It's been a month. I apologize.

What has happened this past month? No blog posts after doing at least one a week for most of the summer? It can be summed up with two thoughts. My garden has been pretty slow and I've been lazy. That's about it. Oh sure, I've still been picking some green beans, tomatoes and peppers here and there. But outside of that? Not a whole lot happening. Until this weekend that is! 

About a month or two ago I had ordered a bunch of bulbs (flower and garlic) and seeds (flower) for the yard in spring. This past week I received the garlic bulbs (Early Italian) and 3 sets of my flower bulbs. Those included 100 wildflower bulbs, 20 Royal Tulip bulbs and 6 Purple Allium bulbs. This past Saturday was gorgeous with sunny and 75 degree weather so it was a perfect time to get out in the garden and plant some things in prep for the spring. 

The first thing that I did was clear out the old and dead squash plants from the summer. In their place, I dug some trenches to plant out some garlic. 

This is just one trench of 4 filled with garlic. Each trench has 10-12 cloves of garlic which should each turn into their own bulb. In other words, if things go right, I'm going to have a lot of garlic. Yay! 

Now, before I filled those trenches back in and covered the garlic with the dirt, I went over to my leaf pile and compost pile with my big 50 gallon bucket. My leaf pile has sat for a full year. I had a pile that was about 6-7 feet tall and 3-4 feet across last fall. Over the course of a year it has reduced down and formed something called leaf mould. Or this. 

Now that may not look like anything special to you but that black dirt under the layer of leaves is like black gold to a garden. And after a years worth of waiting, I finally get to use some! I filled half of the bucket with the leaf mould and half with my compost that I made over the course of the summer. I have a nice pile of that as well. 

With my bucket full of some of the best stuff you can give your crops, I put a layer on top of each garlic bulb before I filled the dirt back in. I used this same process when I put all of my flower bulbs in the ground. Every thing gets a healthy boost of compost/leaf mould. This should get the plants off to the best start they can have come spring. 

Another thing that was done this weekend was harvesting all of the basil from the garden. And there was a LOT! I didn't get a picture of all of the basil on the stems but I did spend a good hour or so stripping leaves off. But I did take a picture of what I spent all morning making with it. 

First, all of the picked leaves.

Second, a couple POUNDS worth of homemade pesto. 

I would post a recipe for all of you but there really isn't an exact one for me. My recipe consists of: A few handfuls of basil, some olive oil, fresh grated Parmesan and some nuts. Repeat as necessary while blending and everything breaks down to create more room. And freeze. Pretty good stuff right there. 

I'm still eagerly awaiting my other flower bulbs so I can get them put into the ground. I'll try and keep everyone updated a little better! Until then, Happy Gardening!