What have you done today in the Garden?

crossed no cold develops

 

game cameras. I assume you would have them available there at a reasonable price. We had someone set one up in our woods for hunting... Here it is a very serious offense for someone to hunt on your property without your permission. not only did this man set up his camera and hunting stand AND shoot a deer on my property just behind my house while shooting TOWARDS my house... he argued with me about whos property he was on. I am hollering at him while he is holding the gun.... I was so MAD. had he shot and killed it I wouldn't have been so mad but he only injured it and we had to track it down....and discovered he shot it with birdshot. a totally illegal deer shot shell. The game camera had 700 pictures on it of him. SELF INCRIMINATION! the camera was worth its weight in gold. the game warden downloaded all the pictures and gave me the camera.

 

What an astounding story Carolyn.
Was the man a lunatic or something? He violated the law in so many different ways.
What sort of punishment did he get in the end?

 

We cleaned Netty's garden again for her as things have taken a turn for the worse and she will give up her garden as of 1 november. So then, her garden must be cleaned and emptied before then.
We also worked a bit in our garden with the light that was left. We sneaked and harvested the first of our parsnips. They were so small. Small but long:


I was protesting vehemently, but the Bride said, ---There, there...we shall just label them as "gourmet". Tch.
That's what she says every time we harvest stuff that is quite young; be it spuds, courgettes, beans or whatever....
I absolutely enjoyed them, so my protesting ended at the table.

Whilst in the lottie, Bridey gathered some of the fading blooms from here and there, brought them home and worked on them:


The end result looked like this:


The flash takes away some of its beauty, but you can imagine how the little arrangement looks in normal lighting.

Tonight we are going out to eat in the harbour. Yummmmm .

 

Sjoerd, your "gourmet" vegetables are just what we eat when I can't wait any longer to harvest a few!
Your bride has a real talent for flower arranging--she has an eye for color and form.
All those flowers came from your lottie? Amazing what you grow and harvest. Well done!

 

s, I have no idea what ultimately happened to him but I was told he would lose his hunting license permanently but for certain I don't know.
I didn't have to testify since he incriminated himself with his camera.

Your flowers are sweet. well done. Sorry to hear about Netty having to give up her plot. You are a good neighbor.

 

Yeah JANE-- The small parsnips are from the exact same feelings that you sometimes have. The Bride simply could not wait another day to try them. Thanks for liking the flowers, I shall tell the Bride. Yes, all the blooms and foliage that you see in the foto came from our garden.

CAROLYN-- Thanks for the floral compliment, I shall pass it on. Pity that you do not know what happened to the trespasser.

 

There's not a lot to do at this time of the year. Just general maintenance as we don't "plant anything," or rarely. So it's just mowing, weeding and leaf collection. Thaat takes long enough. Too wet to do any of that today. But I can always find something to do.

This is our tiny front garden. But it's packed with plants, three different azaleas, one I've layered many times, so it forms a 25ft hedge (I prune it with garden shears as you would any other hedge), two rhodos, two viburnums and the dominant feature, our "lollypop acer." I call it that as I've pruned it to shape every year, for a couple of decades otherwise it would be far taller and wider. It already is as high as the eaves of the house.



It looks really nice in the Spring.




I take about six inches to a foot off the canopy all the way round about this time each year. Being a tree it doesn't grow evenly.

Anyway I did this today. I've a Barnel telescopic pruner that extends to 12 ft. So with this and a step-stool I can reach even the tallest branches. Lots of healthy new growth on it already. It's a bit of a pain as you have to keep walking away from it to make sure you've got it right. It'll get another less severe trim in March if it doesn't start regrowing evenly, as some branches "bolt." It's a bit confusing as you can see next door's tree behind it.

 

Watered the peas, broccoli, and lettuces, then spent a happy hour with my husband at the garden table, shelling almonds. Whatever stores charge for almonds, it isn't enough! He has made two "cradles" to hold the unshelled almond, and with a chisel and hammer, we crack the almond shell on a fault line. Painstaking work, but with the help of Timi the cat's supervision, we managed to open about half of the almonds. At least we got to see Killdeer flying overhead and many turtles lined up on the pond's bank while we were whacking almond shells.We lead such interesting lives . . . .

 

I had to look up killdeer. It is a type of plover.

 

@Odif yes an interesting name. I hadn't thought about that until I read your posting.
@marlingardener interesting (but hard) work shelling almonds!
Doghouse Riley:. Beautiful azaleas!
@Sjoerd Beautiful bouquets. Do I spy a seed head of a jack in the pulpit? The bright red seeds?

 

Cayu--Yes you do, you clever-cloggs you!

Yesterday we transplanted a blueberry tree from Nettie's garden to ours. If it lives, we will always be able to remember her in this way. A little more cleaning is needed and then her garden will be ready to turn over to the new owner.
We harvested the last of the apples from our garden and are saucing them at this very moment.
There were so many destroyed by a new wave of young rats. They eat about half of the apple and then leave the rest to rot. I have been fighting them relentlessly this fall as we have seen our harvests gradually diminish. Those stinkers have eaten more than half of our apples. I really hadn't expected that.

 

We had an almond tree for a few years, It fruited the following year we bought it.

"Here in the Tropic of Mersey Valley in 2011, the annual almond harvest is taking place."











By 2013 it had got pretty big and was beginning to dominate the garden.



A decision was taken out of our hands as for some reason it died the following year.

So we decided not to replace it. I cut it right down to the base and put four half bricks around the stump. We now use this brick circle as a feature, as we can put anything in a big tub in this position when it's flowering.

At the moment it has our sambucus, which isn't too tall and you can see over it and round it from the French windows, an important consideration. My wife has difficulty getting around the garden with her MS, but she can see a lot from her chair in the lounge.

The three azaleas round it will eventually hide the tub. But they are taking their time.



No jobs done today as it was a golf day. But tomorrow I might move the Stella cherry we have in a tub on the small patio behind the "rabbit shed," to between the azaleas to the left of the big patio and the beginning of the rockery. I think it would prefer to be in the ground.

 

So sorry you lost your almond tree. Ours lose their leaves early (around the first of October here) and people ask if those trees are "sick". We explain, and are told that almonds don't grow in Texas. All I know is that we were out for an hour whacking almond shells and getting almonds!
It is also very kind of you to consider your wife's view of the garden (which is gorgeous!). Small pleasures are sometimes the best.

 

I haven't done it yet, but there's a fair bit to do today, but I'll leave it til later when it might warm up a bit after I've done the shopping.

The main job is to move this Stella cherry from here...




To here.. between the azalea "forest" and the rockery. A couple of big rocks may have to come up and then be replaced.





It'll be happier in the ground. I think it will be OK as it's tall enough not to shade other plants too much.

I'll be able to move it with quite a bit of rootball and I want to do it before the first frosts.

Our problem is there's no free space in our small garden, so anything new has to be "forced" in, or something else has to be sacrificed.
Then there's the lawn to to be cut and the leaves to be swept up. A never ending job now for the next couple of months.