::this week::

This week has been an amazingly quiet last week of summer for us. I’ve only had to leave the house two times this week and one of those times was for our co-op’s Mom’s Tea last night. This is the quiet before the storm (the storm being a busy school year) and it has been enjoyed by all.

This week we have…

…enjoyed the company of some friends for lunch one day ~ the girls played dress up ~ the boys played Risk

… gotten the vast majority of our stuff ready for our school year

…gotten my co-op classes ready

…made lots of pie crusts, pancake mixes, tortilla dough, beans and fruit crisps for the freezer

…watched the political stuff on TV and had great discussions with our children

…played with neighborhood friends

…watched our onion seeds grow ~ even gave them a hair cut

…prayed for those in the path of hurricane Isaac

…received some transplants from one of my husband’s client’s son

…dreamed and planned ~all in my head~ how I’m going to spend this weekend tending to the garden

…missed our first born ~a lot~ but have enjoyed the excitement in his voice when we’ve talked

…worked out some ideas to help keep our home clean this school year

…thanked God we are in a different place physically and emotionally than we were last year at this time

Wishing you and yours a very gentle and blessed weekend!

Rachel E.

Friday 31st of August 2012

I forgot to ask if you can use store bought garlic for this, or do you have to use seed garlic from a seed store?

SchneiderPeeps

Saturday 1st of September 2012

I've always used store bought garlic instead of garlic from a seed store. I always want to buy seed garlic but I never get around to ordering it and and so I just pick some up at the store. I would like to plant both in the same area some time and see if there really is a difference.

So, what are you growing in your fall garden? I can't seem to decide. I think I am a bit late for planting anything but garlic. :) I can manage that, I suppose. Have you planted garlic before? How do you plant it? I was reading at The Morris Tribe to use manure. I don't have access to it and am not too sure I want to use manure. Do you think it will still grow if I use some compost?

We can grow year round here since it rarely freezes. So I'll grow carrots, onions, garlic, beets, lots of lettuce, spinach, kale, broccoli, cabbage, swiss chard.... Most of these can't grow past March here because the get bitter. We're looking forward to eating some more greens. I've planted garlic several times. It does best when it is allowed to overwinter in the ground in mild climates. So you plant it in the fall but don't harvest until late spring. We do onions the same way here. I think the idea of manure (I'm assuming composted manure or at least aged) is so that the soil is nice and loose. Compost would be great. Here's a post I did several summers ago on garlic http://www.schneiderpeeps.com/2011/06/in-garden-garlic.html