5th week of October 2007

Redesigned cold frame We've had a beautiful week for working at garden clean-up and putting things to bed for the winter. During a break in putting on the greenhouse plastic a green tomato battle broke out among my family and they had fun getting one more use out of the tomato crop. All cold frames are now in place and I'm excited to have a new one that will also get used as a chicken tractor during the summer months. The greens are at a good stage of maturity and should continue feeding our family and a few others for quite a while. A Frame Greenhouse I'm finished with weekly veggie baskets and salad bags but will continue to supply a few folks as long as things last - a pregnant friend, a friend with cancer and the caterer from Wooster who is crazy about my greens. Last week she used bok choy in a soup and raved over the taste difference of home grown bok choy over store bought.

The garlic (2000+) is all tucked in for the winter also. New varieties for this year from our garlic growing friends the Colemans are Starbright (purple stripe), Rose du Var (silver skin), Xian (Chinese softneck with neat purple blotches) and Lorz (an Italian softneck). I also finally got around to ordering tulip bulbs this week and found out there was an end of the season 40% off sale. I ended up ordering 400 tulips plus several daffodil varieties and alliums. Some will become gifts planted in others flowerbeds, others my children chose to use some Christmas money on, some will be offered to friends at bargain prices and the rest I'll need to find space for and hope the weather stays pleasant enough to plant them. Then I'll sit back and look forward to beautiful spring bouquets.

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