It’s nearly the end of October, and the gardening can’t be easier. Granted, a fair amount of it is kaput, but there is still broccoli, flowering sprouts (a new one for me this year – a cross between Brussels sprouts and kale), parsley, oregano, thyme, radishes, arugula, cilantro, spinach, chard, rosemary and beetberry (also called strawberry spinach). I still have to dig a couple of hills of potatoes that are growing on the hugelkultur bed and pull a few carrots, but I’ll need those pretty soon for dinner.

Fall Gardening

It’s nice to be able to still wander out there to grab foods when I’m cooking, yet not have to weed or worry about pests. I barely even have to water. If we have a nice day (which has been rare lately, particularly with the hellacious winds we’ve been having) I’ll hit the beds with water, but it’s not on the top of my to-do list like it is during the summer.

A lot of people disregard the fall garden, which is a shame. It’s often a couple of months of doing little else than keeping things covered and harvesting. How easy is that?

I do have the beds with the greens and radishes covered with the floating row cover, and with the sustained winds hitting 30 mph today with gusts near 50 mph I’m going to have to pin them down a little more to keep them in place.

One of the nicest things about it is we’ve had enough cold weather to knock down all of the bugs. There’s not a cabbage moth in sight, and absolutely no risk of a little extra protein when we eat the broccoli (which is particularly delicious at this time of the year). It’s so nice to do nothing and have gorgeous
plants.

Deer Ate My Broccoli

The one unfortunate thing that did happen is a deer came up to the patio garden, in a section that would be a sure way to be trapped, and nibbled on the broccoli and flowering sprouts.

We’re talking she (I’m guessing it’s one of the does) had to walk across the patio from the back yard, right in front of the sliding door, to reach it. That takes guts.

I covered the plants back up with the floating row cover. Hopefully, it will be sufficient to keep them away for the remainder of the season.

I can’t think of another time when the deer have been so bold as to cross the patio to reach something to eat. I don’t know if it’s just because they’re more accustomed to us being here and they know Luna the not-so-ferocious Lab isn’t going to hurt them, or if there are more of them and they need more to eat.

Keeping Deer Out of the Garden

The one drawback of this time of the year is I can’t hook up the Scarecrow, the motion triggered sprinkler, because the hose may freeze. A friend of mine is having a problem with the deer coming into their garden and orchard area, and she’s been blasting them with the pellet pistol. I love it: A little sting for
aversive conditioning. If they can do it for bears, why not deer?

I also like the idea of paint balls. We’d have a whole lot of polka dotted deer around here. Or, best yet, I seriously think I should make a spud gun. Now that would be a kick having the deer being thwarted by the veggies they’re consuming.

Irony is sweet.

(The picture is the broccoli the deer chomped on this week. There are side shoots, but we’ll see how well it bounces back before the cold shuts it down for good. )