What have you done today in the Garden?

Not a lot to do in the back garden today.
The leaves on this acer are starting to shrivel and fall.





This one is still holding on.






The leaves on this wisteria are beginning to turn. I'll give it a week or so and then strip them.





The others will be later.





Cleared a second lot of fallen leaves from the big acer in the front garden. In a couple of weeks, I'll be able to see where to start pruning to reduce the canopy by six inches or more all round. I do this every year.

 

Things are coming along over there, so to see. My Wisteria is already loosing yellowish leaves.

 

Had other things on today but I did manage to finally do one job that I've wanted to do for ages.
We have a heavy pottery tub by our gate and last year apart from a brief show of some Campanulas it was mostly ( ashamed to say ) a display of weeds. Today I finally got to empty it out, clean it and refilled it with fresh potting mix ready to plant out with..............something.

 

A little bit of fall work.

Added wood chip mulch to the border section that I've been working on.

Smoothed the soil for the former squash garden area that will be lawn soon. Sowed grass seed and clover seed there.

There were also two areas on the front lawn, where pavers were piled up, and soil piled up, from the new sidewalk construction. The pavers and soil have been gone for a few months. After some rain, those areas are soft. So I raked them smooth and sowed grass seed and clover seed there, too.

I had been waiting for fall rainy season to begin. Soon, those areas will blend into surrounding lawn.

I think that next year I'll set up some tall trellises to grow winter squashes. I've been watching videos about that. I think they should be smaller or medium sized varieties.

 

Mowed the pastures and sprayed for dandelions. Spotted two opening in the soil in the pastures. Marked with a flag and patted down the mounds. Odd areas small mounds each single mound out in the middle of nowhere no tunnel connect. Could be voles?

There were trails and trails of all types of mushrooms that were poppin up following the gopher/mole tunnels. They were everywhere. Never seen so many mushrooms… poisonous of course. Hated to run over them with the mower they are so pretty glistening in the sunshine.

Strange to spot the bobcat again out in the neighbors pasture. The mower scared him off .
Fixed my flat tires on the garden rider mower. Used the Green Slime product. It really worked . Not sure for how long . Beats 2 flat tires every day. Ran the mower all afternoon not a sign of a tire problem. Also mulched leaves and blackberries.

It was a nice day for mowing. Ground is damp so no dust to deal with. I did change the filter on the carburetor it was full of dust from summer mowing. In Jan will have to take it to the John Deere service center for total maintenance. I have put a lot of mileage on it this season. So much mileage in fact my caboose area stationed on the mower seat could swear I could have driven to Seattle and back on the mower.

 

It took two days to remove the grass and weeds from that one flower bed, but it looks good now.

I have most of the walnuts picked up and got 17 bags from that one tree.. (I just re-use the plastic sacks from cat litter or pet food. They come in handy for lots of things.) I want to pick up walnuts from one other tree when I can. The squirrels can have the rest.

I use all the leaves I can in my flower beds and vegetable garden and containers. They make great compost. Sometimes I mulch some of them if I have time. Sometimes I get extra leaves when a friend rakes the ones at church. He usually burns them before I get a chance. I sent him a text to ask for them.

We had frost three or four nights last week, so many things are done for the season.

I did not do much yesterday, I was just lazy. Actually, I worked all morning at my church Community Center, and was a bit tired.

I finally figured out what to do with certain vegetables that kind friends give me from their gardens. I am a bit of a picky eater, so some vegetables I don't care to eat. I cooked them and fed them to my dogs. They are not picky eaters. They gobbled them all down this morning and are looking for more.

I remembered where I planted those new chives, so hopefully they will grow.

I need to get a few more things planted for fall, and do a lot more weeding, harvest the spent zinnias and marigolds, and take out those plants. Some of my cosmos are still blooming and look good. They got super large.

I spent one day last week tending my house plants...I have some more of that to do when I get there.

 

Did some more weeding in another border and dug up a lot of hardy geraniums that seed all over.

 

@Logan hardy geraniums are a really tough plant. They have a motto similar to the mailman. Thru rain, sleet and snow they will always deliver.

I brought in the geraniums in pots and cleaned out the dead material added a touch of water and plopped them in the laundry room to over winter. Watered the Amaryllis after repotting some have already sent up a tiny bud.

Cleaned off the porches with the leaf blower. Mulched more leaves. It was a bit chilly out so I didn’t stay outside very long. Need to dig out my longjohn’s. Time to start layering up our garden wear and heavy socks. UG!

 

I was too tired. Grumpy old man did nothing outside.

 

Sometimes we just need to take a rest. Hopefully you will feel better tomorrow @Daniel W

I did finally work those philodendron cuttings. I have two mason jars crammed with nice cuttings, and I tossed a lot of not so good ones. I put them in the front rooms so the cats cannot get them. The kitchen window would be good, but kittens get into everything.

I pulled some peppermint plants to share with a friend. I will pull more tomorrow, and work on more weeding. Some of my lilies have escaped, so I will dig them for sharing also. Maybe I will try some raking tomorrow? There are many leaves down, but most are still in the trees.

It is bone dry and not safe to burn any brush for now. I am waiting on the rains so I can burn brush again, and dig up some elderberries for my 2 friends. There were red flag warnings last week. (I will make elderberry cuttings around January again...)

Some of my cosmos are still blooming. The zinnias and marigolds are almost done. My asparagus ferns look really pretty. One of my hostas has some new blooms.




who needs a gym when you have a garden.

no wonder we get tired.

 

Nothing yesterday we were out for the day and also had a Dental check up and today I'm out with a friend. Desperately hoping for a weekend out in the garden.

@Daniel W there's nothing wrong with taking time away from the garden or any other tasks around the home. We use to work like beavers in our garden ...daily. We decided over a year ago that although the garden is still important.. so were we too. We wanted to have time together going out and doing things. Like everyone we spent years raising our family and both going out to work and having little time for ourselves but now retirement has given us the gift of precious time to enjoy each others company once again. We explore places nearby deciding to look at the historical places we are very fortunate to have around us through the eyes of a tourist.....it's surprised us just how much we took our beautiful surroundings for granted and have learnt so much! We also go out for lunch twice a week too so nice to not have to cook.

Yes our garden is looking a tad unruly in places but with Hubs reoccurring heart issues kicking off again it just drove home the fact that time isn't guaranteed and we must grab every opportunity to enjoy it together... now.

 

@Daniel W Sending good vibes your way. Tomorrow’s another day.

@AAnightowl I agree gardening is a good body workout. Look at me I got a lot of good will to complete several tasks a day. Just not today. Ah well tomorrow’s another day.

Today trimmed more crossing branches off 5 magnolia trees. Now where do I put all the branches? Worry about that later. Ah well tomorrow’s another day.

Mowed the south pasture and no signs of deer , or the young roaming bobcat , insects, birds or ground critters. It was really quiet . Not even a mouse. Ah well tomorrow's another day.

I fixed the mulcher door on the mower deck which wouldn’t stay closed and mulched more leaves. It worked for a little while. Ah well tomorrow’s another day.


@Oreti Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.

 

Nothing this morning as I had chores and shopping to do.

But this afternoon I decided to get into the big acer in the front garden and give it its annual haircut. I chose now, as it will have time to recover before the frosts. They tend to bleed a bit but it'll be OK.
It may need a bit more work, just a tiny bit of evening up . But I'll do that over the week-end. It looks a bit lopsided but it isn't I photographed it at an angle.

It doesn't look that much different from the previous photo, but I took up to a foot off it all the way round. What came off filled the green bin, which was only emptied yesterday.




As a job, it's a chore. I use my Barnel telescopic pruner for thinner branches and a Fiskas extending tree lopper for thicker ones.
It gets uncomfortable after an hour as you are constantly craning your neck looking up and the tools get heavy.

 

@Doghouse Riley a perfect circle . Using telescope type pruners is hard on the shoulders and neck. Just need to finish up some magnolia trees had trimmed yesterday. Used the long telescope pruners with small chainsaw for large limbs and tele pruners for smaller limbs. Tricky job for sure.

 

AA— great info chart. Chuckle…there may be truth to that.

Oreti— you are too right about making your time count.