What have you done today in the Garden?

My garden job today is reading about soil life and biological control of soil borne plant predators. Mostly nematodes, but also symphylans. There's a lot more out there about nematodes bit symphylans are more concerning to me. Also reading on fungi that support plant growth. I try to focus on University research and extension reports, and research reports from google scholar.

So far today, I've decided to grow insecticidal marigolds, probably "golden guardian" , and insecticidal mustards as cover crops. Probably too late this year. I like to plan ahead.

Having a thick tree leaf mulch layer on the raised beds for the winter should help them colonize with mycorrhizal fungi, so I think that's a decent start.

 

I was in two minds whether to clear the leaves yesterday or leave it until today.
Good job I got it done.

As it's been snowing. Won't bother with golf tomorrow as on open areas snow takes much longer to clear. I'm sure I'll find plenty to do.

 

Doghouse Riley, that's some lovely snow.

Today I renovated another raised bed. This one had peppers and some rows of greens and odds and ends. The soil had sunken a bit. One end is already planted with garlic, so I left that alone.

I pulled out all of the weeds, raked, added a layer of leaves then a layer of new topsoil. I had some overwintering shallots and potato onions. I planted a row of those at the end. Then I covered the rest with more leaves to compost in situ and feed mycelium and worms.


Then I planted a giant fig start. I had removed it from a Hardy Chicago fig tree, growing from the base. More roots would have been nice but maybe it will survive and grow.


I also prepped some hardwood fig cutting to root indoors in case that doesn't grow. I washed them, used a razor blade to make an incision through the cambium layer, dipped in rooting hormone, wrapped in moist / wet paper towel, placed into zipper bag, and placed onto warming mat.



I also planted an apple tree seedling into the ground. Last Spring, I had cross pollinated a red flesh apple (Redlove Calypso TM) with a columnar apple (Golden Sentry TM), which resulted in a fruit. I saved the seeds, kept in refrigerator for 4 months, planted them, and three seedlings resulted. Two had red leaves, stubby branches and short internodes, which I hope suggests columnar form. I wanted them in the Earth for the winter, so I planted another one today in my garden.



That's enough for today!

 

Great posting Daniel. I am a fan of columnar apple trees, and have one in my lottie. This type of tree is ideal for small space gardening because they grow up and not out. I will say though that I have pruned the top out of mine two years in a row now because I want to be able to pick while standing on the ground.
Well done and good luck, mate.

 

Thank you Sjoerd. They are a favorite for me too. Like you, I had to prune the too of one to keep it human size. I think it is on too vigorous rootstock.

I found out that columnar apple NorthPole is not patented, so I grafted scion from mine onto very dwarfing rootstock Bud-9 and M-27. Those take longer to reach a good size, and need a fencepost for support, but stay much smaller. I was unable to find US Patent information for Scarlet Sentinel and Golden Sentinel but I found a report the patent ran out in Canada, where they were developed. So I tried grafts from my trees of those on Bud-9 last year. It will be a few years to know how big they get.

 

Interesting things you are doing there.

My columnar is one called, “Moonlight”. It had a slow beginning, but now yields really well. Of course I remove about half of the fruits in June.

My other apple tree is a “Schellinkhouter”, not a columnar, but one that was developed here in West-Friesland in the village close-by me—Schellinkhout.

 

Sjoerd, I think I have "Moonlight" under a different name, "Blushing Delight". Also by the same developer, Jaroslav Tupy, I have "Golden Treat". Both are disease resistant and quite tasty apples. The one I bought was called "Tasty Red" but now that it has fruited, I think it's really "Blushing Delight" based on the photos.

I have 't heard of Schellinkouter. I'm glad there are regional varieties.

 

The Schellinkhouter is a great apple but the developers could not perfect it to be reliably uniform in shape and size, so it never made it to commercialism. No matter, the Bride and like it and it makes great applesauce. I am surprised that you have heard of it, as it is sort of obscure because of the lack of commercial appeal.

You could be right about another name for Moonlight, I do not know of a second name. Here are my Moonlights from this fall (the greenish ones):


There are so many apples on the market., lucky for me that I only have a small lottie.

 

We popped out to the lottie for a little looksy. I also had one of those massive Norwegian bags full of wet leaves to dump into the leaf-mould bin. We surveyed the sleeping veggie beds, dodged the numerous showers and finally headed back home. Not before crawling up on a ladder and snapping this piccy.

 

Not exactly in the garden, but garden related. I stopped by the feed store to give the owner a gallon bag of fresh lettuce, and a small bag of bell peppers. He was so happy! Either he really likes vegetables, or he is a great actor . . . .

 

Beautiful garden Sjoerd. Nicely laid out and so tidy.

Marlingardener, that was a thoughtful gift.

I went to the home improvement store for some supplies, mainly galvanized wire to reinforce the corners of my previous raised bed. It consists of concrete corners with center hole for rebar and side slots for 2x6 timbers sort of like Lincoln logs but not really. Moles had undermined the corners and they splayed outward. The plan is better screen for a base, longer rebar to go deeper for the corners, and run wires from one rebar to the next, wrapping around each, with the timbers resting on and hiding the wires.

This is what it looked like when I built it last year, and will again.

If I had to do it over, I might have made these in a more solid and permanent way. However, good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from poor judgement.

Those are treated timbers. The bed is lined with plastic to give them a little protection as well as protect the soil. We will see how long they last.

 

Jane, you’re a legend. I can really appreciate your social qualities. I wish you were my neighbour.

Ta Daniel. I like tidiness in the veggie plots...not so important tome in the flower section.
A proper-looking raised bed. You used terms that I do not understand— what is “ rebar”?
Yeah, moles are really unwanted guests here, and a recurring problem. I hope that you can keep them out...now then, do you have voles?

Good luck with the renewed effort.

 

Nothing today, as it was "golf in the rain" this morning. This afternoon I was setting up our new Sage bean to cup coffee machine.



We've had a perfectly good Smeg one for a few years, but my wife saw this on a shopping channel and I got the "what I thought was," treatment, so I ended up buying it. I'm gonna have to take the batteries out of her TVs remote.



Tomorrow the weathwer looks OK, so as the frost has killed off the last of the wisteria leaves I'll be out there stripping them off.
That should be the last of most of the leaves.

 

Stripped the dying wisteria foliage from both pergolas.

It's always a pain as although the leaves are no problem, the little leaf spines won't get picked up by my garden vac. So I have to blow them into a corner and use a dustpan and brush.




I also did a partial prune, I'll take everything back to between two and four buds between Christmas and New Year, as usual.

 

Just did a bit of tidying up the patio from the leaves and weeds, didn't do much just taking it easy. After having my cataract done might think of getting some safety glasses to wear when gardening. Tried using hubbies vizer that he's got but it kept steaming up and I couldn't see.