Fall. It’s here.

Fall is truly here. The fedge, orchard and vineyard have all accepted it so I guess I should too.

We started to put Irripan Weed Mats on our trees. So far, we have them on our apple and two mulberry trees. They seem to be doing a great job keeping the weeds down, and the grooves do a fantastic job funneling water right to the root of the tree.

We need to put these around all of our fruiting trees in the swale and maybe some of our fruit bushes in the fedge.

Illinois Everbearing Mulberry

Apple

Weeping Mulberry

The cabbage patch is bursting with life! The heads of cabbage and brussel sprouts are looking good even with all the insect bites. Besides, I planted enough to share.

And…we even have the start of a broccoli head!

A few days after I trellised the peas, I came out to discover they had stretched and climbed like little cats. Little white blossoms dotted each vine as if the trellis was all they needed to start production.

I found this little cutie growing in the pea bed. I’m not really sure what it is but the leaf is very pretty. I planted black salvia in the bed in the spring but the leaf on it is longer and thinner. Time will tell I suppose.

Composting is one goal that I haven’t talked about much. Most of our kitchen scraps go to the chickens so we don’t have a lot to add to the compost pile, but we’ve started a bigger one with grass clippings. We are careful to save all of the scraps the chickens aren’t allowed to have such as citrus, onions, garlic and coffee grounds to throw in the pile.

Now that we are well on our way to a productive homestead, we are going to put more focus on composting. The chickens will help quite a bit with that as we can add their used bedding to the pile.

New, bigger compost pile started with grass clippings

The Compost Crew

It’s fun to compost
Healthier soil, less garbage
Hens do their part too