Fall harvest

Today I harvested some of the romaine and deer tongue lettuces from the garden. Didn't get any photos, but did have it on a turkey sandwich for lunch, and a grilled chicken wrap for dinner. It is an amazing feeling to be able to walk out back and bring in a large bowl of lettuce you grew yourself.

I can't wait for spring!

Back to Eden

In case you have not yet seen it, here is a link to the newly released "Back to Eden" documentary. It follows gardener Paul Gautschi as he explains his discovery of a seemingly new method of gardening, yet one used by nature since the beginning of time. I found it very enlightening and helpful, and am looking forward to implementing these gardening methods next year.

For the lettuce I planted this fall (see post below), I used some composted leaves that I got from my church yard cleaning day. I had piled the 35 bags of leaves behind the garden last spring, only to discover the wonderful compost it turned into under the top layer of leaves. This is the theory behind the documentary—using a cover (wood chips, leaves, grass clippings, etc) and allow it to break down to develop the soil in an effort to reduce the amount of fertilizer and water you use, the amount of weeding that needs to be done, and increase the output from the garden. I have seen nice results already in the lettuce I planted using this method. My goal is to get my whole garden area covered as soon as possible to allow the covering to break down enough to be usable next season.

A great thing about the film are the biblical references Paul uses to describe how God lead him to these ideas, in turn, giving examples of who God is and how he works.

I highly recommend anyone interested or active in gardening give it a look. You won't be disappointed.