What have you done today in the Garden?

Rooster vampire.

 

Yes they did, thank you. I had bought myself an advent calendar of seeds, so they are in the box with them. I counted down my day to retirement with it. I am now officially retired. It probably won't seem different until my granddaughter goes back to school and I have the house to myself. Thanks again!

 

Congratulations Willow. You can finally call yourself a “Pensionada”.
So then we shall be expecting to see your countenance on here a bit more frequently now.

 

Thanks, Sjoerd. I told the kids I was taking January off, then I'd be back on Fridays, in February. I'll volunteer with the upper el (grades 4,5,6) in the morning then adolescent in the afternoon (grades 7&8). My neighbor, who is very active in the senior centers is already trying to recruit me to go with her. I'm taking all of January off, though. I don't think I'll go as much as she does because I have things I want to do for myself. Quilting is one of them.

I have a question. I didn't get to cutting my raspberries back this year. Every time I planned on doing it, it was too cold, or rainy or just plain busy. Can I do it now with the cold? The snow has finally melted from the rain. As long as the weather isn't in the teens (maybe low 20s) I don't mind going out.

 

Wow Daniel, I have never seen a chicken do that!. I had one that went missing for a few weeks, then I found her down the road in a pile of old branches. I picked her up and carried her home. She never disappeared again.

 

Willow— hiya !
When I had raspberries, I pruned them back in the winter a coupla times, but usually in the fall because they bore fruit on canes that were in their first year growth after pruning about one year before.
* It is interesting to note that one can stretch the pruning schedule and also prune in the summer followed by a late fall pruning—the bonus here is that you will then get two crops.

As I recall there are three types of raspberries with three preferred pruning times. I do not know which type you have.

Do you know if your type is— summer-harvesting, fall-harvesting or ever-bearing?

Sorry Willow, I am getting in to this a bit and offering thoughts that you may not even be interested in. Forgive waffling.

 

Today I finished cleaning up the former raspberry area. It was too much out of control and the effort was too much. So I removed them, put down a weed barrier, and covered with arborist chips.



Now there is lots of room to work the container bed there, even sitting on a gardening bench.

I started adding arborist chips by the bed that I finished rebuilding last week.



The blue is left over plastic flooring under layer. I was going to throw it away, but I can put it to work here for a while instead. When covered with arborist chips, it won't show.

Eventually, the fenced garden will have renewed pathways throughout. I'm doing one area at a time.

The white stuff, barely visible in the photo on that raised bed, is crushed eggshell. I save them and use them to amend the soil to correct calcium deficiency. I think they also improve drainage and provide some nitrogen. Mixed into the soil, they become invisible.

Here are apple tree prunings that I hadn't cleaned up yet. I think it's deer that chewed off the bark. But maybe, rabbits or voles



That's all for today. I was happy to complete a cleanup project that has been eating at my mind for a while.

 

Just did the usual pasture check ..found a few ground disturbances nothing challenging and no scat from wild animals. The pastures are so clean you could eat off the ground .
Oops spoke to soon in my glee to wrap it up and enjoy the sunny day..until I mowed to the east pasture and a tree fell across the entire east side hit the fence.
The winds this week have been up to 60mph and huge gusts up here on top of the mountain. The positive side the wind blew all the debris off the roof.
So.. Got Buzy..Used my battery op chain saw and stripped all the smaller side branched off first. Loaded them up for a trip to the non-burn pile. Then worked my way thru larger sections until the fence was free. Then took the separate smaller sections of the trunk to the pile. Tomorrow’s another day to finish cleaning up . It was a 65’ filbert tree. No more squirrels…. Nature’s cleaning up the critters food for me. No pics of the mess, I’m too tired. I think my whole body is complaining now. This is how I keep in shape who needs a gym? Right !

Excellent … and a job well done Daniel. It’s always a load off the limitless list of garden jobs when a ‘biggie’ project is finally accomplished. I use a lot of crushed hazelnut shells for pathways and larger chips 3”-4” redwood chips they don’t break down as fast as smaller types. Last time I put them down was about ten years ago and it time for another application. UGH !

 

Those sound good. I only use arborist chips because I have a couple of mountains of them.

Too bad about the hazelnut tree.

I have a battery mini-chain saw now too. Handy. I'm still scared I'll cut a finger off with the battery pruner. It cuts inch-thick wood, instantly.

No trees down here yet. Some of the timber bamboo fell over. That happens every year. The roots are so shallow, and the bamboo must be thirty feet tall. It's handy to have, though, and the hens like it.

 

I think they're ever bearing, I usually pick them throughout the summer months and into fall after school has started back. I usually prune them in late October/early November.

 

When I first started adding walkways / paths for the garden I also used a lot of pea gravel over weed barrier cloth and placed stepping stones . It has worked the best of all the different techniques tried. Never replaced any of it in 25 years. During winter the wind currents blow weed seeds in on the gravel areas then it’s easy pullin , the weed barrier cloth blocks the roots from growing deep. The only sections in the entire garden where ground squirrels, gophers and moles have not made a single attempt to breach those areas.

Wood chips are handy to have around especially for different projects. I used the chips from the trimmings of our trees up on the burm this year across the front pasture where small blooming trees and shrubs are planted. Generally the wild blackberries are a huge issue. The birds help with spreading the Himalayan wild blackberries pop up everywhere. This season hoping to eliminate most of them , a constant trim now until it dries out enough to use the tractor bucket to dig them up …. Again.

 

Willow— well if they are ever-bearing ones, then it is a bit late for the november pruning as you said. It puts the bush in a strange time. My feeling is that you ought to prune now because it fruits on new growth, doesn’t it. I just do not know.

 

That's amazing! It's great you found her.

 

The air was damp and the ground wet, but dry enough to do some wisteria pruning.
This was the one that need the most work.




Over time, the heads get too many branches on them.








I thinned them out, removing some of the older wood and branches that were growing towards the fence.


These three needed quite a bit of pruning, particular those branches that wanted to grow "skywards." I also tied down some of the "cascading" branches to a wire I strung between the pergola posts. I'll remove the wires in the spring once there's a fair bit of growth on the trailing ones.




This didn't need much work, but I did require a ladder.




This is the last one I did today, just the two over the pergola on the back of the house yet to be done.




Got my garden vac. out and had a good clear up of more leaves. I started at 1.00pm but by 3.00pm it was starting to get dark, so I called it a day.

 

Daniel— well doesn’t that look smart. You are such a wise chap with how you garden.
I would be willing to bet the limb nibbling is down to rabbits. Many folks here wrap their very young trees and bushes to prevent the rabbit gnawing. They know no moderation.

I know what you mean about pruning. I have a simple pair of sécateurs and this fall with the cold weather, I managed to cut deeply into the end of my thumb didn’t I. I never felt a thing but noticed an enormous amount of blood on the twigs all of a sudden. Ot much to see now, some weeks later. Lucky it was cold (so that it didn’t bleed too much) but stupid of me clipping with bare hands. Sometimes I have to scratch my head and ask myself what I have between my ears.

Pac— you are keeping busy aren’t you. No rest for the wicked they say. Chortle.

Riley—You have done a proper pruning job there. Very tidy.
I am afraid that my work doesn’t look that tidy; however, I have to prune those branches off that would like to lie in the guttering or worm up under the roof tiles.
Again—chapeau, mate.