A couple of weeks ago, I pulled this years’ harvest of garlic from the garden. It’s about the only thing that I’ve ‘completed’ in the garden this year, with so many other projects on the go. It is really late to pull garlic, the stems and leaves had already died right back.

Typically, this is the time of year when one would plant a new crop of garlic, to grow (and divide) over the winter and be harvested in July. (Yup… I am really late!!!) I do not think I’m going to put a crop in this year. This means that by next summer we will be buying locally grown for our own use. My garden needs a LOT of work to get it ready for next springs’ plantings.

And… in the background you can see all of the cardboard I’ve been collecting. This will serve a variety of projects. i. as underlay for my new pond (the exterior construction is nearing completion – read all about it here) ii. As a subfloor for an additional coop (the current one is a bit too small for 15 full-sized chickens to overwinter. (Read all about the first one here). And iii. As weed suppressing underlay for new garden beds…. When I get to them!!

Also, I just purchased 4 new (used 1 season) winter tires that need to get put on the van soon. We are required to run them here on any of the Mountain highways as of October 1. So there is a bit of urgency to the chore. (And more cardboard in the background).

Winter is not here yet… we haven’t even had frost in our area and there is not yet snow on the mountains. But it’s not far down the road and the race is on to complete as many of the outdoor tasks as possible before snow flies.