What have you done today in the Garden?

Glad you got better Sjoerd.
Maybe it was yellow jackets that got all of my honeybees. I was quite disappointed that they all vanished.

 

Aww @Daniel W - that looks so sore. They can be nasty little things. The face is so unforgiving for their stings. We've had a tough time with underground nests this year. I found one that I though was a pocket gopher hole and almost called Angus over to snoop, until I saw them entering. (A near miss). We've eliminated a large nest in the wiring of the boat, finished off the one that the bear got the better of, and three underground nests. Those little things are just a compacted bundle of pure "mean" with wings.

A Tim McGraw song describes them " I don't know why you gotta be angry all the time".

Beatiful squash for Rufus' gourmet food.

I wondered what you were up to with the hot peppers. The salsa looks great!

 

The greenhouse clean out was postponed to get ready for fishing. Today is the day, as snow is in the forecast for tomorrow night. It won't stay around, but still enough to make me wish I had everything away. The last of the pots will get tucked away, as well as any fertilizers etc will come inside.

 

Oh dear Daniel, I stuck a ''like'' on your posting, but hated to see you with all that painful swelling on your face. We had a few stings this summer too, but nowhere near as bad as that. I know sympathy doesn't really help much, but you have it anyway.

 

@Daniel W sorry to see that you got stung in the face, hope that you're better soon.

 

This afternoon went to see my friend Marion and did some weeding and planted 2 clematis for her. It was her late mother in law's garden and it had been neglected for a long time, so we're trying to dig up bramble roots, it's difficult when the ground is still hard even with the rain that we had.
The clematis are small plants bought from a supermarket so i hope that they make it through the winter.

 

Those pots look great. It is a nice touch that you took the trouble to make those labels. I just slap a little rectangular label with jam name and date along with a control number. The control number is for the quality of batches. For instance, Whether it is strawbs, blueberries or apples— I make several different harvest batches. Different batches have different weights. The weight of the berries determines the amount of sugar and pectine and cooking time. Is that as clear as mud?

More good stuff is coming from your gardens and kitchen.

 

Yesterday I collected leaves. I only took the ones that were easy to access, and cleaned out the run in Angus' pen/Hilton. 19 garbage cans full from the two days, as well as 6 full collectors from behind the tractor. All mowed, mulched and recollected. I put a net over the pile to try and stop it from blowing away, and to still allow moisture, a well as watered between layers. The pile is about a meter and a bit high by about 2 meters wide. Here's hoping it stays put and I will have some magic in the spring to put on the strawberries and berry bushes.

 

Started cutting out the fruited canes from the loganberry plants.

 

Those will serve you well! I do that every year. A lot come from neighbors. I always feel anxiety that they wont them hauled away

 

Today I collected a few flower variety flower heads - Rudbeckias, French Marigolds, African Marigolds. I've been saving seeds from this French Marigold for years, and it first appeared as a volunteer in my vegetable garden, so I don't know the variety.

French Marigold





Rudbeckia flower heads.



African Marigold.


I store these in paper bags for a few months. In midwinter, I thresh them and clean up the seeds a bit.

 

This is what i've done, along the path with wallflowers and the polyanthus in front.

Can see them a bit better in this one

I widened this border a bit more so i could plant the foxgloves. Not a lot of wallflowers because of the spring bulbs

 

Good work, Loggie. You’ve been a busy bee haven’t you.
They are going to look so good in a few months.

Daniel— Do you save seeds every year? Good technique.

Clean-up work in the lottie, melting beeswax for purifying and removing more plants and their roots from the old bee stalling location. As it stands now we will place two new plum trees there, along the little canal.

 

@Daniel W that is how I had so many free seeds for my new field experiment for the bees and butterflies etc. - garden flowers and wildflowers, mostly with single flowers and including thousands of poppy and marigold seeds. Hope your face is feeling better, I'm out in sympathy with you at the moment- fell flat on my face in the garden when cutting out shrubs and it hasn't done a lot for my looks either - no you can't have a photo

 

Thank you Sjoerd, i have to do it a bit at a time, have to the walk the boys and a bad back.

@Tetters hope that you are ok after your fall.