The spinach was planted in the front bed in the picture below a week ago. I planted two rows of Burpee's Double Choice hybrid, a variety that has always overwintered well, and two rows of Viroflay. All of it has germinated well. When cold weather arrives I'll put a plastic greenhouse over the bed. The middle bed has a stand of buckwheat growing as a cover crop. The rabbits absolutely love buckwheat.
A mix of field peas, oats and berseem clover was seeded in the back bed as a late season cover crop. It's all germinated and growing well. I tried seeding berseem clover in mid-summer and it did poorly, guess it does not like the heat. Next summer I'll try crowder peas as a summer cover crop.
The raspberries, in their second season this year, had a poor fall crop, another victim of the wet summer weather and fungal diseases. They are everbearing raspberries, meaning they will have two crops every year if I prune off the upper half of the plants after the leaves die off. Given the extent of the infection I will prune them to the ground and burn the stems. That means I will get only they fall harvest next year.
Another 'crop' is growing in the upper end of the pond - cattails. This part of the pond is shallow and I expect the cattails to eventually march across to the opposite shore. I'm OK with that as cattails act as a natural scrubber. Much of the inflow will go through them and be cleaned in the process. They are also habitat for marsh wrens and red-winged blackbirds.
2 comments:
Do you not get animals digging in your raised beds, like the one in which you have sown the spinach? I find these days that sowing seeds in the open is a waste of time. They always need protection.
I've just started my fall bed cleanup this past week as well - at least 2-3 weeks later than normal I would say. That's still a great squash harvest - I suppose as with every other crop, not every year is a bumper year.
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