What to Do to Your Garden in October

It isn't quite October yet, but it looms just around the corner. A mere 8 days away. So what is there to do in your garden in October?

Harvest: Harvest any fruits and veggies that are now ripening, some things aren't at their peak until fall is upon us.


Weeding: Be sure to not let weeds take over now that your garden is done. It will just make the chore that much harder come spring time.

Clean up: This is a big part of what to be doing in your garden in the fall, getting rid of falling leaves, dead plants, etc. Be sure to add these things to your Compost Pile so you will have a rich soil amendment to use in the spring.

Also during clean up you will want to thoroughly clean your garden tools and store them where they will not be exposed to moisture all winter. You want to keep them from warping or rusting.

What else are you doing to prepare for the winter in your garden?

Revisiting Composting

This morning, while checking my email, I was made aware of a very informative article on the art of composting. The article is called 10 Rules to Remember About Composting. It can be found on nannypro.com

Photo from nannypro.com

We will give you a little teaser of this article by sharing 2 of the rules with you here:

Rule # 2:

Remember to turn your compost pile: As the ingredients in your compost pile start to biodegrade they will start to get hot.  To avoid your compost pile rotting and stinking you need to turn the pile to aerate it.  This addition of air into the pile will speed up the decomposition.

Side note: Rule 2 can be made easier with a spinning composter.

Rule # 6:

Never put trash in your compost pile: Just because something says that it is recyclable it doesn’t mean that it should necessarily go into the compost bin.  For example, newspapers will compost and can be put into a compost pile, but you will want to shred the newspapers and not just toss them in the bin in a stack.  Things like plastic and tin should not be put into a compost pile, but can be recycled in other ways.

Be sure to check out the entire list of rules:
http://www.nannypro.com/blog/10-rules-to-remember-about-composting/

Tomatoes Coming Out of Your Ears?

If you are like me then you have grown your own tomatoes this year, but, I also have family and neighbors giving me their extras because I always took them years before (when I wasn't growing my own). So now I have more tomatoes than I know what to do with. I've gotten several canned and as sauces, etc. But still I have more, and I need a little something different...what about you?

The one option I heard that sounds feasible (as it shrinks the tomatoes, resulting in them taking up less storage space) is dehydrating. But then I began to wonder, what would I used dried tomatoes for?

In talking to some friends and coworkers I found a list of great ideas.
 
Apparently, there are quite a lot of things to used dried tomatoes for (I'm talking recipe wise). Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• In a salad.
• Mixed into pasta dishes
• chopped or minced and mixed with eggs or other breakfast dishes
• In soups.
• Stir fried in your favorite Asian dish
• Used in a sun-dried tomato hummus recipe
• Used in bruschettas (a drier version of bruschetta anyway)
• In sandwiches
• In various "wet" salads, such as potato, chicken, macaroni

The more I've read about using dried tomatoes, the more I've realized that what I thought was going to be a difficult food to find a use for is actually a food that has endless uses. I will definitely be getting out my food dehydrator and taking care of my tomato surplus!!!

Need planting help? Visit Tomato Companion Planting