The Summer 2017 garden was a total disaster. It was just way too hot to grow anything!   And we might have started the sweet potato cuttings too soon…oops.

By the time we were ready to pot them up they had little potatoes on them already.   That stunted their growth.

We had a drought all summer, so when we put the sweets into the ground, we didn’t realize the ants had already overrun the soil way down deep. The sweet potatoes ended up all disfigured and full of ant holes. Those all went to the Hogs, who love that type of thing. There were a few that were not too, too bad. Those went to the hogs as well!

 

Fortunately, you can find sweet potatoes
at the market about once a year for 38 cents a pound.   This year,  those will be the ones we “put up” for off-season.

 

 

 

 

As soon as the hot weather broke a couple of weeks ago (well, sort of), it was time to plant the Fall garden.   Now here is what the “sweet potatoe” patch looked like at that time…

Weeds and ants …what a mess.      Organic Spinosad did in the ants.  We fed the ground-cover weed with the tiny white flower to the goats…their favorite!

Since the potatoes were in last go round, we had to plant a cover crop this time.  And because this is year three for soil building, the soil is in pretty good condition already.  So, it’s a matter of raking  down the top of the row hills

 

…and scattering the pea seeds.

 

 

Austrian Winter Peas…lovely plants.  Wonderful feed for all the animals and terrific for nitrogen fixing the soil!

 

Soil building… a lot of fun to figure out.  But, a real challenge. Remember, the weather is completely indifferent to our struggles…  you gotta learn to roll with the punches!

Happy Homesteading,

T.