What have you done today in the Garden?

@Sjoerd, thank you for the compliment.

Having the garden gives me something productive and rewarding to obsess over, in a difficult world.

Is that a cover on your Moonlight apple tree? Does that keep birds out?

That's a beautiful job, cleaning up your greenhouse. It's ready for winter.

I still have a lot of cleaning up to do. Plus, I set aside materials for a second container bed, like the first one. There are some things to work out - mainly, I think, the soil mix - but Im happy with most aspects of that experiment. It will require removing two miniature apple trees. They will go into two of the ten containers that the bed will hold.

First, there is a lot to clear from that location. It's raining now, and the next two days will be volunteering, so it's not going to happen until next weekend.

 

Daniel, yes that white blob is indeed an enviromesh net over the Moonlight tree. There are still quite a few apples on there. The top 1/3 of the tree is full of them. We still have so many at home, that we are only harvesting the apples that fall into the bottom of the net with wind gusts.

The net is indeed there to keep out birds, wasps (yellowjackets) and mice/rats. It works a treat.

What do you believe can be done with the soil mix? I have no experience with growing things in containers and therefore no idea what a proper mix ought to be. I have grown toms in commercial soil bags, but that’s it. I will be happy to hear some of your ideas when you get this sussed-out.

It is going to be rainy here for a few days as well. I am going to have too much free time on my hands.

 

Well...it has arrived and looks like it may be here to stay for a while.

After much compilation of my navel, removing some lint, listening to and digesting all of the Stew, and also listening to my husband who says sometimes I "over think things" ( I don't know what he's talking about...I'll have to think about it )...I removed some leaves off of the strawberries. The bed is not as raised as it seems - the boards are mostly boarders. The soil mixture, being peat based, should freeze and hold the cold well, ...and now that I'm dropping from plus 5 C to -15 C in a two days....I don't want to insulate the plants too much.

Having said that....( as she checks out the lint )...I'm going to leave four plants covered and leave the rest to nature.

Another garden experiment in progress.

 

Better an earache than a whoops. Earaches go away Sounds like you have your pruning broke-to-ride DHR.

 

Did I hear A reference to garden clubs. I joined our local club years ago . I learned everything about gardening you could think of. Many well organized activities ,floral arrangement classes, flower shows and horticulture judge classes. It was the best years ever. Became a judge and judging included county fairs, state fairs and flower shows.

To those of you who here on this site many of you have the skills of a magic thumb. I submit how fortunate i am
to learn from all of you .

Way to rainy windy and cold out today. I have a lot to do, and love the fall foliage colors .

Sjoerd great cleaning job of your greenhouse and beautiful pics of tucking in your garden beds for the winter.
I clean up my greenhouse during summer. By then all the seedling starts are planted and to hot to keep anything in the greenhouse even with fans, misters and greenhouse shade blanket. That’s when I power wash the whole inside of my tiny lil greenhouse.. it’s so squeaky clean the sun dries it quickly leaving nothing behind not even a mouse.

Jewell. It’s good to keep the rain water from areas near the stairs and foundation. I had drained put in the ground directly under the down spouts to keep water away from causing damage to foundations. However what to do when a rare small beloved Hinoki Cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) tree roots start to lift the concrete patio section .
The trunk bark is so beautiful it’s mimmicks the redwood tree bark and planted way to close to the house. I just don’t have the heart to cut it down. Have trimmed the lower branches off that hit the house .

 

@Sjoerd you've done a great job there with everything. Do you grow anything in your greenhouse during winter?

It's raining here as well so not a lot i can do, but there is house work i could find, but don't want to do that.

 

Mel, I was wondering when you were compiling your navel ….well…. how did you do that exactly? I shall have to contemplate that.

Seriously though, it looks like the snow is truly falling there now. Well, you had a good summer run though, didn’t you. You got all the chores and family things done in time. Chapeau to you for all the epic work you have done.

I was looking at your piccy showing vehicles and so forth. Do you folks have a grage for those? …or do you keep them plugged-in when you are not using them? I recall when I lived in Alaska we had to keep our pickup plugged-in at all times at home and in the village—otherwise I could not have started it. We were living in North Pole, Alaska and I can tell you the winters there were severe. Burrrrrrrrrrr.

I hope that your strawbs will be oké this winter. It gets much colder here than here. I wonder- —do you think that you could use some of that lint to lightly insulate your little plants?

Pacnor, it sounds like you really had some fun there. We have also had the same activities here in the past. I wrote about them on this forum. It is a pity that many of the activities have disappeared with the changing membership. It is an association, but what we are getting are are renters. The difference is not easy to explain in english for it has to do with the words and what they connote. Vereniging and huurder are the words.

Thanks for the compliments on the greenhouse clean-up. We do that twice, once now and again in the spring when the soil in the greenhouse gets replaced.
It gives you a good feeling to clean the inside of the greenhouse, doesn’t it. We will have to replace some of the structural elements in ours this time. At least it will be warm in there.

 

Hiya Loggie— No, I do not grow anything in the greenhouse over the winter. It isn’t heated.
Thanks for the clean-up compliment. You are such a nice person.

We had another accumulation of garden “stuff” that had to go to the municipal rubbish staging point. It always feels so good to clean things up. The wind here today is blowing extra hard.

 

Everything looks ready for the change of seasons You seemed to have a wonderful tomato year. I enjoyed seeing how much of the "whitehouse" returned to clear. May I ask Sjoerd - when you replace your greenhouse soil, do you use sterile soil? Or do you use your compost and leaf mold? I've been wondering if I would introduce pests into the greenhouse with compost and leaf mold. Last year I stuck to the comfry tea, and some seaweed and fish fertillizers. Once pests have gotten into my greenhouse it can be a lost season.

 

I should have perhaps began harvesting navel lint much earlier in the year to protect my strawbs Thank you for the kind words Sjoerd.

Regarding the vehicles etc, we have some outbuildings but none designated to covering the trucks. The shed in the photo houses a couple of boats and a trailer. Another all of the outdoor equipment. Another is a drive through shed for the snowmobiles. And the barn houses the tractor. Our place looks funny on google maps.

The hope is to erect something for the town truck for next winter. It is a little big for me to remove the snow from easily. Everything is plugged in for atleat a few hours before being driven once it gets to about -14. The plough truck is a diesel and espcially likes this. The tractor has a magnetic block heater. I run the generator down by the barn to heat the oil up in the tractor. Once the snow gets to a certain height I have to use the front end loader to make room for more plowing. The tractor is not fond of too cold of temps.

We don't go to town often in the winter months, so to save electricity we don't leave them plugged in all of the time. On a town day I will plug it in the night before if it is colder than -30 C. Otherwise I will plug it in when I wake in the early am to do the fire.

I can imagine Alaska got bitter cold. When I lived close to the Yukon border we lived in a small community. There everyone left their vehicles plugged in 24-7, in large part because we used them on a moment's notice. When I went to the hospital in labour with my daughter, the tires were frozen flat. hahaha It was like driving a Flintstone car. All work places had plug ins. When I worked in town here, we went out and ran the vehicle every few hours to be sure it would start for when it was time to go home.

 

Hiya Sjeord, thanks for letting me know, it's good to get things clean for the next season. Thanks for the compliment, so are you.

 

Sjoerd During the winter I kept my annuals collections like cacti, succulents , fuchsias, geraniums, a bunch of tender plants to over winter in a heated greenhouse. I cut them way down and spray for bugs. It’s the worst thing when the greenhouse is full of whiteflies , etc. I even use a systemic in the soil in spring when they start to grow out.

In the past I usually started lots of plants to show in the spring flower/yard and garden show in the flower, horticulture and design divisions and many others. Lots of amaryllis… Have huge lights that have huge ballasts attached designed for different spectrums for growing flowering plants and growing greenies. And many seedlings grown from catalog orders that we don’t ever see in garden centers. Growing lots of seeds using bottom heat pads or just elec. hot pads under the plant flats for germination . It was so much fun to watch them all grow from seed. It’s a lot of pricking out ends and care to have bushy seedlings by spring to plant out in the garden and many were sold at spring sales for the garden club.

My GH has been raided by a police Blackhawk helicopter at 3 AM in the morning before maryjane plants were legal. Those funny green plants used for smoking ….they are legal to grow now with a license. I live on top of a mountain. And at night when the greenhouse lights are all on they light up the top of the mountain down thru to the valley below. Because we have no street lights at night out in this area it’s usually pitch black at night. The helicopter was louder than 10 rock concerts….the chopper shook the house like a wet noodle. Woke me up and I was frightened to death as I watched the huge search lights from the chopper search the tiny GH and the whole pasture area. At that time growing maryjane plant was worth big money and illegal grown thruout the PNW. They were grown amoung tall bamboo to hide the illegal plants .
So that’s my most exciting greenhouse story.

The greenhouse was heated with propane , we have no natural gas . I haven’t refilled the propane tank for the greenhouse the past couple of years the prices are so outrageous now.

Mel. We use electrical oil warmer that is placed in the oil check dip stick, to warm up the tractor, cars etc. it doesn’t get nearly as cold here as the Yukon thank goodness. Omg your stories around living in that climate takes nerves of Steele. Your a very tough and brave lady..
And when ever pests get in the greenhouse I use a forger to get rid of them and lots of fly tape hanging aroud helps with those soil nats.

oh yes Mel …..I was wounding too about how contemplating your navel was coming along???

 

Nothing today it's been raining all day and still is.

 

Im in awe. You are made of much more rugged stuff than I am!

 

I finally remembered to bring a big ziplock bag to the clinic where I volunteer. There are three big coffee urns. I took the grounds for my garden. Later, I spread them for fertilizer.

I used to go to Starbucks for coffee grounds. They had a lot more. However, they work so hard there, I felt sorry for them. I always bought a coffee when I did that.

The grounds from those urns are about the same as a week supply of my own coffee grounds. Over the winter, if I collect every week, that should be all I "need".