Fall Garden

The weather was perfect on Sunday so I spent the day in the garden -- I'm still feeling it in my arms. I got out the Mantis to till up a few beds for fall seeds, but the stupid thing was not cooperating. Steve got it to start long enough to till the large bed, from which I had just pulled a ton of potatoes. Then when I took my hand off the throttle to move it to the next bed it stopped and was just as hard to start. It stopped again and I couldn't get it going again. I'm not sure if it's the carburator, old gas or what. I'll have to drain it and put in fresh gas/oil mix and see. I hate picky maintenance stuff. I wish stuff would just work when you wanted it to.

At any rate, I got 4 beds done and seeded -- a few things I know probably won't work but hey - I had the seeds. I put in some Pinetree Gardens Winter blend lettuce, Meridia Overwintering carrots, Swiss Chard, Detroit Yellow Beets, Peas and I had a packet of 45 day Cool Breeze cucumbers, so I thought I'd give a few of those a shot -- you never know. I may set up a little coldframe for the lettuce. I had saved one of my shower doors when I took them off the tub for just this purpose. It has a nice handle and everything and is about the right size for the small bed I put the lettuce in. I still need to put in my garlic and put down some foxglove and forget-me-not seeds that you're supposed to start in the fall.

Another benefit of working in the garden was that it helped me figure out what to do with it next year. The perennial area is so blah -- I think it has too much shade. The butterfly bushes grow like crazy though, so I think I will just go with it and do another couple of those and make that entire area bb bushes with just a few daylilies in front and move the rest of the perennials to the front when I move out those sickly roses to the back where they will get more attention.

Oh - I also made my Jalopeno Relish -- I ate some with cream cheese and crackers and it was quite good -- kind of sweet and sour. I used about 30 green and 10 red jalopenos and 2 onions chopped (my hands still sting this morning) put them in a large pot cover with boiling water and let sit 5 minutes - drain and return to pot. Add 2 cups vinegar, 2 cups sugar and 3tbs salt, bring to a boil, boil 5 minutes. I then put all the peppers and most of the liquid into my food processor for a few pulses, because I wanted it a bit finer, then loaded it in a big jar. The sweet & sour effect was quite nice with a little bit of heat -- and it wasn't too fiery even with all the peppers. The original Ball 1922 recipe called for 12 green and 12 red bell peppers and 12 onions but was otherwise the same.