What have you done today in the Garden?

You should go ahead and dig your potatoes if the tops are turning and laying down ! Instead of pickles make relishes,, hot, mild or sweet !

 

Transplanted an eggplant and repotted some butternut squash. Working on re-doing the birdbath. (It is a natural rock crater, but it developed a leak somewhere near the bottom, so I had to add a pond liner.) Took this picture at about 9p tonight, so it isn't the greatest. I am trying to finish filling in the rock around the liner (to hide it) and I need to buy some more gravel for the bottom. This little birdbath has been going for about ten years now, and is a daily hangout for everything from hummingbirds to turkey vultures! My bees visit it all day long, and I suspect it gets a lot of nighttime visitors, based on what my security cameras have picked up at times.

 

I got sick of the pair of wood pigeons perching on the fence between our patio and our drive. They wait to see if they can get at any of the food we put out for the birds that drops on the patio from my "pigeon-proof bird feeder."
They were forever defecating over our refuse bins and down the fence. The carpet gripper rai I'd put on the top a decade ago didn't now seem to bother them.

So yesterday I had a look around in the garage for something to let me string some wires along the top and found a lot of plastic stakes, I used for securing nettting. With a bit of an adaption, they worked fine.
They're a bit diffucult to see in this photo, but the pigeons won't fly into them.

I scubbed the fence and the bins down last night and removed the remnants of the gripper rail. I was pleased that the top 3" X 2" rail showed no sign of rot, despite me having made this fence all of sixteen years ago.




Today I gave it a coat of Dulux mahogany Woodsheen. Good for plenty of more years yet, can't say the same for myself!



"Looking for something to do," I sorted out this corner of the bottom bed.
We had a big clump of a green and yellow striped grass in the corner (dunno the variety), which was full of fine lawn grass and the exposed roots covered in moss.
So I dug it out and binned it. We had several other of these grasses in the same bed which seemed to have multiplied over the last few years, but were "tidy."
So I planted some in a row, then gave them a haircut and a water. I think they'll look better than what we had.

 

A day behind, but yesterday, started some more bush beans, hoping I can squeak out a harvest before the weather turns. My container tomatoes are almost spent, but the same varieties I planted in the garden are still green, but about three times the size of the container plant fruit.

 

I did an enormous amount of strimming and schoffeling. I also packed the apple tree in against the vermin, birds and wasps.


Aside from that there was again harvesting to do, and I had to check inside the bee hives.
It all may not sound like much, but I did manage to spend a whole day there.

BTW Cayu--that was a smashing harvest that you have laid out to cure-off. Well done you !

 

yes,, container tomatoes do not grow like those in he garden ! mine in containers are about half the size of the others ! both are loaded with tomatoes from tiny to hamburger size !

 

hey Sjoerd is that kale i see ?

 

Nay Mart--Those are purple sprouting broccoli. It is also quite tasty.

 

ahhh ! my kale had that gray-green color ! if it grows,, i like it !

 

Received some sugar cane starts in the mail today, so planted those. They will live in a pot for now, but I hope to plant them out next spring. I expanded my kitchen garden area a bit. I have somehow ended up with a lot of pretty plants that don't serve any purpose other than to look nice, so I want to move those (i.e, mini-roses, geraniums, etc) to make room for the plants that are more than just a pretty face (salvia, balsam, etc). Also dividing up the scabiosa (which I still think is a horrible name for a very pretty plant) today. It is in a pot and is badly in need of rehoming.

 

I spent the morning rehabbing my old Tower Garden. It is up and running now, so I guess I will spend the afternoon starting seeds that will ultimately inhabit it!

 

I watered and weeded and planted loads of beans and some carrots and radishes. My first tomato is reddening.

 

Repotted about ten awapuhi ginger rhizomes. I will keep some, but the rest will go to a fundraising plant sale next spring (if we are doing that kind of public event by spring 2021).

 

We had 2 days of rain so I did nothing. But last night I went out to check on the plants. I've had a small watermelon on each of two plants. I've been checking and tho one in the back is about ready to harvest. I happened to glance behind some leaves and I have 2 more on that plant! And a lot of babies. Now my question is; I trellised them (because I had a cucumber invasion, even going up another trellis), since they're only grapefruit size, do I need to worry about them falling off the vine? The other two were on the ground or near the ground, so for the watermelon that was growing in a pot, I set an empty pot under it and as it got heavier it laid on the pot. But the two new ones are further up the vine on the plant in the back garden.
And I checked on my volunteer pumpkin; the biggest one is turning color, yeah!!! The rain really helped it get bigger and the next size one grew as well. I have two more coming on at the end of the vine!
I planted a new crop of beets and the rain watered them for me. And as soon as I get parsnip seeds I'll plant some of them, for a fall harvest.

 

Nothing today. I did do some front flower bed clean up a day or two ago. BUT! I was looking out the window today at my front flowers, and I saw a hummingbird partaking of the Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) I planted last fall