Happy Halloween!

October has been just too much. Too much, lol.

But I have gotten a lot of plant stuff done. All the container plants have been brought inside. Got the big pop up green house capping over the best of the pepper patch, and it has been an excellent season extender. It was well worth dropping the 45 bucks on. The tomato beds have been totally cleaned out, but haven't been able to get the garlic bed in yet. Next week is supposed to bring some decent days when I have the time off work to get the whole thing in the ground.
Plus, I have found the kennel bed to be remarkably shitty for root crops. The cleaning out of the compost in 2013 has really become apparent once I dig down a few inches, lol. So I will just get the north bed dug in and set, and rely on some slower action to clear out and clean up the west side. No more nightshades, legumes, or curcurbits for a year or two in that soil. Maybe some greens or brassicas. Maybe cover crops and ground enhancing roots.

The lasagne beds need a lot of cleanup. Laying down of new cardboard and path stuff, pulling weeds. The marigolds are still blooming like crazy and super plush. I think with the seed I have saved off them I might have to really extra grow a bunch out and plant them in the road beds next year. They did exceptionally well, and I really need more of that kind of action out front. No nightshades in the big bed, last year was tomatoes, this year was peppers. No beans either- not sure how bad the Mexican Beetle spread will result in yet. Curcurbits, brassicas, greens, and root crops are good.  No legumes or curcurbits in small bed 1. No tomatoes, but peppers would be ok. Small bed 2 is no on legumes and peppers. Ok on tomatoes, curcurbits, greens and brassicas, root crops.
All three beds need a good turning and mulching yet this fall. 

Raised beds aren't in too bad of shape. Bed 1 needs weed cleanup, bed 2 I'm leaving the beans in bed to die and release- will need to dig them in soon. Bed 3 is the radishes, and I'm planning on pulling those soon. The seed collection out of those should be excellent, I am seriously curious about what kind of crossbreeding will have resulted. Beans would be good here next year I think. Maybe peppers too. Perhaps a round of spring peas and other cover crop action or root crops. Not brassicas or greens.
Need to layer in the next walkway and build a raised bed for number 4 to lay in over where the bushel gourds, beans, and sunflowers grew this year. Right now I will be happy if I get a lasagne layer in place.

The herb bed is a freaking mess of weeds, unattended plants, and general crappery. The whole thing needs a major re-cleanup.

I've been thinking about plans for what to do about winter composting, because I really want to try to keep that up. I was thinking of buying a couple of cheap 32 gallon or so garbage cans that have goodly locking lids. Several straw bales to sort of build as walls around the garbage cans. And several really big black contractor bags.. bungee cords too, lol.
Drill many holes in the cans like shown in "how to make a garbage can into a composter" tutorials. Use a couple bungee cords to extra secure the lids on.
Use the contractor bags to bag up the straw bales. The point here isn't really to keep out vermin, it's to keep out the worst of the winter wet- wet bales are heavy and less insulating. I want to be able to move these in the spring. Use these to build up a two layer deep wall around the trash cans.
Use a couple more contractor bags to bag up a lot of leaves- you need to put brown matter into the layers of kitchen scraps, and leaves are it. Plus they can add insulating layer to the top of the garbage cans.
I'm thinking of putting this whole setup in one of two locations. The corner of the FOH garden that's closest to the edge of the front porch steps. Or smack dab outside the kitchen window. I'm leaning to the FOH because there is less snowfall to fight with- and less chance for vermin to want to reside since it's on the other side of the concrete.

The solarium is a mess, but a good mess really. The new setup with the potting bench area is great- but lol, I already miss my one countertop I'm currently using in Hallowed Corners. And I set up the two new mini greenhouses as sort of shelving for storing/curing foodstuffs.

The Halloween Village has been renamed to Hallowed Corners. I did have it finished.. kind of, almost.. and took a heap of pics of it. Then I started generally tearing apart stuff and moving it around to better get an idea of what I want to do with landscaping structures. I have a nice heap of Styrofoam to work with now. And ambitious plans, teehee. There are some set areas, like Main street is on the mantle... and I really like the pumpkin patch in the low slot over the TV.
And heh, I have a serious tons of painting to do. I picked up a lot of new stuff this year that had super cheap painting or otherwise needs reworking. Or needs finishing off like the housespider. Jeez, the housespider really needs her own name. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:95344


Set up a spare bedroom. The room had been unused in quite a while and shifted some things around so it could be storage and a spare room. I put a ton of effort into gathering boxes from work, and using dry erase tape set up shelves for storing all the canned goods safely. And holy shit there's a heap of them.