Along the alleyways...

     A delightful day for a road trip and so we do what we usually do and that is keep an eye out for veggies! We wandered around town and then slipped up the alleys looking closely for gardens.   

     Our first hit came almost immediately.  These are big beds.  I'll get better at this blogging thing and I'll remember to measure or get more perspective.  I hope the folks tending these are tall, I find more than 4 foot across is too much without stepping in the beds.  Looks like they've cleaned up for the winter..wish I could tell them to sow some nitrogen fixing cover crops like crimson clover or Austrian peas that will provide some green, keep down weeds and add wonderfully to their soil's fertility for next season.   Maybe they'll read this, pass it around!

     They had a very large tree taken down recently as you can see here... wonder if it was before the gardens were put in or if the gardens weren't doing well in the shade?   Perhaps the storm hit it and the safest thing to do was take the rest of it down.

     Next up is a nice size garden that probably has really good soil!  There's everything growing in there, flowers for attracting good bugs, herbs, okra even!  They may be mixing in some permaculture style gardening.  The small tree on the left wasn't fruit bearing that we could tell.  We didn't have time to get out and poke around too much.  The annuals will die down soon and it will be easier to clean up. 

     These folks have a lot of yard left to grow their garden, but they did well this year.  Still producing on October 14th!  I do hope they enjoyed it and intend to grow more next year.

     This is the only front yard garden we spied this time, of course, we were mostly keeping to the alleys.  They kept this one pretty weed free and now tis time to say goodbye to the summer.  Still a few producing plants and some stalks to make fall decorations!  It's so hard to take plants out at the end of summer before that first hard freeze.  Just a feeeew more tomatoes and peppers please?

    We voted this best October garden as it is still productive with very healthy plants for the end of the season.  Here's hoping they are starting some fall/winter crops somewhere, it's hard to see from the car in the alley, so they can keep eating fresh veggies later on!

   We're always eager to showcase local gardens, so let us know of any hiding in your neighborhood!