What have you done today in the Garden?

Sjoerd, that's a fair exchange, keeping the canals clear for garden space.
We live in a trailer (Caravan to you perhaps, although this is a trailer that stays in place) Some of our garden plots are on the banks of Smith Creek. We cleared the wild vines and weeds, dug along the bank, sifted the soil, built up sections of the bank, and used it for growing food. The past two years the creek has swollen due to heavy rains and we're losing a lot of the bank. We're older and have decided we're not going to do all that labor again. We have two gardens in our yard. Perhaps it's time to relinquish the Smith Creek garden to Mother Nature.

 

Growing Pains—-Sorry to hear about the erosion there. You will be able to garden there in your yard though, right? I know what you mean about not wanting to do all that work again.

 

Growingpains, it is a wise person who realizes fighting Mother Nature is always a losing battle! You had the joy of the creek garden, and now you will have the joy of your yard gardens.
We moved our big beds in the barn lot to the back of the barn. It is easier to maintain, the soil is more friable, and we still can grow all we can eat, and some left over for the food bank.
We fought Mother Nature for two years. Our neighbors stopped mowing their field, and we had weeds and grass moving in at a great rate. Now we just mow the barn lot and garden the back barn space.
Gardeners are nothing if not flexible!

 

Thanks for the kind words.

Too many businesses are run by people who think they always know best. Quite often the people at "the sharp end" can think of a better way of doing something. So I always encouraged them to put in their two penn'oth.
Other times, I'd ask for suggestions and manipulate the result. I'd gently turn down some suggestions giving a reason, until they hit on the way I wanted something done. Then tell them it was a great idea and we'd do it that way. If someone believes it was their idea, they'll make sure it works.

My other occasional ploy was to to say that something needed to be done say... within a couple of days, "but I think it'd be asking too much of you." They'd then convince me that it could be done and do it.

But these sort of ploys couldn't be used too often.

 

I agree with each of you.
Although giving in to the theft of energy that comes with
aging proves difficult. Especially when we enjoy growing
our own food.
Riley, I think you must have been a pleasure to work for.

 

Thanks for that.

One of my supervisors once said to me that as a boss, "I was a bit like royalty."
I asked her to explain.

She said, "Well when you give the shop floor staff a job to do, like changing the layout for Christmas, you'll always say you'll give them a hand and you do. But after a few minutes, they'll say, "It's alright boss, we've got this," so you can leave them to it. So it's a bit like Prince Philip, or whoever, when he's planting a tree, he chucks in a couple of spades full of soil, then someone else finishes the job."

That made me smile.

 

It was a golf day today, so I didn't do anything in the garden as it was raining when I came home. But I did brave the rain to walk down to the tea-house, to make a change to the carousel in one of my vinyl jukeboxes.

This had arrived from the USA while I was playing golf.

I'm pleased with this near sixty year old record, you take pot luck with the vendor's description of "very good" when it comes to sound quality. It was one I'd been looking for, for a while, so I didn't mind paying a total of around £20 for it, (the postage costs from the states is a killer).

The Honey Bees are "The Cookies" under a different name. They were only paid per session as The Cookies. So recorded under other names for different publishing groups so they could make a living.

 

Riley, I'm impressed. My head was singing as you scrolled the artists and songs. Most of them bring memories. You probably pay a huge insurance for all that collectible music. I can imagine you and your wife dancing there.
I also smiled at what your Supervisor told you.

 

Today we took our almond crop out to the garden table and shelled almonds. With the dry summer, even though we watered faithfully, we had fewer almonds than last year. We have plenty to toast and use for green beans almondine on Thanksgiving, and slivered and used in apple/cranberry salad on Christmas.
It's fun whacking almonds and petting cats on a fall day!

 

Just a bit of general maintenance, mowing and leaf collection.

Though I did get the Karcher out and give my brick lawn edging a go over. I don't like them to be too obtrusive, but over the year they do seem to attract moss in places. This could and does. then start to spread to the edge of the lawn, here and there. So just a light go over of the bricks gets rid of it.








They are wearing well, they were only cheap ones from B & Q and have been down for eleven years. Over that time they must have saved me hours of "edging."



Went into Aldi on Friday for some kitchen rolls and these cyclamen "followed me home." Two packs of six for only £2.99 a pack can't be missed. Might get some more next week.

 

Had a friend over today for a socially distant lunch and chat on our terrace. Despite having raked and swept just yesterday (& the day before), I was out sweeping & raking again before her arrival. I'd bought a gas propane fire pit for lunches with our daughter, but fired it up today to make the terrace more comfortable.

 

I dried my celery from the garden and turned the stems into celery powder. I cleaned out my coffee grinder and pulverized the pieces. I have two more bunches to dry and I will do the same thing with their stems from that too.

 

You know, if I wrote on this thread all the things I still need to do to close down my perennial gardens and my community garden plot, I'd be going on ad infinitum!

It's a bit overwhelming.

@carolyn what do you use the celery powder for?

 

Nothing in the garden today other than feed the birds and the squirrel.
I noticed in the garage that I was down to one jar of birds' peanut butter, We have a high and a low feeder with a jar in each and they are extremely popular. Between them they go through a jar a week.
You can pay silly prices for this stuff but I bought six original and six "buggy" on-line from "Garden Wildlife Direct." at a cost of £27.96 with free postage.
That's only £2.33 per jar. You could pay nearly £4 a jar for it elsewhere.

 

Hang in there cayu...I am also not yet finished. We will have our gardens put to bed one day.