fall gardening

yesterday i wore a sore into the palm of my left hand, digging with a hand spade in my garden in an effort to reach the "nuts" of nutgrass and eradicate it. alas, i might have gotten a third of the nuts. those nuts are strung together underground like a web connected by thin roots, and it's virtually impossible to get them all.

anyway, i planted green onions, scarlet nantes carrots, chioggia beets (can't wait--cut one open and it has red and white stripes, and they are allegedly so sweet they taste like candy), and red-stemmed chard in the bed where the nutgrass was/will come back.

that bed already had cauliflower, cabbage, sorrel, fennel, tulsi (holy basil), society garlic, and lots of regular garlic.

i still had packages of seeds left to plant, so i extended my original circular plot with a couple of bags of compost and planted spinach and a speckled romaine. need to get another bag and plant the lollorossa lettuce, a red beauty.

planting technique: make a furrow in the compost, dust with bone and feather meal, plant seeds, cover with perlite, water. perlite keeps the seeds damp so that more will sprout sooner, and once they sprout, the fertilizer will give them a running start. that's the presupposition--will report back on results.

the no-dig bed of broccoli, collards, mustard, and kale is doing well. the bed is starting to settle, and one area has developed a tilt to the west as the layers of compost, hay, and straw surrender to gravity and time. the little temporary fence of chicken wire should keep it from collapsing.

made tomato soup last night with basil and oregano from the garden. yum~!