What have you done today in the Garden?

@Melody Mc. it's sad about that willow tree. I know how you feel.

Different situation, but I didn't like taking out the row of firs, pines, and spruce about 20 feet from the house. But with wildfires here every couple of years, that was a hazard I couldn't live with. Fortunately, the roses and chickens are happy with the sunshine there now.



Today I added a 1/2 inch line to water the squashes. Tomorrow, the 1/4 inch lines and emitters. It's a bit late, we'll see how they do.

Checked on the figs. Installed yellow jacket traps. Those yellow jackets will completely destroy a fig crop, if they have a chance.


Thinned apples, and installed organza bags on about 50. I'll keep going until I run out of bags. Take that, coddling moths!! These were mostly some Liberty, North Pole, Rubinette, and Jonagold. This is an "on year" for Jonagold, and there is nothing that compares to home-ripened Jonagold apples. Well, maybe home ripened CosmicCrisp, or Rubinette, or Gravenstein, or....

Cleaned up some flower boxes and planted marigold plants that I started a few weeks ago.

Im very happy with the sauce tomato plants, so far.



Also happy with the"potato farm".



Pears look promising for canning two or three batches this year.



Finally a lot of the hardest work and catch- up are winding down. Just in time - I see sweet cherries are starting to ripen on the trees.

 

Figs, toms and spuds are all looking good, Daniel.
Your flowery border looks mighty good and richly planted.

Mate, can’t you cover your figs with some fine-mesh netting? I have to cover my apples every season for that same reason

 

Had a thunderstorm yesterday and a lot of rain but it didn't go through very much.
This morning at 8am did a bit more planting of cosmos and 2 lupins, it's too hot now to do anything else.

 

Sjoerd, if my memory is correct, I tried that one year and the yellow jackets got in anyway. My memory might be wrong.

For apples, I use organza bags that are sold on Amazon for wedding gifts.



They are cheap, very easy and quick to install, and can be washed (gently) and reused a few times. They work for coddling moths and some other insects, and confuse some of the birds. Birds can also be an issue with figs.

I bought bags that were made and sold for protecting fruit, but they were difficult to install.

It's a good thing I don't have to do that for potatoes . It would be difficultvto put them on LOL. Although voles get a few of those every year.

I get stung every year by yellow jackets. It's usually because they have hollowed out a pear or apple that I brush against or step on. I don't like them one bit. No sir, I don't like them at all.

 

@Daniel W _ I don't blame you one bit. I remember your mug shot last summer with your boxers eye from the Yellow Jackets. They are mean little monsters.

I bought similiar bags for my tomatoes, to keep out the earwigs later in the summer. I also am trying smaller ones for my strawberries this year. I lose over half to slugs, beetles and lygus bugs. I found some lygus nypmhs yesterday sucking on the green berry seeds while I was mulching with leaves and pine needles. It was a bit tedious putting them over the fruit clusters, and maybe they will still get in, but I'm optomistic.....or maybe it is hopeful.

Today was a long hot town day at 34 C. |It feels so much hotter in town with the pavement. When I returned it was watering the peppers and tomatoes, as well as the Golden Hubbard squash and one bed of corn. I made a clean spot by weeding the sweet onions yesterday.....so now my OCD is raging and I hope to weed a little every day. Even ten minutes will help. Then it was time to mow as much as I could before it got too hot and I'm too tired. Hubby showed interest so we mustered him onto the lawn tractor. He is out there with a big smile having a bash at the tall grass.

We have a cold front coming tomorrow, bringing thunder storms and rain. My temp is exptected to drop to 9 C by tomorrow afternoon and then have a low of 0. It is not very effective to cover plants with wet remay that freezes to them, so I will be trying to tent and stake. I hope it stops raining early enough ( before dark) that I can cover, otherwise it will be by headlamp.

Fresh lettuce, spinach, asparagus and chives were picked for dinner. I loved passing by the $5.99 yucky lettuce in the produce department today and steering clear of the 17.99 a kg "fresh" asparagus

 

Gotcha Daniel. Your bagging trick must work a treat. They look like just the ticket to me. Too bad the netting did not work for you.

I use Enviromesh or white curtains from the Goodwill. It is all about the fineness of the mesh. Of course I am just a cheapskate at heart and go for the most inexpensive materials.

You sure made me laugh as I considered the subterranean challenges bagging the tubers would present.

Mel— you are harvesting some good stuff regularly now. That is such good news to hear. You made a good comment about how you smugly passed by high-priced veg in the shop and picked your own things for tonight’s meal. What a great feeling, right?

 

Just trimming all the rhody’s , azaleas. Will let them dry a bit then mow over the trimmings with the mulcher mower…the trimmings disappear and fertilize the lawn. And still clearing out Himalayan invasive blackberries. The birds plop the seeds everywhere.
https://conservationdistrict.org/2017/october-invasive-weed-of-the-month-blackberry.html

 

An early morning start worked out great today. I finished weeding the onions, finished filling in the trench on the leeks and potatoes, weeded the larger bed of corn, the Gold Nugget Squash and Zucchini Squash The squash and corn needed a hand watering ( hoping for rain today). I weeded and thinned the lower gardens carrots ( 3 x 20 ft rows) , the beets ( 1x 20 ft) as well as the romaine lettuce. I planted another handful of romaine.

The upper garden had two spent rows of spinach removed, and two more rows planted.

I decided to not rush into spreading the newly discovered compost on the gardens. Instead I'm going to do a Bioassay and be sure it is not contaminated. Herbicide contamination is such a struggle here still. I potted some green bush beans for the bioassay and will wait for them to sprout. Fingers crossed that they are healthy.

@Sjoerd - the mesh fabric worked so so so well on the broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. I lifted it to adjust for the plants growth, and once I finish weeding I'll place it back down to prevent cabbage moths. I did not lose one plant to voles this spring Sjoerd. What a gift Thank you my friend. I'll be placing some over the carrots and beets as well within the next couple of days. Once the voles and mice find the sweet veggies, it is a loss of tragic proportions. I did allow enough room between rows to hill them, which also helps. But I'm very optomistic that the secured mesh will go a long ways to helping. I layed logs around the plants on top of the mesh with no gaps to secure them.

 

Mel— mate, I am over the moon for you and your success. That is such good news. I use fruit tree poles to hold the mesh down on mine. It sounds like you have a good solution as well.
Yeah…I am tickled pink.

 

Overcast and misting out this morning. Have so much clean up from purging several area in the garden of invasive plant and just neglected areas …. Still need to get the roof scupper cleaned out. Well..tomorrow is another day…

 

The garden's survived the cold front last night. It only dropped to 2 C, not the expected 0. This morning was removing the frost covers and hanging them on the paddock rails. I was cursing my knit mittens - I should have worn gloves. They were soaked early into the process. The smoke is heavier today, so outside time will be limited and not exertive. I will pick some spinach for a neighbour, and hopefully collect some cuttings from her Saskatchewan Saskatoons when I drop the spinach off.

 

The roses look very beautiful! It's funny how plants change with more or less sunlight. The large birch we took down last year opened up a lot, and the white lilac that always struggled has grown two feet this spring. Next summer it should be quite pretty.

This is my task for the next week. The branches are so brittle that even lifting them breaks them off. I'm not going to enjoy this. hahaha BUT the gardener in me ( you will be able to appreciate this Daniel) says ....."hmmmm....I could root these! " Already two trips in the truck so that I can access the pump shack - it's going to take a bit. But there is no rush. The remaining top will have to wait until I have some help.

 

Raining so nothing will be going on today.

 

Nothing other than give the acers a spray when I came home from golf this afternoon.

I couldn't see *Bunty in her nest and Bert wasn't on the TV aerial. So I got the step-stool out and checked. The nest was empty. So I guess her brood had fledged.
I imagine they left early this morning and they're all in the azaleas and rhodos. So after doing the week's shop tomorrow morning, I'll be able to get into the wisteria to finish pruning off the blossom spines and a lot of unwanted new growth, before watching the USA Open Golf on TV later in the afternoon.
It's all go, innit?

* I started calling her Dorothy, but my wife told me she'd already named her Bunty, as she's the other half of Bert. the bossy blackbird.

 

That might be good for making bags to cover clusters of grapes. The birds eat more grapes than I do!