What have you done today in the Garden?

It's been a busy week here, wrapping things up before winter.

The deer have rediscovered my strawberry patch. I'm having a lot of success with the cheap nylon pea netting - they don't like the feel of it and can't easily maneuver it. It saved my memory garden, beans and haskaps this year. Today I recycled some to keep the straw-babies safe until the snow arrives.

The last of the leaves were packed into a giant grain bag. The Haskaps were restaked and supported so that the netting can take some snow load. I mowed Angus' pen and around the squash before winterizing the mower and putting it away. And Nadine the scarecrow came out to winter in the garden stable.

 

I hauled a few loads of wood chips to the compost and a few containers yesterday, and 4 more loads this afternoon. I hope to move the rest of it ASAP, because there is a mimosa full of seeds near it. Those seeds are a pest. Guess I will work on that pile again tomorrow. If the winds die down, I will get back at the leaves. The oaks are always slow dropping them; but most trees are close to bare.

We have had very high winds yesterday and today, so it was no use trying to rake dry leaves.

 

Did some more weeding in the border along the drive, planted the last of the polyanthus in there.

 

I have done most of garden maintenance yesterday because weather will be rainy and extremely soggy all week.
I did the daily mulching , mowing and mulching around the garden and pastures, and other details in preparation for winter. Put out a systemic under tree varieties that attract gypsy moth and leaf miners.

Most water faucets were wrapped in bubble wrap then covered with faucet covers. Drained the water pipe to the garden water system then turned the water off for the garden which is a separate pipe that feeds the garden hoses but does not go thru the home filtration system.The garden seems to like all the added minerals in the well water. Not the appliances so much..

As I was mowing the pastures and checking for ground squirrels, moles, gophers and deer, no sign of any critters. Alleluia …
But I did notice the last few weeks that the pastures are literally full of different types of mushrooms everywhere that seem to follow all the mole tunnels. Quite an odd phenomenon never seen any mushrooms out in the pastures before except in the horses pile.

Pics of mushrooms following the mole tunnels. Took pics before I squished them all. We never eat any mushrooms that pop up anywhere around here or in the woods, and we get some huge doozies around here, 6-10” caps.
And I found some interesting facts about why they follow mole tunnels to share .



Why mushrooms grow over mole tunnels ??? This is what google found.
Hyphae are the feathery filaments that make up multicellular fungi. They release enzymes and absorb nutrients from a food source. These mushrooms specifically colonize mole latrines near nests, forming ectomycorrhizas with the roots of their host tree. (This explains why moles are constantly crowded around the cherry trees along the pastures) . The hyphae and roots absorb, transform, and translocate the nutrients from mole excretions, cleaning the mole's habitat.

Well what ya know ! Its natures latrine cleaning system. Boy I could sure use one of natures helpers around the house. Very interesting. I will look at mushrooms growing in the ground a lot differently from now on. Yuck !
“Knowledge is when you learn something new every day”. Who coined that phrase? Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Hope ya all enjoyed my soap box findings today.

 

Pac, sort of midnight blue with sparkles. I said I would have almost any "mainstream color" except red, because when I had a red Mazda many years ago, drivers rear-ended me multiple times. They said they couldn't tell the difference between my brake lights and the red car color. I don't know. But this was the only color they had, other than the red one. The model is EV-6. All wheel drive.

It has lots of safety features, warnings when someones's in a blind spot, etc. The steering wheel has a warmer (nice for arthritic hands) and the seats have warmers too. Lots of stuff like that. On 110 Volt house power, it charges enough over night for about 75 miles. Faster if you use 220 Volt. Im in no hurry. Total charge is good for 310 miles.

It doesn't have engine oil or spark plugs or any other stuff like that. Maintenance in a year to rotate tires and check brake fluid and pads.

Very zippy car, too. I could see getting into trouble for accidentally speeding. I had to drive about 120 miles today for chores, it handled very nice.

 

That's so interesting! So the trees derive nutrition from mole feces via mycorrhizae!

 

Nothing getting done today as it's raining slightly. If it's dry tomorrow, I'll get into the overhanging branches of next-door's trees with my telescopic pruners.

So just a general check round.
The acer palmatums are shedding their leaves.
This one will get "its fringe" trimmed a bit when they are all off. It's retained the shape I like



This one will need more work to get it back to a more symmetrical shape. Might need a bit of wiring to encourage it to fill a couple of gaps in the canopy.




Both will have quite a number of dead lower branches to be removed. But it's the same every year. They are always replaced by new growth from the top.

Then there's the acer at the bottom of the garden.

We bought this in a pot off a stall in Altrincham market. I let it do its own thing until about ten years ago. I always called it our "Monet Acer." As it reminded me of the small figure in Monet's impressionist painting,"Sunlight Under the Poplars," which is the graphic on one of my jukeboxes.





(Before then, I always thought it was a dog, on closer inspection, it's a child).

This was it ten years ago.




Since then, I've kept it to this shape. I really like the change in colours through the year.

From, pink and pale green in the spring.





To as it is now.


It needs a lot of trimming of small branches that constantly bolt during the year and when the leaves have fallen it'll get a similar trim to the big one in the front garden, as it too gets every year to stop it getting too big.

 

Thanks for the reminder. I need to do that, soon!

 

That sounds like a good plan. I should try that too.

I had a good crop of everbearing strawberries this year, growing in containers, on the deck. I think they are too crowded. The plan is to divide them by late Spring.

 

@Doghouse Riley you have a real talent with acers,

 

It's still early, but I expect rain for the rest of the day. I need to go into town for groceries, anyway.

I did remove a fig tree from the wildfire defense zone behind the house. It was not productive, anyway. Just few figs, mostly ripening too late to be really sweet. Other varieties are much getter.

It surprised me how large and heavy it had become in fourteen years.

I also removed a kiwi vine, same age, also gigantic, which has never bloomed. and two unhealthy grapevines. I am keeping a very healthy and productive grapevine. There are a couple more that I'll remove later.

Then rain started again.

The Schlumbergeras have been pushing out lots more buds. This one is beginning to bloom.



I don't do anything special with the lighting. They just figure it out by themselves.

This poinsettia is also starting to bloom, just barely. Last year it was brilliant, so I'm hoping it will be again this year.



I also don't worry much about the lighting for these. I am careful not to turn on the lights at night, where they are.

These are typically holiday plants. For me, they are winter sunshine.

I think this Sclumbergera is next.



This year, I pruned all of them. I didn't know what would happen. But they did fine, all are covered with flower buds, and they are a bit more compact. So now I know, Schlumbergera can be pruned and they do fine with it.

 

Well yes and no. The moles actually dig out soil which has caused the mounds of soil above ground to be extremely bumpy as I cannot put miles of soil back in the tunnels in the pastures . The tunneling around the trees roots by tunneling many many areas around the roots, it’s a lot of missing soil around the roots.
With little soil for nutrients & water the trees die. I have lost several trees, shrubs & perennials to the moles digging soil out around roots and tunneling for their fav food worms/grubs. In my experience it often leads the way for gophers to join the party and chew on roots.

Not really a cymbiotic relationship as I thought . I found the tunnels around roots are very destructive. Same thing the ground squirrels do. So much soil is removed around the concrete walk they have collapsed and foundations can crack too.
The war with the squirrels, moles ,gophers, deer has definitely been peaceful for now. I really adore @Daniel W
AI gopher war pics. I real keeper.

It’s a far different story with the bobcat, and coyotes who are attracted here to hunt for the mice and voles in winters. As far as I’m concerned now that’s a Cymbiotic relationship with me.

I have already dispatched a couple mice from the house for winter. Thank goodness for dogs and cats. And the battery op flyswatter …Hehe. Zap, zap..

Metallic midnight blue is a gorgeous color. Have a great time in your new fancy car!

 

Nothing today, just doing od bits and pieces, like vacuuming and later washed my hair, tomorrow defrosting the freezer downstairs in the kitchen, that should be fun with River helping.

 

@Logan… this time of year the rainy season /cold weather starts in the PNW.
Now it’s time to turn my attention to the house . Bah Hum Bug…
Spent most of the day cleaning dog snot of the doors and windows.

Some states in the US are in the 80F nearly breaking heat records in Oct.

 

@Pacnorwest i feel for you I'd rather be in the garden. But the weather here is dry at the moment, but i need to do the freezer tomorrow, it's the best day for it. I received my tulip bulbs today so Saturday i should be able to plant them.