What have you done today in the Garden?

They're massive, well done.

 

WOW!!!!! Green with jealousy over here - that is something I wish I could grow. Good job!

 

I tilled the lower garden yesterday, and now it is ready for a winter's rest. The upper garden will be left firm from the tractor work until we drop three birch trees in a few days. We have to walk on it and soft earth would be too difficult for Hubby. Then I will till it and put to bed for winter.

A new exciting part of not getting around to cleaning up and dead heading my flowers....I collected seed from the painted daisies, Flander's Poppies, a salmon pink Oriental Poppy, Blue Sea Holly ( thank you Logan), Delphinium, Peonies, Muskmallow, Pasque flowers, pink Giant Lupins and Lettuce Leaf Poppies.

Also....( this one is exciting for me) when we went with my son to get firewood, I opened my door and was right beside a Tiger Lily that had a seed pod ready to pop. I collected about 20 seeds from it. I love the tiger lily's that grow here. I'll have the winter to look into that more, but from what I see it will be a few years to flower from germination, but that's okay. I'm patient.


( This isn't my photo, but this is what they look like)

 

Cut the lawn. Looking quite good so will most now we've had periods of sun and rain. The squirrels are still digging a few holes in the lawn to bury nuts, but I can close them up with a golf green pitch mark repairer.





I pruned a bit off this acer palmatum. I like it to be symetrical, but you can't remove offending branches that are growing the wrong way, if there's nothing below them or you'll end up with a hole. When all the leaves have fallen. I may put a net over it and tie it down and release it befor the buds start to open. In the past the branches adopted the required shape when I've done it a few times over the last 20 years.






As usual the garden is mostly green this time of the year.

The last of the hydrangea blooms. But lots of sorbus berries.





Last of the roses.










This bed will be full of cyclemen in a few weeks.





I pruned a few branches off this acer, it was beginning to look a bit like a pin cushion, because of the uneven growth.

Once all the leaves are down it'll get the usual "big prune" reducing the size by up to a foot all over.

 

I've been somewhat out of commission as my "health plan" doctors and nurses try to avoid me. Still, things were a bit better today. Fortunately, during the past month most of the gardening has just been turning on the drip irrigation timer each morning and harvesting some of the bounty.

Today was just harvest.

Bush beans are producing famously. These were planted where I harvested the early potatoes and garlic. I like getting two crops out of the same bed in one season.



Here is today's harvest of other stuff.





The "peanut hull" pink pumpkins are Galeux d'Eysines, my favorite for texture and flavor. the green squashes are Burgess Buttercup, this first time I've grown them. I also grew HoneyNut which produced nothing, and Uncle Dave's Dakota Dessert squash, which produced nothing.

The beans will be blanched and frozen tomorrow. The sauce tomatoes will be in tonight's supper, and more will be made into sauce for the months ahead.

 

Saving some tomato seeds for varieties that I like. I don't need a lot. Mostly for the heirlooms and open pollinated, dwarf varieties.

These are Ukraine Purple. It's a delicious, paste-tomato shape on indeterminate plant. The only non-dwarf, indeterminate, type I'm saving. The flavor is rich and smoky, like Cherokee purple.

I scoop out a spoon full of seeds and pulp, add water and a paper towel top, and let them ferment a few days. Then I rinse them and let the seeds dry on a paper towel for a week before transferring to an envelope.





I'm also saving Reisentraube, a red heirloom that grows in clusters like grapes, a bit bigger that cherry tomatoes. It 's not a true dwarf but the plants were compact and never grew tall. And Dwarf Golden Champion, Dwarf Livingston Champion, Extreme Bush, Dwarf Brandyfred, and Clare Valley Red.

 

Lovely roses, DR!

 

Hello Rufus!!

Wonderful to see you posting @Daniel W . Fabulous harvest. CRAZY looking pumpkins!! I'd like to ask you more about those tomato seeds soon. Hope you're feeling better.

 

@Daniel W hope that you feel better soon and great harvest.

 

@Doghouse Riley - interesting trick with putting the net over the acer to shape it. Very clever. Love the roses!

 

@Daniel W I applaud your positivity as well as your crops. Brilliant effort (as usual)

 

Yesterday went to see my friend Marion and i planted some foxgloves and verbena bonerences that i gave her and made a hedgehog house out of bricks and a small paving slab for her, then i covered it with a lot of vegetation.

 

In my garden pulled up a lot of ivy and cut back a blackcurrant bush that had been forgotten about and put a lot of used compost around 1 rhododendron.

 

Clean and removed amaryllis from pot put on rest till Nov…
Trimmed the wisterias…
Cut back perennials .
Trimmed grasses.