My oak trees haven’t lost many leaves yet — not really enough to bother raking.

A couple of reasons for planning to “degrass” the middle part of the yard where the leaves fall are to expand next year’s garden, and to spare me a lot of raking. Ironically, the neighbor has been donating his leaves to me. And I’m raking them.

I was originally planning to burn the first batch of leaves to try to kill the grass, and to mark where the new beds will be. But since my chip pile hot composted, and since I have a HUGE pile of leaves from the neighbor, I’m going to wait and see if they will hot compost. Besides, they’re wet. And the pile is so big that I’d need a hose handy since it’s under the trees.

Here are a few pictures I took today:

This is similar, but shows the back area that I’m also planning to degrass — either for shade plants and/or to simplify mowing for the neighbor:

(The area behind the white wire garden fence was this year’s Lasagna Garden. But it’s too shady there. Anyway, I do want to mention that I started it maybe in March, and it’s completely composted now. So it doesn’t have to take a long time to make compost. But this is the best time of the year, when there’s a lot available in our yards.)

This is a view from the northwest end. It also shows part of the east beds that I’m trying to cover as I acquire newspapers to put down under the chipped branch wood pile that I got from the tree trimmers last month:

The house across the street has been vacant for a long time. If I feel the need to hoard more leaves, even after my own drop, I know where I can get a lot more.

(The circular area between the east and west beds is where my “hidden” labyrinth is, and the 32′ area I’m preserving as lawn, mainly for the pets.)

Here’s another view of the area west of the west beds. It shows my hoop house. Just another Fall picture.

And just because the oak trees are more colorful than usual, here’s a picture of my “adolescent” oak that’s in my front yard. Oddly, this tree doesn’t drop its leaves until Spring. I’m thinking maybe it’s because it’s young, unless it’s just a different variety.

So, here I am, celebrating with a couple of Tofutti Cuties, and contemplating whether or not I should make another pizza tonight.

I had my choice today to either dig through the attic, and attempt to organize it, or dig through the dirt, and work on next year’s garden beds. Since it got sunny out (even though it only got up to about 60 today), I decided I’d rather work on the beds.

Below is a picture of what I’m doing.

This is the east side of the north lot. I’m making an area around my labyrinth, with eight 4′ beds and narrow paths in-between. I’m using a modified Lasagna Garden concept. It might also end up being like “raised beds” without the frames, since I’m guessing they’ll end up being higher than the paths. But I’m still waiting for the leaves to fall off the trees. I also need more newspapers.

So, just to be able to visualize where the beds will be, I started on the west edge, and will work my way toward the street.

When the leaves fall, I’ll try burning the grass. If that doesn’t work sufficiently, or even if it does, I’ll cover the area with paper, then cover it with mulch from the pile by the street (which is still hot composting), and sprinkled over with dirt from this year’s Lasagna Garden.

I’ll do something similar on the west side of the circle, once I finish harvesting or transplanting things from this year’s garden, and after the leaves fall.

So, just to give you an idea, these will be eight beds that are about 4′ wide and maybe 20′ long. And if I do the same on the other side of the circle, it will be a huge amount of growing area next year. So I’m trending toward planting some fruit trees and various berry bushes/plants on this side.

I took these pictures around 6:40 p.m. tonight, just before it got too dark outside. After one day, the pile of chipped branches and leaves is up to 100 degrees close to the top. I didn’t let the thermometer stay in there long enough to see if it would rise further. And I don’t know how hot it is deeper down in the pile. But I definitely think hot composting could be a way to keep a hoop house warm in winter, when it’s (at least) 50 degrees warmer than the air temperature.

Pile of leaves and wood chips (I wasn’t expecting this to happen at all, or trying to make it happen. I was just trying to keep my mulch pile relatively dry until I could finish spreading it. Now I’m really sold on hot composting! Now I’m looking forward to my trees dropping their leaves!)

Cooling back down to the outside air temperature of 50 degrees.

I want to mention that the thermometer read “50″ when I originally took it out of the hoop house. So I guess except when the sun is shining, it doesn’t hold heat well.

Now I’m tempted to see what the temperatures are in my actual compost bins.

If I was a bunny or a chipmunk on a cold rainy night, I’d be cuddling up to the warm pile, or burrowing in, under the tarp.

First the pizza, because I’m eating it as I type:

I had a little homemade sauce left over from last time, so “stir fried” a couple more handsful of fresh organic spinach, and the rest of the artichoke hearts before topping the crust. This is the second “pizza night” made mostly from ingredients from my garden. And even though it doesn’t look as good as the pizza I had a few days ago, it tastes good enough that I can say I’ve saved $15-20 by making it myself.

The sauce is made with tomatoes, garlic, basil, spinach & artichoke hearts, with a little salt, sugar & olive oil. I added pieces of Tofutti mozzerella-style “cheese” around the edges and anywhere where there were bare spots. But this particular topping is tasty-enough that even I am happy to go without cheese or “cheese”.

The crust was from a recipe I found on-line.

Here’s a picture:

Now that I’ve had something to eat, I can think better.

Earlier today, I was surprised to see a guy in my side yard trimming trees. I was glad that my dog wasn’t out there bothering him. He barely spoke English, but told me they were trimming the trees for the electric company. I came inside for a while, and would periodically hear a branch fall against the house, and was surprised that they were up in my tree doing the trimming, and not from across the fence. Somehow, I got the bright idea to ask if they were chopping the wood, and if so, if I could have the mulch. He seemed to understand “mulch”, and said he’d have to ask his boss. I saw two trucks leave, and thought he forgot to ask. I was really disappointed, especially since it was my trees they were cutting. So I went across the fence where I saw a truck still parked, and asked again. They brought the truck around the block to my house, and dumped a whole truck-load in my grass next to the street. It was pretty high, like maybe 4 feet– and was pretty big around. So even though it was drizzling out, I thought I better get it moved to mark the new bed, at least.

How amazing is that stack of free biomass?!

If it had been just wood chips, I would have used it around my trees, and where I’ll want paths through my garden next year. But it was more chopped leaves than chopped wood. So I decided to use it as a “garden mulch”, in part to kill the grass & weeds, and in part to feed the soil. It looks OK as it is, but will probably look better once the leaves turn brown and blend in better with the wood chips. It should act as a couple of “Lasagna Garden” layers by next April or May. If not, if it at least kills the grass where it is, I can move it to mark my paths, if necessary.

Anyway, it answered a question I’ve been contemplating for a while, about how much I want to extend my garden on the east end of the lot. Now I’m thinking I might actually plant some fruit trees and/or berry bushes for a “forest garden”, because it’s a bigger area than I originally thought about.

One reason I wanted the wood chips, was because of this page I found on the Veganic Agriculture Network site, about Chipped Branch Wood (CBW). I’m hoping that having such a huge amount will really improve my soil — especially out by the street, where it’s mostly clay and gravel. I’d also like to put some around the oak trees, since we constantly strip them of their own compost.

Since the dog and I were both wet, I broke down and turned on the heat, and decided to bake the pizza to warm up the kitchen.

Time for a second helping.

It’s getting cold out, to the point that I don’t enjoy spending much time outside — even when it’s sunny. I decided to pot up some of my pepper plants, celeries, flowers and herbs, and will pot more soon. I also went to the Grayslake feed store for a bale of straw to put around the bottom edges of my hoop house, inside the cold frame, and a little on the “floor” which is blacktopped driveway, hoping that will help keep out the cold air once it gets below freezing. The first time I went in there today, it was 75 degrees, compared to 55 on my outside thermometer. I’m thinking if it’s like last March, that if I’d dig around in the garden, the worms are probably deeper, and will avoid any mishaps with my shovel.

I took these two pictures before putting the straw in the hoop house. (It’s much cozier with the straw.) The second is just what I see when I step out, which is currently very pretty and colorful, even if that lasts only for another couple of weeks.

I know this is going to be disjointed. I’m in the middle of eating, and uploading pictures. So that’s probably why.

I’m catching the irony of my use of “soup additives”….

I tried to use up the ripe tomatoes that weren’t too blighted. So I made another small batch of spaghetti/pizza sauce. This time, I did it better (and easier) by transferring the skinned tomatoes into a bowl, instead of into the pot. So I was able to get out more seeds and “guts”, and cut the tomatoes into smaller pieces. It cooked up nicely. And I think I like the taste better than the first batch.

I took the liquid from the bowl, and threw it into the blender for juice. It was really good, and didn’t need anything added.

I canned two jars, and also some hummus I made yesterday.

I saved the hot water from the canning pot for doing dishes, and also for cooking beans & soup tonight.

I got some Mirai corn at the Farmers’ Market today.

Then I started the soup. It is Lysander’s traditional Bean Bag. And it’s one of many that I bought when I went to Woodman’s in Kenosha last month. (I really like their chili mix, but didn’t see it. So I bought each of the other varieties.)

I chose this soup, because it called for the most additional ingredients that I just happened to have on hand, and wanted to use up.

I cooked the Mirai corn in the soup for about 3 minutes, which made it quick & easy and didn’t require more water or salt.

Lysanders seems to be the only commercially-available soup mix that I’ve found so far that I believe to be vegan. I never know what “natural flavoring” is in other brands. This brand has easily identifyable ingredients, with no mention of animal products. It does contain sugar (2 gr per serving), for those who avoid it.

Anyway, from my garden, I added a chopped tomato, chopped onions, garlics, carrots, kohlrabi, jalapeno & cayenne peppers, celery, turnip greens, Chinese cabbage, Swiss chard, sage & thyme, and a few beans and small potatoes. From the Farmer’s Market, I added red cabbage that I need to use asap. Not locally-grown were a little brown rice, a little barley, lemon juice, salt & pepper.

It actually tastes good with all that additional stuff in it. I’m thinking I’d be more inclined to eat my greens, if I cooked them into a soup.

I’m experimenting tonight with a pot-full of blanched and skinned tomatoes. The goal (if I really want to save money on organic food) is to make a supply of spaghetti/pizza sauce. So that’s what’s cooking, as I type.

Next, I’m going to Google for a recipe. I’ve added what I think I’d want in there, but have never made sauce from scratch before. So I don’t want to leave anything important out.

Next, I’m going to try my luck at canning, for the first time in my life. I’ll let you know how that works out.

Anyway, I didn’t gut and seed the tomatoes. I did pour off some of the watery juice that had seeds in it, and drank it as a hot juice. I might put it through my mill(?), or maybe leave it a little chunky. Mainly, I want it to taste like pizza sauce, and not like stewed tomatoes.

It will be interesting to see how much I have left, once this cooks down.

Home-grown veganically-raised ingredients!

I’ve never canned before. Wish me luck.

Later, that same night:

OK. I canned 7 pint-sized jars, with enough left over to last me a couple of days. As of now, 6 out of 7 jars lids have “popped” into vaccuum mode.

I’m no expert when it comes to gardening. This year was my biggest attempt to date. And anything I know came off the Internet.

But I had a brief conversation with my neighbor, who wonders why they bother with a garden. His tomato plants are dying, too. His cucumber plants have flowers, but no cucumbers. And he doesn’t have all that many beans. He does have a big bed. And the other half does have asparagus and various herbs & flowers. He’s weighing the benefits of getting a grow light.

My potatoes, onions, garlics, carrots, beets were small. My squash plants had powdery mildew. I might end up with one pumpkin, 2 turbans & 1 carnival, unless the flowers on some newer plants do something before the frost. And most of my tomato plants have late tomato blight. I don’t know if my corn will be worthwhile. Probably not.

But when I look at the picture of the main area of garden beds in the previous post, I have a lot of things growing. The beans and greens did well. I have herbs, and more onions, and some carrots left. I have a lot of celery plants, amaranth. My pepper plants might still do something. If my broccoli, cabbages & cauliflowers and my peppers aren’t ready to harvest before the frost, I’ll bring them inside.

The flowers that I planted from seed did extremely well for the first time this year.

The good thing about planting a lot of different things is that if some don’t work out well, and others do, it seems worthwhile.

So far, the tomato plants in the overflow bed by the street are the only ones that are dying. I have others planted in various beds. I’m glad they weren’t all in the same area, because maybe the blighted plants won’t infect the others.

Today turned out to be a perfect day, weather-wise. The first picture below (which will be scrunched to fit) is a view of my garden from my kitchen window.

I was disappointed when I went to tumble my compost tumbler, when one of the wooden legs split. I ended up having to prop it up so I could shovel everything out into a garbage can. I will need to take it apart and either get another piece of wood the same size, and find a way to bore holes the same size. Or I may just remove the legs, and stand it up except when I need to tumble. Then maybe I’ll just roll it on the driveway or in the yard. I still think the compost tumblers are a great idea, especially for food waste. But I think they either can’t take a lot of weight, or maybe the problem was that I didn’t have things tightened well-enough, since the side supports tended to lean in the direction that I was tumbling it. Too bad, because it was relatively expensive.

The other disappointment is that it took until the beginning of September for my big tomatoes to start to ripen, probably due to the cold and rainy August after a relatively cold start to the season. I had so many tomatoes, and each plant had so many flowers. So if they had grown like in normal years, I would have had hundreds. But within the past week, the plants in my overflow bed by the street started dying off. Because some of the tomatoes had brown on them, I decided they must have the late tomato blight that’s epidemic this year. It seems to be a quick-killing disease. By today, most of those plants were pretty brown. So I picked most of the tomatoes, hoping the green ones will ripen in the house before any blight shows up on them. I ended up pulling out most of those plants, and left about 5, just in case the rest can ripen on the vine before they go bad. The tomato plants in my other beds look relatively healthy. If they have the blight, I probably have a few days before it starts affecting the tomatoes. So I just picked the ripe ones.

The first picture below is of a sprig of unripe grape tomatoes. I took it, because it shows how plentiful the plants would have been, if they didn’t start dying off so quickly. The second picture is of all the tomatoes I picked within the past couple of days. I need to blanch (stew, if I’m not too lazy) and freeze them, I guess. But I really wanted to learn how to can. So maybe I’ll do something with them in the morning. The only consolation is that (except for 4), these are all from my volunteer plants. So they’re freebies, and even just what’s in that picture is more than I had all of last summer.

I was just looking at the pictures from my 9/12 post. 5 days ago, the plants by the street looked fine. Today, most of them are brown. Pretty amazing devastation.

Here’s a picture I took of the tomatoes I picked today from my overflow bed.