::fall gardening::

 This pretty little garden is my sanctuary.  

It was extra crazy this year, as we had a really good season here in zone five.  

I had planted really early in spring and had a bunch of blank dirt come August. 

 I let these lovely helpers work over the blank spots a bit, but they are such strawberry hogs and we do not share those well. 

  Once my powdery mildew had really killed off all my cucumbers (left side) I let the ladies work soil and then planted some winter wheat (behind the chickens).  I didn't want to lock up the girls but they are not really interested in letting wheat grow.   I covered the wheat with chicken wire and the girls let it grow.  This is a good cover crop to improve soil, but I wanted something to actually eat.  

I found every piece of chicken wire on the entire farm and tons of mowed grass clippings and created rows that had good protection from weeds and chickens.  

The tall cilantro on the end is cilantro that was finishing up from summer rotations. 

The little starts are kale and swiss chard.

 

What looks like baby grass is the spinach babies coming up.  

 We had just enough time before the really heavy frosts that it wall went crazy. 

It's the closest beds. 

 The rig job worked and the crazy chickens left it alone.  

We were harvesting kale, swiss chard, spinach, and the last of the cilantro well into November.