November 27, 2017
All of the garlic are up now, some as tall as 3". I've had to weed the patch already to, not because of weeds , but because of a plethora of poppies plants. When poppies finish going to seed their stems are tan colored like straw mulch, so when they fall to the ground I leave them, hence I'll never run out of poppies. The other green abundance in my garden is the germinating Love in a Mist plants whose seed heads are still standing. They are as enjoyable as dried flower stalks as they are as flowers so I've always got more coming up..
I haven't even cut back the hollyhocks yet because they fill up the spaces between where I plant. The leaves are still green and there are a few flowers so why rush it. It's nice to have some tall stuff left..
November 28, 2017
If you made mini compost piles throughout your garden last summer like I did you might notice now that they've started sprouting. A bit unsightly they are, like warts with hair sticking out. This warm wet November has allowed uprooted weeds to re-root. Time to break out the pitchforks and turn them over. People in the tropics and humid places like Florida must chuckle at our attempts to kill weeds with uprooted weeds, especially ones with the roots still attached..
I can drop a weed on the ground in the winter and it will re-root in a week. The roots turn down into the ground and the top grows parallel to it. If it rains in the summer after I've hula hoed a patch of ground, at least half the weeds will start growing parallel to it, unless I rake them up first..
November 29, 2017
The asparagus ferns got cut off about 4" above ground, and I didn't have straw to mulch them with, so I used some coarse dark brown compost. They look like a 3' wide by 8' long display of broken teeth. Makes me smile though because the bounty of the spring harvest is lurking under them. If I was an urban gardener, with a smaller patch of land to grow veggies, I would probably plant asparagus in a flower bed. They throw a lot of shade all summer long so the south side of the house would be a good place..
They would get full sun all day long and not interfere with other plantings. I would also log into the edible landscape forum and learn how to maximize veggie production in an urban environment. I've seen broccoli plants growing in a flower bed and thought it was awesome. They had huge heads with very small leaves, which is the opposite of mine, so I probably need to amend my soil with potassium..
