What have you done today in the Garden?

@Daniel W , do you have any local friends to share extra plants with? I usually do that with my extra house and garden plants.

I did get those elderberry bushes dug up today for my friends. I have them in buckets of water until I can catch up with my friends.

 

Today was a nice day. I had plans to do shrub and a little tree trimming, cut a few small ends off the pines so the limbs would pop back up and remove needles clogged along several branches. I placed a couple of tarps under a 35’ row of evergreen shrubs. Cut them back a few inches . All the clippings landed on the tarps. Dragged the tarps to the pasture and dumped the clippings. Will mulch up tomorrow .
There were needles to clean up from a wind storm and natural needle drop yearly. Used the rake & leaf blower to clean out some needles and pile along the outer edge of the garden next to the pasture to mulch tomorrow. Blew the needles and leaves down the driveway sitting on my tractor while driving down the driveway. It’s a long drive.
Cut off a few dead small limbs using the telescope chain saw . Dragged several small limbs to one pile tied them all together and tied the branches to the tractor and dragged them to a pile in the south pasture. More left to trim.
Well… tomorrow is another day.

 

Nothing today it's still drizzling, been like that for 3 days now, even though we're not supposed to have any rain.

 

Out this morning but plan to dig up the Dahlias that I've tagged for needing removal ( will rehome in Spring.).
Can't hang around anymore for them to get frosted so today's the day. I will then begin to weed and tidy up the central border and mulch up for the Winter.

 

I cleaned up a raised bed. That's four down, three to go.

i culled a couple of mini apple trees to make room for next year's squash trellis.

Pruned the first of the apple trees.

More border cleanup. I've made a lot of progress, late summer and fall. Still more to do.

 

Indoor garden

Schlumbergeras are blooming more. Most still have a lot of buds to open.





Poinsettias. Gradually developing colorful bracts.



This one is quite a bit slower to develop. Variegated. I bought thus one last year, so I don't know yet what to expect.



Sage plant. This was a cutting this summer, from a very old plant. I didn't know if it would grow, but there it is.



Spanish lavender, also from cuttings taken this summer. It has roots emerging from the drainage holes now.



About 3/4 of the xeric border next year will be starts I took myself, or grew from seeds, or rescued from older plants.

 

Beautiful blooms @Daniel W Your bringing the sunshine inside. Looks like pictures right out of a magazine.
Great starts for lavender and sage.
I see poinsettias, geraniums, amaryllis too.

 

Everything is looking good @Daniel W

 

Good workDaniel. It looks like you are going to have some very nice plants for that dry garden. Dis you say that you will use some Lantana as well?
Keep up the good work. I can hardly wait to see it.

 

Same clean up, trim, chop and mulch, mow…

 

Those flowers are all pretty everyone.

Nothing today, but I refigured my rainfall from last week, and I had over 15 inches of rain last sunday and Monday. My 5 gallon buckets were overflowing.

I did get wood chips hauled to my wild black raspberry patch, and other plants in the garden. I hope to haul more tomorrow, and work on my strawberries tomorrow. I did not have time yesterday to do anything.

We have more rain today, but not so much thankfully.

 

I pruned two pear trees





The idea is to keep fruit bearing branches short so they can't droop to within deer height, also high enough to avoid deer, but low enough for me to manage without a ladder. It's OK if there isn't much fruit.

This is a persimmon slice. Juicy and sweet.



This is the tree it came from. Eight years old. It doesn't get much care.



While I was pruning, Sparkie came over to play with Rufus. They both had a blast.



I did some vegetable garden cleanup.

That left me feeling knackered. I'm also chuffed about the progress so far.

 

I did get to work outdoors most of the day. I hauled two loads of wood chips to two of my strawberry beds. I removed the strawberry plants, and trimmed the stolons and dead parts off. After adding leaves and wood chips filling them to the top, I replanted them. I put about 20 in the one bed, and 6 in the smaller bed, and 6 in another container, and mulching them with straw. I still had over 35 plants, and had to put them in with my wild black raspberries. I have other strawberry plants elsewhere and will get to them when I can. I wanted the strawberries to get more sun. I think the soil had sunk too low for them to get enough sun. I am trying to get my garden rabbit proofed.

When I did that and some weeding, I dug up a T post and made the hole bigger for a 4x4 because I am swapping out 2 T posts for 4x4s to use the T posts for my tomato tunnel for spring. I will plant tomatoes and cukes on that tunnel in the spring. I have those lattice pieces from that thing my son is taking down, maybe they will keep rabbits out of that section?

The volunteer dill looks great. And there are 2 volunteer pea plants from peas I missed last summer. Actually, there is another one elsewhere too. I put tomato cages for the 2 pea plants, and will take care of the other one tomorrow I hope. The red beets are perked up since we had so much rain, and there is some lettuce growing almost big enough to enjoy some. A lettuce sandwich sounds good.

There is a butternut squash that I missed, but it is not yet ripe and the vine looks good, so maybe it will ripen before it freezes here.

I was able to put that T post I removed into its new spot without using the pounder. That is how soggy things are here.

I need to work outdoors tomorrow, but I ALSO need to work on those 2 aprons I promised to make for a friend. I picked out some fabric in colors she likes. Guess I will do that first thing in the morning.

 

@Willowisp I did not forget you. Those seeds have not yet ripened. As soon as I find them ripened, I will pop them in the mail to you.

 

It was a nice day . Dug out the big tractor and used the bucket to pull up some stuck T posts I’ve been trying to dig out all summer. Then used the bucket to push up this seasons tree branches into a tight compost pile and used the tractor bucket to push back some blackberry brambles back across 150’ x 20’. Hope I don’t see them back til 2026.
Another day leaf duty . Cleaned up the She Shed and found a pair of sunglasses I lost ages ago. Eureka the spendy ones all in one piece and still good.
And clipped back the Virginia creeper.