Missile Alert!

no don;t hide under the desk-it's---acorns. so loud popping off the deck and roof it woke me up several times.

We actually like this time of year; the goat's breakfast this AM was carrots ( extras from a local restaurant) sweet feed and-acorns. excellent high energy food and it's FREE. comes at the end of the season when browse is getting sparse....just lovely.Pigs like acorns... and most farm birds-especially turkey and geeses-apparently like mulberries as well..so much bounty just for looking around a little bit!

the garden NOT so lovely- this drought has killed off much that was promising. so..we do the hard work again, clearing bindweed and grass from the beds( i got lazy when it was 100 degrees), setting out fall root crops, lettuce and spinach and arugula, and getting  a small structure (greenhouse) in here for the fig tree and herb pots for the winter. it'll do for tomato starts next spring too-we never built the green house; a huge arbor was constructed instead. big enough for-kiwi vines and clematis...big greenhouse next year ????

Just like the goats, much of what is good for the garden can be free. layers of cardboard and newspaper...leaves, especially chopped up..perhaps some gravel/dust form a nearby creek, muck from a pond...and hopefully everything you could think of was made into compost.all of this might help turn your ground into something special.

now try spading fork or broadfork instead of the tiller. yup, it'll work-promise.and leave your earthworms and other critters alive under the ground cover- leaves or straw.and rutabagas turnips or peas not picked will get left- as roots and leaves to hold the soil. heah, I'm just lazy..this stuff works. why do more?

organic beds, multicropping and layering of plants, all proved useful to us this year. the apple trees with comfrey and cosmos at the base-look great. so do the deep bedded berries. We have a bed of parsnips to die for.we did lose currants and cherries-too small for such a severe drought..but they can be replanted. cooler wetter weather should be coming.We have started beds next to the arbor;compost minerals and cardboard. compost leaves and straw go on next. should be superb by spring.

and that's the thing..you can always try again, next year, next spring, will come....sort of a nice message i think.