So Much Mess, So Little Time

I'm going to be honest with you, I want an instagram worthy garden. Is it selfish? Maybe. But I just really like looking at pretty things. And I like having a garden I can come home to at the end of the day and stare at and feel less stressed.

Well I mean, and also I get to eat what's growing there, so that's also super useful!

But I'm an artist. So I'm not always the most....organized?

Slowly but surely things started to pile up in corners and then spread outward like tribbles. I ignored them for the most part, because my flowers were blooming and my potatoes were growing, and everything in the garden was green and hiding the evil mess and lulled me into a false sense of beauty.

But fall is coming. No wait--fall is here. The plants are looking raggedy and surely needed to be put to pasture. And the mess was no longer hidden. I couldn't ignore it anymore. And SO....IT WAS TIME TO CLEAN HOUSE.

Er, clean garden!

And I had a whole raised bed to fill in!

So behold my before's and afters!

Sadly, I didn't get a chance to make the trellis/tunnels I was hoping to do, but I'm going to do that tomorrow (maybe?), and also make Spiced Plum Jam (which again, I didn't get to today. ugh).

BEFORE                                       AFTER

 

What a difference right?! I still can't believe how clean it was! JEEZ!

POOR RAISED BED, YOU NEED SOIL!

THAT'S BETTER!

Fun note: The mulch on top isn't bark--it's coffee bean chaffe! It's light and fluffy, so you have to wet it down or it'll fly everywhere (ask me how I found out). It's AMAZING. My whole garden smells like a mix of chocolate and coffee and it's all I can do to NOT just stand there and inhale the air all day. I'm going to be using this for my other raised beds too. This stuff is so light and fluffy but it really does a great job (That I can tell so far!) of being mulch!

I'm almost embarrassed to show you this, BUT I WILL.
This is my messy 'catch all' corner that shouldn't be one.
That back round thing is my compost tumbler.
And yes, those are lots of dead plants. Whoops.

 

OH SNAP! WHO KNEW STACKING MADE THINGS CLEANER!?

Thank goodness for stacking! and this pile will also dwindle the coming days! I already move the still living (it self seeded) tomato plant and (very sad, but starting to bounce back) kale to sit next to a raised bed, and the red gates will go in the newly made raised bed for my baby tomatoes to grow on! The silver fencing you see will be the trellis/tunnel! So all that's left are the flower containers. But I feel I shouldn't pt them away. WHAT SHOULD I GROW IN THEM!?

  

My poor flowers. Half of them got DESTROYED by the one day of 118 degree weather--literally cooked to a crisp. The others tried their best to hang on, but aphids and EVIL EVIL EVIL ANTS sucked the life out of the rest of them.

Apparently aphids and ants were HORRIFIC this year--several of my gardening friends complained about them and said their friends did too. So it wasn't just me. But still. It's incredibly frustrating to see your hard work destroyed by SUCH tiny things! So I put the dead things in my composter and then turned the soil to let the soil decompose the small green living stuff--instant nutrients! I'll be planting another packed of butterfly flower mix, baby's breath, and maybe even a sunflower! Or maybe I should plant the sunflowers in the pots? I'm still trying to decide (and I suck at deciding things)

 

These are tomatoes. Well. They were supposed to be tomatoes. They got a bit beat up as seedlings, but bounced back. And then the ants. And the aphids. And then blossom end rot. AND THEN MORE ANTS AND APHIDS. Basically, they never had a chance, poor things.

So with a heavy heart (and kitchen scissors because I don't have lopers or shears or really any garden tool and it SUCKS) I cut them all down. I saw some really good tomatoes--but it was only a matter of time before the aphids got them--or blossom end rot. So out they went. I chopped most of the leaves into the compost bin and threw the woody stems away.

If I lived in the countryside with LOTS of room for a big compost pile, I'd have composted all of it. But I just have a little tumbler, so I have to make do!

OH! I left the peppers because they're growing peppers and doing just fine! I'll actually be planting garlic in this raised bed tomorrow.

WOW. I have a lot to do tomorrow don't I? OOPS.

My list of gardening and homesteading stuff tends to get longer, just like all the things I have to do for writing (which is like, my job. haha).

Why do my lists get longer, not shorter?

So that's it! What are you guys doing to prepare for a fall garden? Does your garden get messy too after a season? Are you going to have a fall garden? Or do you just put everything to sleep and wait until spring? If you have pics of your gardens please share them I'd love to see them!