Gathering Leaves at Lake Conner

I have been moaning and groaning about not having any maple trees, or any other type of tree that drops leaves, for my garden.. There was joy on Sunday when Ray took me for a ride to Lake Conner, one of our favorite birding spots. He brought along a couple of yard waste bags and a rake just so I could have maple leaves in my garden.

Four squares of garlic, 2 soft-neck and two hard-neck. There is also a square of Shallots under the leaves in Box 2. About Shallots, I'm told by those who claim to know, that shallots should be planted on the shortest day of the year and harvested on the longest day of the year. I cannot imagine that would be enough time. Still, I plan to pick some up from the health food store in December just to see if this is true. By the way, the same "they" assure me that garlic goes in on the last day of October. Something about vampires? Never seen a blood sucker (not counting misquotes) in my life, only politicians.

The sweet smell of fresh cilantro. This is one weed that I let live.

Though it doesn't look like I got very much done, and it is true that I still have a lot more to do, I feel like I accomplished something!

In these two boxes there is Chard, parsley, cilantro, and leeks. Under the leaves of box 2 there are 4 squares of garlic and one of shallots. If the weather hold (and this time of year it probably will not), I'll clean up boxes 3 and 4 (a double box) and work on cleaning up the fence side of the box so that my pictures do not look so ratty.

Just for you, a bonus! A short film of the birds and mushrooms I spotted at the edge of Lake Conner.