What have you done today in the Garden?

Daniel—I was surprised. I had never thought about using that technique with annuals. It makes me wonder— if I would purposely break a branch, leaving a little more than a heel attached…pin it to the ground; would it give me a new plant that would continue flowering after the mother plant has stopped. Hmmm. Something to consider, but timing would be an important factor. For instance, now the layered plant was healthy, the mother plant is dead…but there is now no time for it to develop flower buds before the freeze comes.

 

Hey Daniel, I don't know if these are the same as what grew wild in NE Texas, when we lived there, but I was always told to wait for a frost. I don't recall if it was a hard frost or not.

Wow! I just saw all the pages I'm behind. Conferences are this week. So I haven't been here for a bit.

When my granddaughter was young we lived Texas. Her cousin down there was very interested in chickens, so her grandmother got her an incubator for Christmas one year. We ended up with some of the chicks, but before long they had the maximum you could have, in that county (99). At 100 you were considered commercial or something along those lines. She tried to give us more; but I was good with the 4 we had.

I need to get my garlic in. We have a 4 day weekend this weekend because of conferences, then we're back on Tuesday and gone for 3 days to Upham Woods. Outdoor education. Last year we went in the spring, after Spring Break. I'm not so sure about canoeing in October.....
So I guess my garlic will be in this weekend!

 

Those look nice, Sjoerd

 

I cut the 2x4 strengthener / frame supports for the raised bed that is undergoing repair and strengthening. I hope I remember to buy rebar posts for the corners today. Then it's ready to reassemble, add some additional buckets osoil, and do winter prep.

@Melody Mc. , I really enjoyed reading your update. I like cows, wouldn't mind if they came by here and left some fertilizer . Like you, I want to move some marigolds indoors to save seeds.

@willow, 100 is a LOT of chickens! I think our flock is about eight now, with 5 actually laying eggs. The other three are more or less retired.
i don't know if we will add a couple next Spring. Currently there are surplus eggs. I enjoy the hens a lot, and they are part of the gardening "cycle of life". Oh, the persimmons are hybrid Asian / American, or Asian persimmons. They need full ripening to a very soft stage, but freezing isn't necessary.

I've been perusing on-line garden seed catalogs. I save the shopping cart and revise it multiple times before clicking "buy". This year, I stop and think "Do I really want that? Where will it grow?" before buying. I want to make certain that each variety has a planned location before buying the seeds.

 

Thanks Willow. I will be glad when the plots are finished, when they are completely winter-ready I think they look good…tidy and warm. Haha.

Yesterday we emptied the greenhouse. We still need to remove the weeds and empty the soil out.
We completely emptied one of the two small apple trees.


This apple is the Schellinghouter. It’s flesh is as white as snow, and it is juicy and a tad tart. It is great to have the protective netting off. It was an unsightly, but necessary measure. The nets have been on for weeks.

That was yesterday, today we have been processing those apples. There was a bit more than four kilo’s to turn into applesauce. The applesauce is pruttling as I write this. What a lovely smell it is—cooking apples and cinnamon.

Right then! It’s back to work.

 

They have been potted, with a couple of bowls for supper.

 

I do the same thing!

I also am bringing in my lemon gem marigolds to gather more seeds.
It was raining today, when we got home, so I didn't do anything in the garden. I'm raising my garden this spring. I will cover this (what will be the bottom) with my usual winter prep stuff and leaves. Then when spring rolls around I'll put new boards on top, then fill with compost from my worm boxes and the yard waste compost out back. Depending on the boards it will then be 16 or 18 inches high. And my knees will be ever so grateful. And probably my back as well.

Sjoerd I was doing that a couple weeks ago.

Chickens are so cool. My granddaughter chose our first batch. They all ended up being roosters except for 1 and the other one that came directly from the bin that were guaranteed to be hens (just in case). So most of them went to the Mennonites down the road. We then switched and got older (enough to know they were hens) from her cousin. We were getting a light pink egg, a blue one, a green one and a brown. The brown and light pink came from the store and the others from the cousin. They had such good personalities.

 

Willow— I did the first batch ten days ago as well. They were “fall- apples”. I have one more tree to do.

I worry about your knees. Do you have or can you get trousers with rubber pads in them? I spend a lot of time on my knees and really could not work without them. Raised beds ought to help you a lot. Good luck with adding another plank. Daniel has been so successful with his impressive raised beds, hasn’t he.

BTW, do you have some pics of your garden areas? I would love to see them.

 

The beans were a mess! I read that you can pull them up, then hang then up to dry them. Usually I just cut them off the trellises and compost them. But this year, I, in my infinite wisdom decided to have a second planting. They had come up and were maybe 6 or 8 inches when summer pretty much decided it was done. So for a week or so they got cool and rain, not so much sun. Then we got the warmth again and they made it up the trellises and had lots of beans. I picked some that were dry and shelled them. But we got rain and cold again. So the rest of them have been growing instead of drying. I still have the beans in the strawberries to pull up. I dug up the marigold and it's in a.pot. I still have peppers to dig up. The sky is spitting at me, though and I have learned that not only is there smoke with fire, spitting usually turns into rain.

I need to get the weeds out from around the edge of the beds and put wood chips down. I usually do that in the spring when I'm preparing the beds but this year it didn't get done. I had brakes and another car problem that took almost $2000 out of my summer pay. So I opted to wait...it really does make a difference, though.

The big maple tree has the leaves I use for covering my garden in the winter. It always seems to be the last one to lose the leaves, though. And then there's the raspberries and blackberries. I was going to cut them today but by the time I hung up all the trellises, brought in the garden decorations and dug up the marigold it was raining enough to come in. I have 2 more days so hopefully I can get the other beans in and cut the berries before I go back to work.

I almost forgot to ask; I left the green/purple/yellow bean plants in the garden. Usually I put them in my yard compost out back. But I thought this year since I'll be adding more layers to fill the higher beds I may as well leave them. And just put the chopped up maple leaves on top of them. I run the lawnmower over the maple leaves to chop them up. That would work, wouldn't it? It should be deep enough, that eventually they would break down, right? With my compost out back it gets turned, several times before it freezes and/or snows.

 

I haven't seen those, but I also never even thought of looking. I will have to look at those. They're probably on sale since it's the end of the season.

Yes, Daniel's beds look very nice. I was looking at that. I didn't know there were bricks for rebar, until I saw his.

 

The raised beds are looking good, aren’t they.
it ought to be good to leave the plant debris on the beds. That is what I do. I mix the types of plants that are available. Some will compost and become part of your beds, in the spring, what is left, you can always add to your compost pile.

I hope that you can find some trousers with the rubber pads in the knees.

 

Yes, that would be great!

Yeah I like when they're growing, but they do look nice when everything is ready for winter. I miss the wood chips. This year we had more rain than usual and I don't like how it looks muddy around the beds.And the weeds! The chips really helped with those! I was looking outside when it was raining, the grape leaves are turning a pretty yellow. I like looking out my front window, down the street, the trees turn such pretty colors.

 

Fine, sunny and quite warm. But far too wet to do any gardening. We've had so much rain in the past few days, my golf course has been closed since Friday, as some fairways are flooded. It will also likely be closed tomorrow.
Like the several Mersey Valley golf courses, it has lateral streams by the side of some of the fairways. These drain into the Mersey. There are sluices where the streams drain into it.
When the river reaches above the level of the sluices, the river water pressure closes the gates, preventing more water entering, thus protecting housing further down.
But the water still enters the streams, forcing the levels to rise and overflow onto the golf courses. As soon as the level of the river drops, it is usually below the level of the sluices, so they open and the golf courses quickly drain.

Our mimosa I noticed was waving around in the wind yesterday.
On inspection this morning I found its bamboo support pole had snapped.




I was surprised the plant hadn't snapped too, although there are restraining wires attached to the lateral ones between the fence posts.

I had to make a temporary repair.




It's OK for now but I'll get a stronger cane for it tomorrow and swop them over.

 

Wow! It was quite warm today! I dressed for upper 60s F and it was low 80s. I didn't do anything in the garden. I came home and repacked. I had a lot of clothing for cooler wet weather and decided to throw in something for warmer weather, just in case. My granddaughter is staying with her uncle. We're going two hours north and when I looked up the weather yesterday it said lots of rain. Six adults and 55 adolescents.

 

DHR - good thing you noticed the broken bamboo before the tree became damaged. That's a LOT of rain you are getting.

Willow - your gardens look lovely! Good luck on your trip! I miss camping with the kids from school - always an adventure.

Sjoerd - I've been searching for those pants. I did just finally find root training pots yesterday online! They were a bit pricey and have to be imported, but Santa offered to help out with that delivery.

Daniel - I really enjoy your garden journey. The raised beds have me thinking ahead. I hear you about the seed ordering. I'm still unsure how much of a garden I can put in next year, with one last time consuming hurdle ahead of us in the new year that doesn't have a date yet. There are a few varieties of squash I want to try ....and some flowers...and some beans....and and and hahaha