We cleaned up our raised beds in preparation for next season for the most part already. With nights dipping into the 40's production was about over for many thing. One of the beds will now be for onions and garlic. We have some really neat onions. I got our first couple from a wonderful lady on Craigslist, then got some more from a plant swap a few years ago. Unfortunately they didn't do well in pots over the past winter. I was happy to find a few more from a random plant sale at a lakeside home in Charlotte (pronounced shar-lot, not like the one down in North Carolina). Now what are these onions that I speak of? Walking Onions. Walking onions?! What's that you say? Well...they are onions that reproduce by...walking. Well, not with legs. They send up a "stalk" with little bulblets on it, and as the bulblets grow and get heavier the stalk tips over to the ground and "plants" new onions! They have a very strong flavor. We do still end up buying cooking onions sometimes-and yes, we know that neat trick to start new ones. Just need a better place to plant them over the winter. What's this neat trick you say? Well, if you cut the end of the onion where the roots were off and put it in shallow water, it will start to regrow new "leaves" (stalks?). Plant that, and you'll get new onions from it. Neat, huh?
Here are the walking onions all freshly planted
I've begun to dry our basil. We have some yummy Italian broadleaf basil that's been growing happily all summer in big pots on our back stairs. Well, those night time temps will be starting to take their toll I'm sure, so I've taken some cuttings to restart new smaller plants and begun to dry the leaves that are left. We don't have a dehydrator so I used our toaster oven. I set it at between 150/200 and pulled out the crumb tray just a little for air circulation. Once it got warmed up it took about 20 minuted to half an hour for each batch to dry. Here's a few pics of the process
Our young pear trees are getting ready to give us a few pears soon too!
And our close to the cliff apple tree is loaded again this season. Now I'm even more sure it's a Northern Spy.
It's almost harvest season for the farm across the road too. The corn is getting tall!
This is a Goji Berry. We planted this bush (?) earlier this summer. We were told it wouldn't fruit this year. Well...it did, but I don't think this will ripen before frost. I'll keep an eye on it though.
I did say I'd post a pic of the living room wall with the drywall. We still haven't decided what to put against it or hang on it yet and we still have a bit of white washing to finish, but here it is. Oh, the plants, those are pineapple sage. Too cold for them now outside.
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