I spent part of today working on my pond filter and starting a few small indoor projects, including some sprouts and a worm bin.
While I was outside, I took a few pictures of the garden in its more-or-less dormant state. Fall and winter always make me sad, because I hate saying goodbye to the garden, but I’ve got a few projects planned out there for this winter, and I think we’ll be in good shape come spring.
So far, I’ve bought four 36-inch fire rings to use as compost bins this winter, with the intention of planting directly into the compost this spring to make incredibly rich, easy-to-manage raised beds for my tomatoes.
That pond filter I built out of an ice-cream bucket looks as if it’s going to work pretty well. Time will tell, of course, but so far, it seems to be working. I’ll have a tutorial for you in an upcoming Eco-Saturday entry. The picture above delights me; I can’t believe how big that lemon balm has gotten. The oregano, meanwhile, apparently thinks it’s an aquatic plant — I found some of it growing roots right down into the water. Leave it to a mint to be audacious enough to try to compete with water hyacinths on their own turf.
The arugula I allowed to bolt this summer has scattered seeds all over the small bed in the center of the yard and halfway across the yard around it, so I’ve got salad growing all over the place without having to do any late-season planting. The sage and chives are still hanging in there, too, although my Genovese basil succumbed to the light frost we had the other night. I’ll have an Eco-Saturday entry on Darwin gardening sometime in the next month or so. If you’re willing to let Mother Nature run the show, you can have a remarkably productive garden with virtually no effort.
Hope your day was good, wherever you are.
Emily
Red Fork Hippie 
I’ve been wanting to do some easy raised gardening next year. I never thought of using fire rings.
The feed store down the street had them on sale for $34 apiece one day when I was in there, and it struck me that they’d be great for making compost in situ if I set them up sort of assembly-line fashion, keeping one empty at all times so I’ve got a place to turn the first batch of compost. (Dunno if that makes sense, but I can see it in my head.)
Did you get your asparagus into the ground?
Yeah. I planted it a couple of weeks ago. Wasn’t sure how long it would survive if I didn’t plant it right away, so I got out there with a spade and dug a trench in an area the quail had been fertilizing all season.
Good. I was afraid you might try to store it out of the ground. I doubt that it has much “shelf life” in that respect. I wonder if you could stack your fire rings and plant potatoes in them, adding another ring and more dirt when the plants grow taller, sending out more roots and making more spuds at each level. I know it works with old tires, but I’d be afraid of the chemicals that leach out of them. Food for thought, maybe.
BTW, I like your page re-design, but you should lose the Red Fork moniker. Doesn’t apply anymore. Maybe “Show Me Hippie?”
Blog titles are changeable, but handles/addresses aren’t. I’ve considered changing the name of the blog, but it’s likely to create confusion if I combine a name change with a redesign, and I definitely don’t want to use another location name, because I’ll just have to change it when I move to New Mexico, which I assume we all realize is pretty much inevitable.
Besides, there’s only one Red Fork Hippie. It’s not like Miss America, where you crown your replacement when you leave.