What have you done today in the Garden?

Yesterday I removed all the green bean plants by cutting them off ground level. Then I threw in all the crushed up egg shells I've been collecting all summer and did throw into the garden a few handfuls of bone meal mostly just cause the bag was almost empty and I have another one so just wanted to get rid of it. Then I turned over ALL the soil.

 

Island, do the bean roots biodegrade? I use leaves from plants, but
most roots I toss. I have a few tomato plants, a few cucumber vines,
Kale and Spinach left.

 

Thanks for the kind words.
I've always had no problems in staying fit, played a lot of rugby and cricket at school and in the seventies five-a-side football.
I spent most of my working life on my feet managing large superstores.
I played squash for a team in the North-West Counties Leagues until I was fifty. Gave up due to recurring tennis elbow. Took up golf at 59 when I retired. I play three times a week (weather permitting). That, the garden and my other hobbies, keeps me busy.

 

It is the winterizing phase in the allotment.
We have taken down one bed of purple sprouting broccoli and made the beds ready for the winter. There was an enormous amount of schoffeling to do to keep the weeds weak going into the winter. We harvested more PSB and finished the pruning. I concluded their supplemental feeding of the bees and then right away began treating them for varroa.
Today we will be tapping the honey and into jars.
The compost was turned in their bins and added to.
The Lathyrus could in principal be removed, however, they are still flowering and I just hate to get rid of them while they are working so hard for me.
The last harvest and processing of beetroot. The bed is now ready for the winter.

Yesterday was the most lovely day of the entire year, so we did not do anything at all...just sat, drank tea, and fooled around on the tablet. It may well be the last perfect day this season. It did not go to waste then. hahaha.
For the moment there isn't anything to do in the veggie quadrants. The green manure is growing and the toms and parsnips will be harvested, but they are not ready just yet.

 

Riley, it pays off, in the later part of life, to stay active. When my children were young, I always made stretching a part of cleaning. I played with them to. Even now, I clean floors on hands and knees,
stretching to stay flexible. The fact that I have always walked fast
has helped, I think.
Sjoerd, I took out a row of tomato plants this afternoon. The green ones
will ripen slowly and be enjoyed when frost threatens. The gardens are almost finished and this has been a beautiful day for putting the finishing touches on.

 

Tasty...those toms.
I will be hanging mine upside down soon to finish off the ripening.

 

SJoerd, I would gladly hang them to ripen, if I had a place to hang them.

 

I know what you mean, Growing.
There has to be a place. We hang them in all kinds of places.

 

I never heard of that!

I have been ripening all my container tomatoes on the window sill so the chipmunks wouldn't get them before me.

 

Well Cayu-- The theory is that if you leave the toms on the plant, lift the plant, toots and all out of the ground and then hand the whole plant (toms and all) Upside down somewhere warm and safe from the chipmunks. The toms will then go ahead and get ripe using the plant and warmth to do the work. If you let them become red on the window sill. The the real ripening process stops because that happens on the plant, and so the toms on the window sill just begin ending their life on their own. The taste will be oké, but not quite as good as it could be. In this case turning red doesn't necessarily equate to "ripe".

It can seem like a bunch of semantics, but there is absolutely a grain of truth in this. If I were going to "ripen" toms off the plant then I would place the non-red toms in a paper bag with over-ripe banana, apple or the like and close the bag. I would open it up after a few days to check on them. I have done this with good results.
When I was in Spain our landlady used a type of strong drinking alcohol in the bottom of a pail with caki's in a wire basket suspended above the booze.Then a towel was thrown over the whole thing, to prevent alcohol evaporation, I assume. Her result was excellent.

 

I'll try the second method you suggested. The third one does sound interesting though!

BTW, unfortunately I have no place chipmunk free. Unless we use our living room.

 

Good luck then. Let me know how it goes, oké?

 

A frost got the plants in the Community Garden, so I turned under the row of beans. I have planted lettuce, spinach, escarole & radishes in their place.

Also watered the carrots, leeks, kale (every time I write 'kale', my phone autocorrects it to 'Jake' our son's nickname. Clearly my phone is way more used to me addressing the Jake in my life than the kale in my life).

Anyway, harvested carrots, a leek and kale ( it just auto corrected AGAIN) to make something or other. To be determined.

 

I think I may try the paper bag and banana method.
Part of this day was spent clearing the Charity tomato patch/garden.

 

Well Cayu, perhaps you ought to use your living room--just hang them in the window and when you have guests over (out on the patio) they will see your plants through the window and you immediately have a talking point to begin the visit with. cackle.
I had to chuckle over that auto correction. I know how infuriating that can be. I finally had to re-set the the choices so that it doesn't auto correct any-more but does give suggestions down below the text.
Gadzooks though ! Frost there already....burrrrrrr. I'm not ready for that.

Growing--I didn't realize that you had a charity plot. I find that such a nice thing to do. How does it work then, do folks come by or do you take the toms to them...er what?
Good luck with the paper bag technique.