What have you done today in the Garden?

Great harvest @Melody Mc.

 

Thank you Logan.

 

Transplanted baby Hostas, to give away. Made a bunch more seed packs (I dont even know who Im going to give them to). All the bulb bags I made, I put bows on them and made them look pretty, to give away.
I watched the wild life for a while. I still need to decide where Im going to put my Elderberry bush.
I need to get into my Hosta bed, and divide them. They are huge and are pushed up against the house. That chore has me grumbling, I know they are going to be tough to divide.
BBQ'ed steak and wings.

 

Spent three hours today, mostly tidying up the wisterias, apart from pruning off dozens of new branches that can grow several inches a night I removed a lot of "bunching" foliage. What I removed nearly filled the green bin.

There's two here that cross in the middle, so there's "bunching" of new branches and foliage at each end of the pergola. I prefer an even distribution along its length so I removed a lot. There'll be a bit more thinning out between Christmas and New Year to keep it tidy.






With this one, it wants to grow out towards the lawn so I removed a few "clumps" that were growing out too far. I also took my lopper to some of the lower branches of next door's trees that were hanging over the fence.






Here there's three wisterias, they want to grow out over the garage and were producing too many branches for the "cascade" so I removed a few. There'll be more to thin out at the end of the year if the look like they won't produce any blooms.






This one just needed a few branches removed that were trying to grow up the wall. As I've pruned off a few dozen over the year, when I do the main prune I anticipate that we'll get a lot of blooms next year.






This one was spreading out too far, so I cut it back a bit.

The little acer in front of it will get another bit of a prune tomorrow






With all the wisterias I pruned off the straggly second blooms that you get this time of the year. They just make more work when the blossom falls.

I put off mowing the lawn for a couple of weeks until we were over the worst of the dry spell and we had some rain, so today was the ideal time.

 

Fig harvest. These are "Desert King".



Other fig trees had a lot too.



I made fig jam. Very tasty.



Also pureed and froze enough for five batches of fig bars.

 

Some flowers today.





Alstroemerias are reblooming

 

Today had all of my spring bulbs arrive so put them in the garage in large seed trays, it's cool in there.
Watered the polyanthus and the pots, did some deadheading.

 

Another three hours today.
Picked the fruit off the quinces on the side fence. I do this before they fall, beats trying to fish them out from between the rhodos and azaleas. There's never many, as once they've bloomed I start pruning the new growth back to stop it shading the rhodos and azaleas. They go straight into the green bin.





Did the worst job of this time of the year. Cleared all the dead leaves and weeds under everything in this border.
There's enough room between the planting and the back fence to walk along. But it's a hands and knees job with garden gloves and a bucket... well....several buckets, then the same job along the front and finish off with the garden vac. So worth it.







Gave my jukeboxes a "good work out," whilst I was out there. They need use to keep everything working. If I played every side available, at 3 minutes a side there's about 13 hours of music available. But an hour or so on each machine with a few "B sides" to make sure their mechanics get used is enough.

 

Nice fig harvest, Daniel. You also showed good processed fruits. How did you figger out how and what to do with them?
Those flowers of yours really are to die for.

Riley, your garden looks it manicured best. Remarkable.

I headed out this morning to go into the bees. Whew, what a hot job that was. They are looking so good. I saw both queens, there was quite a bit of brood in all stages. The building and laying of eggs is beginning to diminish as it should be at this time of year. The numbers of bees is still quite high.

I also chopped down some spent flowers and tied others up.

Now then, the toms— the tots have been eating them. Leaving toms half eaten, then moving on other ones. This meant that the outside tom plants had to be covered with netting.

It was actually, to hot and sunny for these types of jobs, but they had to be done. That’s the hobby.

Finally, the bean wigwams had to come down. I shall leave them lie for a couple of days, then roll those plants up and sow-in green manure.


After such a morning, the clock was approaching 15.00 hours— teatime at home.

 

mowed, the lawn and part of pastures, set 4 gopher traps…they are everywhere.
Trimmed A few over grown shrubs, picked up the large tree trimmings to big to mulch and tied to tractor took them to the burn pile and sprayed the darn weeds… cleaned up the mess from the squirrels…..OMG…
This was a 3 day work out. I’m pooped. Lucky the weather has been mild. Sending good vibes to all.

 

These are amazing photos!!
Weeded the front, under the fence, those weeds are brutal. Turned the mulch, so it would look a little better. This took hours, there was a lot to do. Got sunburned.
Planted some coneflower in the fields, I have so much seed, I needed to spread the love.
Transplanted Gladiolus bulbs, and planted my Rose of Sharon.
Started digging a hole for my Elderberry, its going to be a big hole, its in a 5 gallon bucket. Its in a semi rocky place, and its hard to get through the rock.
Took a lot of morning pictures.
I ended up falling asleep on the couch, dirty and completely spent. Great workout today!

 

Pruned the apple and pear super column trees, cut back the ivy that's growing over our back wall from the other side, put it all on the ground and i'll move it tomorrow, think i'll put it in the compost bins.

 

Sjoerd, thanks for the flowers compliment.

I usually make fig jam. The recipe is included in the pectin package. I have a recipe for fig bar cookies that uses re-hydrated dried figs. Im trying that today with the puree. It might not be as good. I had to make lots of changes because the fresh fig puree is soupy and not as richly flavored as the dried figs. I added starch as a thickener, and rum flavoring. It's cooling now. We like fruit salads in the summer. Fresh figs also go into those. If I miss some and they go bad, the chickens and ducks like them.

One can only eat so many. I left a big bowl full at the free clinic where I volunteer.

Today we picked the last of the blueberries. I made a pie and froze pie fillings for two more.

 

@Sjoerd, I love looking at your kitchen garden. It seems like the best a garden can be.

I had visitors today.


They are why I have fencing around my main garden. And why trees have no leaves below six feet. And why there are certain things can't be grown. I accept them now as part of the world where I live for a while.

 

Daniel, very nice capture!