Two days ago I cut down most of our bushes in the yard and put them in the compost pile.  Today, I decided to get the shredder out and get to work on it.  This shredder is just great-I bought it about 10 years ago at a garage sale for $20.  Its old, its loud, and its big.  But, it certainly does the job.  See that large green thing in the back right hand corner?  That’s it!  As you can see, it turned this pile into great looking compost material in about 10 minutes.  Years ago, I would amend my soil one last time in late fall to let it sit until spring.   After turning it over, I would add my yard leaves.  Then, I would spread this material(in picture) over the top of everything.  It worked well.  There was only one small problem-because of all the small twigs in the mix, birds would dip into my garden and pull up small seedlings while getting the twigs for their nests.  That made me change my strategy-what I now do is take a little bit of soil out of the garden box and put it in a Rubbermaid tub. I then add compost, leaves from the yard, and this material first, and then put back the soil that was removed earlier.  I top the whole thing off with several shovels full of more compost.  Next spring, I heat up the boxes, and then check to see what the soil looks like just under the surface.  Sure enough, those earthworms have taken care of all those leaves and small pieces of twigs, etc. You cant even find any leaves left under there!  Its such a great thing-I know that I can grow just about anything in my garden because of this mix….when I picked up a handful of this material, it smelled like a forest floor just after a rain shower….give a look….

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I’ve learned that the better you prepare your beds in the fall, the earlier and better your garden responds the next year.  Out of my 14 boxes, 6 have been turned over, amended with compost and leaf mold, and are now ready to rest for about 4 months.  I always begin by turning the soil over with a pitchfork.  It is usually fairly compacted by a growing season of weather, water, etc.  It does loosen up nicely and I end up removing part of the soil so that I can amend a little deeper than I do during the growing season.  Then, I add leaf mold followed by compost, then put back the soil that I removed earlier.  I will then top off the soil with another batch of compost and let it sit for the winter.  By the time I start to warm the beds up in the spring, all those leaves will be gone thanks to those great earthworm helpers.  If you look close enough you can see a lot of them.  Whats left is a perfect growing medium for just about anything you want to do. 

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Look at that butternut squash standing 5 feet in the air!    This is the first week of October and the garden is showing signs of slowing down.  This is also the very first post on my new website!  Its going to take me some time to get this whole thing up and running the way I would like, so I hope you’re patient.  Its going to have some working and non-working parts for a bit until I can figure it out.  Its been a great year with a harvest that has been second to none.  A friend of mine commented a few weeks ago that I seem to  “have this whole SFG thing down.”  Not really-I continue to learn new and different things all the time.  I am always making minor adjustments in my garden.  One of the things I wanted to do this year, after hearing that it couldn’t be done, was to grow 8 tomato plants in 8 adjacent squares.  I can report that it was a smashing success.  I also had a goal to grow lettuce-a lot of it-right through the dead of summer.  That was a success as well, but, I had to work at it a little harder by keeping things covered and watered a little more.  This was the year I wanted to see how much we could eliminate from buying fresh vegetables and produce at the grocery store.  In the end, I found out that we could cut out and save a lot.  We bought no vegetables or produce beginning the first week of April until at least the date of this posting.  There are still things growing back there right now, and I suspect we will go until the first or second week of November.   Although this season hasn’t ended yet, I am already thinking about some fun things for next year.  I’m going to attempt selling some “shares” of my SFG like you would for a CSA.  There are several friends that I know who purchased CSA shares this year, and they thought it was a bit of a rip-off(but at least healthy!) with the small amounts that they received each week.  Yes-I’m going to figure out a way to make some extra money doing this.  It will take some planning and organization but I am going to give it a shot. Looking out at my garden now, there are still many things that are growing and continuing to ripen.  Squash, onions, carrots being finished off, the harvesting of pole beans, and of course, that lettuce and spinach.  I may still have about a month of gardening left for the year.  After my first successful SFG in the spring of ’99 I knew that I discovered a far better way to garden than what I was currently doing.  I have never looked back.  These gardens really produce an enormous amount of food in a very small amount of space.  What better way is there to say I love you to your family than growing, storing, and feeding them with delicious home-grown fruits, vegetables, and produce?  Better yet-all without chemicals or pesticides!

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