{"id":6985,"date":"2013-09-27T12:09:49","date_gmt":"2013-09-27T16:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allandouglas.dougbittinger.com\/blog\/?p=6985"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:40","slug":"old-bed-new-bed-garden-bed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/old-bed-new-bed-garden-bed\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Bed, New Bed, Garden Bed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published in September of 2013 by Grit Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

Marie has been promising Blondie that we’d buy her a nice snuggle-bed like Cochise’s as soon as Wal-Mart got one that wasn’t some outlandish color. \u00a0It has been months, but yesterday Marie got out of the truck and was carrying a lovely new snuggle bed. \u00a0Blondie wagged her tail so hard she was beating herself on the hips with it. \u00a0As soon as we laid the new bed down in the house, Cochise hopped into it and said, “Mine.”<\/p>\n

\"Cochise<\/a>Blondie was not amused, “Just because he’s the alpha dog, he gets the new bed? \u00a0MY bed!”<\/p>\n

After a bit she settled in though; thinking, “An old bed is better than no bed. \u00a0And I have gotten used to sleeping in this one even though it was supposed to be his. \u00a0I guess it’s OK.”<\/p>\n

She’s SUCH a good girl!<\/p>\n

Speaking of beds, I’ve been working on getting my raised beds in the garden ready for the fall\/winter season.\u00a0 Nearly all of the summer crops have run their course and I’ve been pulling out the old, dead plants, composting some and burning any that were diseased or nightshades \u2013 or both.<\/p>\n

Disease hit us hard his year.\u00a0 This was partly due to the extremely wet summer and partly due to the fact that I was using a modified square-foot garden method.\u00a0 In every case, when I looked up causes for the leaf blights that hit us, overcrowding; which prevents leaves from drying properly and creates an environment conducive to mold and blight, was listed as a major cause.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Another hint at how wet it has been is the number of mushrooms that pop up continually, all over the place.\u00a0 These little Fairy Parasol mushrooms (what I\u2019ve always called them \u2013 I have no idea what their real name is) are all over.\u00a0 But out in the yard we\u2019ve had toad stools that got huge; when their caps opened up and flattened out they were 10 to 12 inches across!\u00a0 And brain mushrooms that were the size of half a basketball.\u00a0 Too bad none of them are edible or we\u2019d have had an incredible harvest.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Patti pan squash that was in here is gone, but the various peppers and green onions are still going strong, although the peppers don\u2019t like the way the nights are getting chilly.\u00a0 Since this box will lie fallow for the winter, I\u2019ll let these grow until they decide to quit on their own.\u00a0 The onions will probably continue to grow through the winter \u2013 I\u2019ll just lay the straw in around them to exclude weeds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This bed is planted in a variety of leaf lettuce \u2013 which grows well in the winter.\u00a0 It will slow or stop growing in the real cold parts, but will remain alive even when buried under a snowfall.\u00a0 The snow melts and out pops the green of the lettuce.\u00a0 Other boxes contain beets, carrots, turnips, and onions (all grown primarily for their greens) and spinach.\u00a0 Root crops grow well in the winter, but we don\u2019t usually get much from the root.\u00a0 But by trimming the greens judiciously, we can supply ourselves with fresh veggies all winter long.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll have several boxes planted in Brussels Sprouts.\u00a0 If I can exclude the looper moths this fall, the sprouts will grow nicely during the winter \u2013 benefiting from a frost \u2013 and produce great tasting sprouts until spring.\u00a0 Keeping the moths out means covering the fence boxes with plastic or at least a fine mesh.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I also have several boxes planted as Butternut and Acorn squash. \u00a0Although these are called winter squash, their fruit probably won\u2019t be harvestable until spring.\u00a0 But, that will give us something once the summer squash in the freezer is gone and while waiting for the new summer crop to start producing.<\/p>\n

Our sweet potatoes are doing well and will be harvested once the vines die back.<\/p>\n

I also have a row of sugar peas planted against at trellis.\u00a0 Peas like the cool weather of early spring and fall, so these will also grow well in the coming months.\u00a0 We harvest these as tender young pods and use them in our cooking.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And of course I have the herb bed.\u00a0 The basil does not like the cool nights.\u00a0 It\u2019s time to seed out a pot or two to keep in my office for winter cutting and setting out next spring.\u00a0 The Sage did poorly again this year.\u00a0 I have terrible luck with sage.\u00a0 Rosemary, carrot, mint, dill, thyme, oregano, chives, green onions and parsley all did fine.\u00a0 Although the oregano is looking a bit thin this fall.<\/p>\n

Radishes were a disaster this year.\u00a0 Too bad \u2013 I really like radishes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to prune back the blueberries and grapes and clean out the strawberry bed for the winter.\u00a0 And that will about take care of my seasonal garden change-over.<\/p>\n

What are you doing to get ready for winter?\u00a0 Am I missing anything?\u00a0 Please share!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published in September of 2013 by Grit Magazine Marie has been promising Blondie that we’d buy her a nice snuggle-bed like Cochise’s as soon as Wal-Mart got one that wasn’t some outlandish color.  It has been months, but yesterday Marie got out of the truck and was carrying a lovely new snuggle bed.  Blondie wagged … Continue reading “Old Bed, New Bed, Garden Bed”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59,86],"class_list":["post-6985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-dogs","tag-gardening"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6985"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19321,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6985\/revisions\/19321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}