Progress On Renovated Raised Bed. 26 Oct 2023.

 Today I installed about 90% of the plastic lining for the renovated raised bed.

My helper poured two buckets of good garden soil in the trench on one side.  I smoothed it.  That will get some trench composting of kitchen scraps for a few weeks, before fully covering.

If one is going to use this type of slotted cornerstone / 2x6 structure, the higher rebar with drilled 2x4s for strengthening are necessary.  I learned the hard lesson, without those strengtheners it will gradually splay outward and fall apart.  Then it's a LOT of work renovating it.

I do want to stain the 2x4s and maybe the sides, but that has to wait for dry season, maybe April or May.

Winterizing The Music and Lorz Garlic Bed. 26 Oct 2026.

 Today I raked red maple leaves and spread them on the Music and Lorz garlic bed.

Before spreading the leaves, I scattered coffee grounds on the surface.  I usually throw the paper filters into the compost, but why?  They are just wood cellulose, which is most of what is in the leaves.  So I laid the coffee filters on the ground before spreading leaves on top, so they would not look untidy.

This year, I kept the leaf mulch on the garlic bed until harvest.  That meant, zero weeds.  Great garlic crop, too.

Planting German Red Garlic. 26 Oct 2023.

 This year's supply of garlic is already getting low.  I decided to plant another four rows for next year.

German Red is described as pungent and highly flavored, which we would like.  The bulbs in the package had about 9 cloves each, so four bulbs made almost exactly four rows of nine cloves each.  

German Red is a hard neck, Rocambole type.

This being German garlic, maybe it should be called  "Knoblauch",  but I'll probably forget that.

This half of this raised bed had tomato plants until I cleared them out today.

I gave them organic vegetable fertilizer, but no other soil improvement.  I'll save coffee grounds and eggshells for a surface treatment, before covering with tree leaves for the winter.

Fig Harvest. 21 Oct 2023.

 The fig trees have produced a lot of figs to dry, over the past two or three weeks.  Oven the Brunswick and Smith varieties.  The Brunswick figs are larger and have tan centers.  The Smith are richer flavor, red centers, but both are very sweet.

I'm dehydrating most of them for use this winter.

Final Post, Overwintering Chili Pepper Plants. 21 Oct 2023.

 The pepper plants that survived the winter, did go on to produce peppers.  There was "good" and "not-so-good".

The Thai peppers did the best of all.  They were much larger and much more productive than my first year Thai peppers.

The Tabasco peppers also did well. Also better than first year plants.

The Serrano did not do well at all.  First year Serranos did better  (No photo).  Similar for the Jalapeño, below.  Not bad, in the end, but no really better than new plants.

I'll have to see if the Cayenne labels are legible.  I'm not sure which is which.

In the end, it was fun seeing if the pepper plants would overwinter.  More than half survived.  Some did really well, and others just "OK".  I wont do it this winter, opting instead for new plants.  

Also, one first year plant that was unlabeled looks like it might be another Tabasco.  Or maybe, Thai.  It was a very pretty plant, and made lots of tiny peppers.

The large growing bag containers, contained in a planter and with drip irrigation, worked out nicely for the peppers.  I think the really small ones - Thai and Tabasco - might do equally well in a container flower garden.