Fall and the Freebie Tree

The Story of my Freebie Tree: 

I used willow trees that Jared had cut down around the lagoon for my bean poles. A few months later much to my surprise one began to bud! But by that time the beans had already started to grow on the pole. From time to time while I was picking beans I noticed that it had leaves, but with the beans being so bushy and wrapped around everything I didn't think much of it. So you can imagine I was quite surprised to find this once I took all the beans down! 

Due to it not being able to stay in my garden and my loves of trees it got transplanted into the yard. I was quite surprised at how hard it was to dig a hole for the tree as the last tree I planted the digging was a lot easier, I guess that's the difference between wet clay and dry clay...

I am trying to keep the mindset that it likely won't survive the winter as I wasn't able to plant to very deep, that way if it does survive I will be super excited... But the longer the tree has been planted there the more I'm already getting attached to it! 

Fall has been really quite beautiful this year! It has been a warm and sunny, but not to hot, which had been wonderful.

My tree isn't very big yet, but I have been finding that it has still be able to throw the perfect amount of shade to lay in the grass or set up a lawn chair!

With the fence done I have been able to do a lot of simply enjoying our back yard! The panoramic picture below makes it look bigger then it is, I think. But I love having the whole view in one picture as it is more accurate of the view off the deck. 

I love how the trees in the back are lit up by the setting sun! 

My Fall Fiesta maple tree is living up to it's name! Lots of yellow and orange leaves around, so the red-orange really stands out!

Thought this was neat! "X marks the spot! "

I can't seem to get enough of these pictures. Little girl in a big world 🥰

 

Harvest

Harvest was a pretty busy time. Not necessarily due to the amount of food harvested, but more of getting back on top of everything since our summer holidays were done. Though we didn't get tons out of the garden, overall I though it did really well. This year was quite the experiment for me. Test one was to see if any animals would come and eat my garden, thankfully they all seemed content to stay in the forest. Test two was to see how the vegetables I wanted to grow would do up here. That test went well too, though there are a few things that I will need to do differently next year. 

The first potato! I was super excited to find this one as I had tried to steal a potato once and a while but never found any. The potatoes were a lot deeper then I expected, but there! We had a lot fun harvesting them. 

The Yukon gold harvest 

And pick some beans to go with them! 

Washed and ready for cooking.

Even cooked some homegrown chicken to go with the potatoes and beans. A whole homegrown meal! 

Green beans all ready for the freezer. Got quite a few fresh meals of beans, but suddenly there was a 2 week span were there was lots, so in the freezer they went. 

The chickens are doing a good job of supplying us with eggs! When we have extra we share or trade them, which I find is a lot more fulfilling then selling them.

Hazel helped with harvesting the rest of the potatoes. 

We found a few teeny tiny ones that kept her entertained most of the time. 

This one even got taste tested 😅

The full harvest of red potatoes and russets. 

Mommy's little helper who LOVES digging in the dirt!

Brushed clean and stored away. 

I picked all the tomatoes as the frost killed the tomato plant. So far most of the little ones went bad, so the chickens got them and one of the medium ones finally ripened. 

So this is all the corn that I gathered from my "very over planted, almost died twice" corn plants. 

And once I shucked them, these were what remained. The one on the right was super tasty! 

Really enjoyed having a garden this year and I am looking forward to starting one again next year.