Friday, October 5, 2012

Give It a Rest

In typical Montana fashion, we've gone from nice and warm to suddenly cold.  Hello, Winter! For once, the weather guy was actually correct in his predictions. We spent the start of our week outside, enjoying the beautiful fall temps and getting things ready for the coming freeze.

It was a lovely season of growing and harvesting for us.  There isn't anything quite as wonderful as picking your dinner out of your very own gardens!  Here are a few pictures from spring to fall.





Got lots of kale and chard. I will miss going out every morning to pick greens for my smoothies!


New strawberry patch.  It did really well.

Tying up the raspberries

Ready for the compost bin :)
Our tomatoes did well, but I think I will plant cherry tomatoes next year.

Beets!!!  

We had an abundance of lettuce and greens. Daily salads during the summer.  Lovely!
Fresh carrots are the best!

Kyra's radishes. :)

New little plants.  Had to cover them with a net. Birds love berries, too.


My herb garden did so well! I was able to have fresh herbs all summer and still have lots to dry or freeze for winter.


Little carrots

Buttercrunch lettuce.  Sooooo good!!!!

Freezing rosemary in olive oil.  Great way to preserve your herbs for winter!
Putting the gardens to bed...



Got the garlic all planted and mulched


In the process of cleaning out the beds
Straw for mulch and compost bin


And so the gardens are all ready for their long winter sleep. Vegetable beds are cleaned out, garlic is planted.  Our herbs and fruit, in another garden on the side of the house, are looking rather sad and cold.  I admit that I cried a little when it was all done.  Thank you, Father, for blessing our little gardens with such a bountiful harvest. 

Goodnight, Garden.  Until next spring...

4 comments:

  1. Nice job! We are going to be scaling back Michelle's huge garden next Spring, and have 2 summers worth of over-growth to deal with, so it's always fun.

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  2. We actually have plans to expand the gardens to about a dozen raised beds. We did 4X4 boxes (Sean Rainey is my gardening hero :-) and I can't believe what we got out of those few boxes! We had cabbage, broccoli, greens out the wazoo, carrots, beets, and more. I was pretty amazed. You don't need a huge space to produce an abundance.I learned a lot and am looking forward to planting lots more next year. It is definitely a worthwhile endeavor!

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  3. Why thank you, my sweet niece! It was really lovely when everything was full grown. So much fun...and lotsa work...but totally worth it!

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