Of course today, the only day I had to work in the garden before leaving for Italy, it’s raining. And it rained its hardest while I was working in the yard / garden. Oh well - at some point I was so wet that it no longer mattered that it was raining.

Luckily I got a lot done even with the rain. I weeded most of the front flower beds. I pruned the roses. I trimmed back the lavender and I put an end to the sad looking tomato and cucumber plants on the front steps. All that’s left for winter is one last trim of the bushes and hedges. And the roses will need a hard pruning after the first hard frost - I usually do that in January.

Also in January we’ll be putting in 6-12″ of new compost and mulch on all the beds. We didn’t get it done this year because we waited too long and all the flowers and plants were up. But this year I’ve already got it on the calendar to happen in January while everything is sleeping and we can put it in with minimal effort.

*****

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting Walt of Walt’s Organic Fertilizer in Ballard. Someone I know turned me on to the fac that he sells whole grain poultry feed. I called Tuesday and they were kind enough to hold the last bag for me until I could get there. The girls are now eating a 1:1 mix of his beautiful layer feed and the organic crumble they had been eating. They’ll eat this until we run out of crumble and then eat the good stuff 100%.

Walt was very helpful and has a fabulous little store. He even had diatomaceous earth by the pound, so I got enough to dust the girls and their roost box. Much better than using the Sevin powder.

I also chatted with him briefly about gardening and he reminded me that we can grow lettuce, carrots, green onions and kale year round here due to the mild climate. Of course that’s only true until it freezes around Christmas. Nevertheless, I’m going to sow seeds for each in the pots I just emptied. Maybe we’ll get enough to eat it for Thanksgiving if nothing else.

If we ever get the garage finished (this requires that we start…), Mike is going to help me build some raised vegetable beds along the south wall. He even offered to help me build a cold frame for one or two of them. Guess then I’ll have NO EXCUSE not to raise some of my own produce.