We finally got compost!

Boy, what a difference a couple days makes! The temp was in the 70s Friday and yesterday. Today it was 80! We went to the county compost site yesterday and picked up a whole trailer load of compost and a small bale of straw. The guy working at the compost site (John) said he'd keep an eye out for any more straw and set it aside for me.
 

Kaitlyn loosening soil to plant peas

Kaitlyn shoveling compost

Today I put compost on almost half of the garden. I also planted peas, salsify, carrots, and the romaine, spinach and black seeded simpson that are in the center of the bed where the peas are planted. We're supposed to get lots of rain tonight and tomorrow so I didn't water yet.

Kaitlyn and I moved some bricks to the front flower bed where the tulips are starting to come up. After the tulips are done I'll build up that bed so people stop walking on it and I'll plant more flowers there.

Lettuce growing in pots inside

Rhubarb is coming up

Hauling compost to the garden beds

Compost on the garden bed

Kaitlyn helping in the tulip bed

Peas are planted and stakes in place

Transplanting & seedling report

Yesterday I transplanted 4 buttercrunch lettuce, 4 romaine lettuce, and 2 cauliflower farmers extra early to pots to grow inside. I moved the light above the eggplant up a little. More of the borage and some of the nasturtiums and forget-me-nots sprouted.

Today has been around 40 degrees so a lot of the snow is melting. They're predicting another possible 1-3 inches tomorrow night, but high temps this week are supposed to be in the high 40s and low 50s so hopefully the rest of the snow will melt and stay melted.

I don't think we'll convert it this year, but I found plans on how to convert to drip irrigation for raised beds so ideally I'd like to do that next year. I also found plans for making self-watering indoor planters out of 18-gallon rubbermaid tubs so I'll plant to make some to grow tomatoes and peppers year-round.

Tomato Harvest and fall cleanup

The weather has been so warm I hate to think about the garden season ending.  I thought I better get out and harvest what I can before the weather gets too cold.  I harvested the rest of the tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers that were out there.  I'll just ripen the tomatoes downstairs on the bar and can them when they're ready.  The celery and broccoli will be ready to harvest in the next couple days but I'll leave them out for now.  

As I was clearing out all of the squash vines I discovered a radish that I missed when I harvested them.  It seems too woody to eat so I'll throw that in the compost pile.

I had to throw in a couple marigold and petunia pictures.  It's so nice to see these bright colors remain even though there's a lot of brown around the neighborhood.  I've been watering the lawn just so it stays healthy going into the winter.

Celery

Broccoli with side shoots

Radish I missed earlier this season

Marigolds and petunias

Petunia and marigolds

Petunias

Tomatoes harvested to ripen inside

Tomatoes, Peppers & Cucumbers

First pumpkin harvest and deer

I harvested our first pumpkin today.  I was going to harvest another one but the bees decided it was time to pollinate in that area so I left it alone.  It looks like a deer visited our garden last night.  There are hoof prints in one of the raised beds.  If it ate anything it wasn't much because I didn't notice any significant plant damage.

The first harvested pumpkin

sunflower

deer tracks

More harvesting and progress report

broccoli

parsley

tomato & pepper harvest

The sunflower is blooming!

pumpkin

Lillies & Peas

A couple of my lillies are open!  The peas have blossoms on them so we should be eating them soon. Now I just have to pull the darned weeds in between them.  Kaitlyn's last day of school is tomorrow and we're doing a garage sale the next 3 days.  After that it'll be back to work in the garden.

My lillies are open!

Peas

Carrots & lettuce