awesome!  The cardboard also helps reduce the weed and grass population in the garden. That is really helpful as a time saver and a break for achy backs!  This summer was a lot of experimentation for me.  I grew many plants that I have never tried before.  Some were successful, others not so much.   I grew a watermelon, yes a as in one.  It was delicious.  I tried to grow some cantaloupe in some barrels I only got two tiny melons.  I don’t know if it was heat, lack of nutrients, or the container.   I will be researching this issue.  I grew corn for the first time EVER- and my tiny patch did fantastic!   It was so fun to watch it grow.  I may do it again next year but I think the space may go to the champ of this season Pumpkins!  This was my first experience with pumpkins.  They all but took over the garden.  I have cooked them in the crock pot and freezing the puree so that I have plenty to make yummy dishes throughout the winter.  My family has already had a couple of batches of pumpkin bread.  I also made a butternut and sweetmeat curry that was delicious.  I grew some sweet potato slips from some organic sweet potatoes, the slips died due to the ridiculous heat, but I put the left over chunks of sweet potato in the soil and the vines grew from the chunks.  My eggplant is growing like crazy, now if I can convince my sons that eggplant is edible I will be in business.

I am very excited about the Fall-Winter garden.  In Southern California it seems you can grow twice as many vegetables during this season than summer.  I can’t wait to post pictures for you all when the garden gets going with all the cabbage, broccoli and other delights!  Well that’s all for now..

Happy Gardening,

Donna