Slowing Down for Fall

Our view from our deck

Enjoying life

We made it through September without a frost. That’s always a nice thing for the garden and the orchard. With the start of October, it is time to start preparing for winter. Blowing out the irrigation system, putting all the orchard to bed for a nice rest, and prepping beds for spring. Talking of next spring, we planted garlic two weeks ago. This is one of those things that require being in the ground over the winter.

This week was the last gardener’s market for the 2026 season and while this market is on the small side, it has a wide range of local producers: micro greens, vegetables, cut flowers, baked goods, sour dough bread and glutton free and vegan goods. While we love the market, when the last one rolls around it is relief, sadness, joy and so many other feelings. We are going to miss the other venders and community we get to visit with every week. Next summer if you are in Billings on a Thursday afternoon stop by and say hi.

We are ready, the garden and orchard have finished for the season, and we have very little to sell, mostly winter squash, potatoes and jelly this year. Speaking of winter squash this last spring I thought I ordered a small version (10 to 15pounds) of blue Hubbard squash. What grew were old fashion 30 pound plus squash. Next year we are going to grow red Kuri (our favorite) and spaghetti squash. We are also planning to plant potatoes and onions as well.

Talking of plants for next year, we are planning on offering live plants for sale again. Last year we had haskap, strawberry and elderberry plants in addition we also had potato and onions as well. This next year we are not planning on selling haskaps again, unless we get enough requests. If you are interested, please let us know. If we have enough, we add them tom our order. Talking about past years we have offered fruit trees as well. We did not last year but if you are interested in something let us know as we will set it for you if possible. There are so many fruit trees to choose from if you have questions about what will grow here feel free to contact us with questions.

This September was slower than most and we took advantage of it. We got to enjoy more evenings on our deck looking at the orchard not working in it. We also got to do several things with our daughter and granddaughter. Looking forward to October. It is going to be wonderful, leaves changing, cooler weather and shorter days.

We hope everyone enjoys this fall as much as we are.