The Big Garden is Finished - September 6, 2024 @goldenoakfarm

On Friday morning I was up at 5AM and got the post up and the kitchen cleaned up. I sat down until it was time to do the milk order, just before my helper friend arrived. I got ready to go out to the garden when he reminded me I had rosemary in the dehydrator.

So I got that emptied and got a pint of rosemary for the coming year.

He uses a ½ gallon of raw milk for the milk spray and I’d forgotten to skim the cream off the top. If left in, it plugs the sprayer. You can see the thin line I could not remove.

So I finally got my equipment and went to the Big garden. I started down at the end of the walkway, removing the leaves from the apple tree and buggy stalks from the mesclun in that area.

Once I’d worked on that for a while, I’d decided to harvest the limas and process them in the afternoon while I watched a movie.

The huge mound to the right of the post is nasturtiums growing over the whole lima bean row. The mound in the upper right in front of the pepper stakes are the Brussels sprouts, also over run by nasturtiums.

On the right, I tried to go in and just move the nasturtiums to get at the limas. But it soon became apparent it was going to be a war between me harvesting and the nasturtiums. So I started tearing them out to try to reach the lima plants. Soon there were huge mounds where I’d balled the vines and tossed them over the Brussels sprouts into the open area.

It soon became apparent the limas had not fared well under the onslaught of nasturtiums and there would be no more to harvest. So I got everything I could and when my helper friend finished the foliars, he started pulling out the beans too. He also cleaned up the piles I’d made in the clear area.

These were all the pods I could find. Once we’d thoroughly cleaned out the area, he brought over the 1 mulch bale left in the garden and we put it down. I would be having the mulch hay guy deliver 20 more bales to put some in the old onion/garlic area and the rest on the open pallet in the barn on Monday.

Then I went back to getting the buggy stuff out of the mesclun and picking up the diseased apple tree leaves. My helper friend finished the kale, getting off buggy leaves and did what was left of the broccoli.

Big garden – zinnia flowers

He moved onto the eastern mesclun bed and I worked on the celery, leeks and the far end of that bed. Once we’d gotten what we could reach out, we stopped for the day. He cleaned up and I got photos and notes.

We made lunch and it was time for him to go. I got set up and worked on the lima beans and watched a movie.

This is my littlest colander, only 6” across. There were enough for 2 meals. I had half for supper with pesto chicken and saved the rest for another meal of leftovers.

On Saturday, I have to get down in the new cellar and clear a place for the square stones to go. My #2 intern and her boyfriend are going to try to move the stones in the morning. If they don’t finish, the other boy will come on Sunday and finish the job.

In the afternoon, my oldest brother is coming to take me to the fair. There’s rain coming but the forecast says not til 6PM. Hopefully we will be done by then. I told him first thing is to ride the Ferris wheel, but he says he’s not going to. So I guess it’s a solo ride this year.