A busy October in the garden: sowing, cleaning, and new plantings 🌱🧤
This month, we held two particularly productive workdays in our vegetable garden, full of tasks that helped us prepare for the season and better organize our growing spaces.
🧹 Session 1: cleaning and organizing the gardens
We began with a session focused on cleaning and preparing the three main garden areas. We temporarily removed the fences to thoroughly clean the edges and borders, and once the task was completed, we put them back in place.
To prevent the growth of spontaneous weeds, we covered the paths with cardboard and black locust leaves. The latter, in addition to being readily available in the area, has allelopathic properties—meaning it can inhibit the growth of unwanted plant species. A natural and sustainable way to keep the soil cleaner!
🌿 New structure in Garden 1: three sections, three crops
We decided to divide Garden 1 into three parts to better organize the sowing:
- First third: We sowed snow peas, placing the seeds about 1 cm deep, with a density of 6 to 9 seeds per square meter.
- Second third: It was time for the carrots, which were sown randomly, scattering the seeds directly onto the soil without marked rows.
- Third third: We planted peas, using the same technique as for the snow peas—1 cm deep and about 6 seeds per square meter.
- First third: We sowed snow peas, placing the seeds about 1 cm deep, with a density of 6 to 9 seeds per square meter.
In Garden 2, in the central area, we also sowed turnip greens (grelos) using the random method, taking advantage of the well-prepared soil from the day’s work.
🌾 Seed harvesting and storage
One of the most interesting moments of the day was harvesting the kale seeds. Thanks to a plant we let flower last year, we were able to collect small black seeds, about 1 mm in diameter, which we’ve now stored for future planting.
Session 2: more sowing and care of the garden beds
During the second workday, we focused our efforts on improving the edges of the gardens and continued with the sowing tasks:
- In Garden 2, we sowed nabizas (turnip tops), again using the random method, to make use of the remaining space in this area.
- In the upper area, we thoroughly cleaned all three garden beds.
- In bed no. 2, we sowed the kale seeds harvested during the previous session.
- In bed no. 3, we transplanted already-developed lettuce plants (about 3–4 cm tall), which were provided ready for planting.
Each workday is an opportunity to better understand nature’s rhythm and to improve the planning of our garden. The seeds we sow (or harvest!) today are the result of months of care—and also the promise of future harvests.
