What have you done today in the Garden?

We had a frost last night.. Oct 1st! out frost date is mid Oct and every year we get it earlier and earlier. Good thing I covered the beans. I sprayed off the tomatoes in the high tunnel as it looked like there was frost on a few of them in a few spots. and this afternoon I sprayed the cucumbers... they have aphids. second crop to have them. so tired of the pests.

 

I picked Kale. Surprise. The Cabbage moth worms have attacked without my knowing and in spite of garlic spray.

 

I am gradually putting the gardens to bed. I heeled in a bunch of the pots of herbs, hostas & daylilies on my back stoop, spread compost on various beds ad then headed out to the community garden.
There I generally cleaned up the garden. I still have beets, basil, beans, swiss chard, kale, bok choi and lettuce producing. An occasional tomato, but this year's crop has been spectacularly bad. A fellow community gardener took pity on me and gave me some of hers. I roasted them & put them in the freezer. Kitchen smells great.

The good news is that we have mulch gradually decomposing at the community garden. I had wrangled 2 dump truck loads of wood/bark chips from the town highway guys last spring. (This actually took great effort, strange as that sounds). Mother nature is taking its course & the piles are gradually becoming mulch/compost. Great stuff.

 

tomato production was spectacularly bad here, too. I didn't sell tomatoes by the bushel this year.

 

Carolyn, we have tomatoes only for eating.
Today we did a lot of cleanup. I picked all the remaining green peppers off and froze a quart. Also picked quite a few green tomatoes and will pick the remaining this week. I want it cleaned up before cold sets in.

 

Y next job is to start the outside cleanup
Plant cover crop and get the greenhouses to ready for spring.

 

Finished getting the 17 houseplants that summer outside cleaned up and ready to go back indoors. In the past week, I applied a systemic insecticide to the soil and timely rains watered that in. One by one, I inspect each plant and spray with an insecticide. I like to let that dry well before moving them in (with a little help from good old Bob) I like to get this chore done well before the furnace is on, and the windows can still be open so the plants aren’t going through too much shock. I realized the 3 Weeping Figs really put on a lot of growth! The house is full of green now!

 

Kay, are your insecticides harmful to bees, butterflies, birds?

 

I don’t use these products on my plants outdoors. It is one application in the fall before I move them in my house. So it doesn’t affect birds or insects in my case.

 

Kay, I'm so glad you're a caring person. I get a little overzealous about saving the pollinators.

 

Lots of harvesting every day and a bit of weeding. I have been transplanting strawberries and chard and leeks. We are getting more and more beans and aubergines, peppers and tomatoes. Courgettes are slowing down a bit. All this will end abruptly with the first frosts. Winter veg are starting to come in. Brocolli cauliflower and cabbage. We have lettuces daily.

 

Odif, your garden is a bit more prolific than mine.
Today I took out the last tomato plants. Picked Kale. Cabbage moths had tried their best to raise a new family on the Kale patch. Some damage was done, but I picked enough for a half quart frozen.
I'm actually ready to close the garden down this year. I think I over-extend my plots. In 2018 I will plant less and give more care to it.

 

Growingpains, I have done over 1000 hours work in my gardens this year. This year I grew more produce than ever before. Next year my goal is to cultivate 10 times the surface area. To do this I will get myself a motoculter and I will automize my watering.

 

I have organized a rototill/garden clean-up day tomorrow at the community garden. The community part of the garden has fallen into a bit of disrepair: the electrified fence has not worked since I joined 3 years ago, the chicken wire fencing is rusting out, and we lost our mowing person who kept the paths in shape. In short, the community garden is looking neglected. I guess it is more than just looking that way, it actually is.

Amazingly, the critters still seem to think the electric fence is working! They give the garden a wide berth. All except the bunnies. We are having problems with Peter Rabbit finding rusted holes in the chicken wire fencing.

So tomorrow we will be weed whacking, mowing, rototilling, fence examining, and closing down our gardens for winter. We are supposed to have a cool but sunny day; perfect for garden work. Hopefully we will get a lot done.