The Fall Garden: A Story Of Life And Death

in #gardenjournal20194 years ago (edited)

October already... I can hardly believe it. In spite of the cold and rain, there's still a lot going on in the garden. A welcoming smile here, a sad goodbye there... But it ain't over till the fat lady sings...

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It feels like only yesterday that I was sorting out seeds, and visiting all gardening centers I could find, hunting for seedlings. It's hard to believe that 7 months have past since.

The story of the garden this year is one of success and failure - but I guess that's no different from any other year. The good part is that I still have things growing. Last year, the entire garden had died on me by the 2nd week of September, so I guess I should call myself lucky.

I will never get used to saying goodbye to crops, though. I'm too much of a softie, lol.
Still, fall does bring some good things too.

Let me show you around.

Chayotes... YAY!

I took the picture above after cleaning up a bit of the mess. In the center, there was a huge sunflower which supported the chayote vines, but it broke under it's own weight, bringing down everything with it. I rearranged the vines, and to my big surprise, there were actually chayotes growing. Up until about a month ago, all you could see were grape-sized fruits. I was pretty sure they wouldn't have enough time to grow, but it seems like I underestimated the plant.

The chayotes are not huge, but since we don't have the perfect climate for them here in Belgium, I'm still pretty happy. I would have been pretty happy if no fruits would have grown, though. it's such a beautiful plant.

Apparently, the fruits and leaves of the plant have diuretic and anti-inflammatory properties. I didn't know that, to be honest.

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In the picture at the top, you can also see some small yellow flowers. Somewhere in that jungle, there's some forgotten fennel. It was ready for harvest when we were on holiday, so that never happened. The flowers, however, are utterly delicious too.

Caterpillars... Not So YAY!

The cucumber plant that was climbing on the ladder had to be removed already, but the nasturtium that is below and on the right of the chayote plant is happy as hell.

Well... 'happy' might be a strong word.
During the last week, it is being consumed by caterpillars of the Large White Butterfly.

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Good thing, though, is that those nasty caterpillars only eat the nasturtium and stay away from the chayote. Since I have nasturtium all around the garden, I don't mind donating a couple to the bugs. That's partly why I've planted them.

Boy, can those caterpillars eat....
I remove the ones I see once or twice a day, but there are just too many of them.
I tried feeding them to the chicken, but they ran away. Truth to be told, my chickens are not very smart, to say the least. but they're cute.
(I read an article that said that the bright colors of the caterpillar were a warning of nature to indicate that they were toxic, but I can't seem to find any more info on that.)

Meet White, Black and Ginger

Here they are, the dumbest, but cutest chickens in the world.

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When my girlfriend first mentioned getting chickens, I was not really crazy about the idea. I was born and raised in the city and spent the first 38 years of my life there... what on Earth did I know about chicken? To me, a chicken was just a noisy animal that laid eggs... that was it.

I agreed on one condition: that - if they died for some reason - we would not eat them, but give them a proper burial. I'm such a sucker when it comes to animals... sigh!
I tried hard not to get attached to them - that's the reason they don't have 'official' names; we just call them 'White', 'Black' and 'Ginger' - but I failed miserably.
They're just too funny when they come running towards me when I open the door to their fence. They even sit down, waiting to be petted. I completely fell in love with them.
Now, if only they would eat slugs and stuff... but noooo... they want my homegrown tomatoes and cucumbers. Spoiled chickens!

Back to the garden...

Cucamelons

I love cucamelons (AKA Mexican Sour Gherkin). They not only look adorable, they taste great. Like cucumber with a little touch of melon.

I deliberately decided to plant my seedlings in the front yard, as I was afraid the unknown disease that lives in my garden would kill the plants. Ironically, both those plants died on me. Yes, infected by... and unknown disease. Pretty late in the season, I discovered a small plant growing in the exact same spot as I had them growing last year. A couple of fruits must have fallen off last year, and they sprouted again spontaneously.

The leaves are turning yellow. It won't be long before I have to take it down. Still, I had a pretty good harvest off this relatively small plant.

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They look cute, don't they??

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Yacón

The Yacón doesn't really mind the cold and rainy weather. It will keep on growing its delicious roots (taste like apple, mmm) until first frost. I've always grown this baby outside, with success. But because one can never have enough Yacón to eat during winter, I thought I'd experiment a little and grow one in the greenhouse too. Even though neither of them is growing the small yellow flower this year (the plant is related to the Sunflower and Jerusalem Artichoke, hence the tiny yellow flower that normally grows by the end of the season), the one in the greenhouse is obviously a lot happier than the one outside. It's huge... like 1.5 meter (5 feet) high.

Can't wait to see if there will be a difference when it is time to harvest.
Both plants look beautiful, though. I simply love Yacón.

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Horizontal Sunflowers?

I had loads of sunflowers this year. Like I mentioned before, some got so top-heavy that they broke off, others had different plans. The ones in our 'fruit'-corner are really defying gravity.

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It's a really funny sight to see them grow almost horizontally. The big one (in the middle, a little to the right) is literally resting its head on the ground. I've been expecting them to break for about 4 weeks now, but they are just too stubborn. Horizontal is the new 'up', apparently.

Fruits

The fig tree is doing great. It's about 3 years old now, and producing a lot of figs... To bad we don't like figs, lol. But, they make a great gift.
We've harvested plenty, and now there are a truckload of small ones that are still on the tree. It's too late for them to grow big enough, but we did leave the small ones on the tree last year too, and that gave us a lot of figs in spring, so we're going to do the same this year.

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Not too may raspberries left, though. I often forget to pick them. The family of birds that lives in our hedge doesn't really mind :0)

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Long Term

Below, you can see two long(er) term projects.

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On the left, a kiwiberry/Hardy Berry plant. I bought this one to honor the memory of our cat and dog, but didn't really think it through; we don't really have a good spot for it, so for now, it's still in a bag that is too small for it.

For the miniature kiwis to grow, you normally need a male and a female plant. However, I was told this one could pollinate itself. It hasn't grown any flowers yet, though, so there's no way to tell if that was a lie or not.

It can take pretty low temperatures, but still I'm afraid last winter was too cold, and the vines were damaged by frost. It's just a 'wait and see' kinda project.

On the right, one of the new experiments of this year: Chinese Yam. I had never heard of it before - let alone tasted it -, so it was perfect to experiment with. It's a perennial grown for its tubers, but what makes me most curious is the flowers that should appear in the second year. They're supposed to smell like cinnamon. (The plant is also known as 'Cinnamon Vine'.)

It's a really gorgeous climber. A bit of a shame we couldn't plant it directly in the soil - there's no way we can dig out the tubers if they grow 50cm to 1m. A large container will have to do. So far, so good. Can't wait for next year.

Oh, I almost forgot to show off my small passion fruit. It appeared out of nowhere about three weeks ago. I've bought the two plants together with the Kiwiberry, in loving memory of our pets. I planted them because I love the looks of the flowers. Who could have thought passion fruit would every grow in out cold, wet country?

It is destined to die... winter will be here soon. Still, I'm proud as a peacock that somehow I provided the plants with enough of what they needed to grow fruit... as small as it may be.

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To Be Continued

There's still a lot going on in the greenhouse. Way more than I had expected, actually. But this post has already turned out longer than I had planned, so I'll try to get another one up some time this week.

Stay tuned!!



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Wonderful nature that provides us with what we need.

Peace, Love and Gratitude!

Enjoyed your post.

It reminded me of the perpetual cycles of virtually everything we experience.

Namaste, Jaichai

Those are some unusual chickens, never seen them before! What breed are they?

We call them Padua, but internationally, they're apparently known as Padovana chicken
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padovana_chicken

I'll make it my second favorite breed then, after the Silkie Bantam.

We originally wanted those. But the ones a friend promised us were still too small, and then we came across these ones and we were sold :0)
We have been thinking of getting two more. Those two would be Silkie Bantams

Padovana chicken
The Padovana or Padovana dal gran ciuffo is an ancient breed of small crested and bearded chicken from the city and surrounding province of Padova, in the Veneto region of north-eastern Italy, from which it takes its name. Despite continuing discussion surrounding its true origins, it is recognised in Italy as an indigenous Italian breed.

Hi, @simplymike!

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Isn't it wonderful haow we can get a kick out of the smallest things - any little success! Love it!
I'm the same way - that it is not over until it is over!
I can get one more picking or I dig them up and move them indoors!

Love your garden and chickens!
Thanks for sharing!

really..that are chicken why they have thick hair? beautiful garden mike, chayotes leaves can be cooked as a leaves vegetables. Only the part where the flower's bloom..

!shadetoken 10

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Hahaha I totally love the fact you were suckered into chickens! They are very cute and ridiculous looking!! I am trying to keep mine off new plants. Jamie says all he can here is me babbling away happily to the chooks and an occasional WHAT ARE YOU F=/_CKING doing in THERE!!!! LOL.

Love all the unusual varieties you grow. Ive never had luck with passion fruit and despite trying 3 years in a row, i just cant grow cucamelons. Dammit.

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Lol, I talk to them the entire time that I'm in the garden too. So funny when they keep 'replying'. They are so much more fun than I ever thought they would be.

I didn't really expected the passion flowers to start growing fruits. I still need to look up if that is supposed to happen in our climate.

No cucamelons??? :0(

There's lots of good stuff left going on over there! Ooh, chayote is a good one. I wonder if that would grow here? It's been so hot for so long, if it's like this next year we may be able to try quite a few things we didn't think we could here. I only just tried chayote in the last year, but I really love it in a slaw. I still have yet to try the cucamelons, too. So many fun plants around. I wish I was your neighbor because I would totally snitch some figs. ;)

Plenty of figs to snitch, lol.
I've been thinking about removing the plant, and giving the spot to the kiwiberry - it would be perfect - but the fig tree is so beautiful I really don't want to get rid of it. It's a bit of a shame to grow something you don't eat, but it was a birthday present... and our friends don't mind taking home some figs every now and then.

Fell in love with chayote last year. Back then, I had the prickly kind. That one isn't doing so great this year (only 1 small fruit), but the smooth kind is doing okay. It's not that special of taste, but the year before, I had grown Kiwano - which was a BIG disappointment, and the chayote was a much more friendly replacement. Ánd very beautiful too.

Nice mix in the garden, sometimes what we ignore grows stronger for longer well that is my definition, some years are bountiful, you did pretty well @simplymike

Wow, you have chayotes in your garden, and even chilacayotes (that's what your cucumelon is called here)! Never knew they had them outside Mexico. And your chooks have such a stylish headdress!

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