What have you done today in the Garden?

Fertilize some plants and pruning also.

 

Nothing today it's raining still.

 

We too have begun the rainy season so my blown up leaves are ...next stage

 

Continued chopping unknown shrubs mixed with brambles and thorny roses of unknown variety. One clump at a time. Two down and three to go. The green bin gets emptied tomorrow so I can refill it. My new clippers go through 2 inch stems like butter.
Yesterday I cleared a portion of the driveway of big leaf maple leaves. Now I can once again tell where the roadway is. That’s a good thing.

 

Yesterday I worked the day at one of my volunteer jobs. They had a potluck. I brought a chili with black beans and fried tofu crumbles (yes I'm West Coast LOL) which had a base made from my garden Roma tomato sauce, and contained garlic from the garden. Lucky for me, they hadn't emptied coffee grounds from the huge coffee machine, so I surreptitiously save those for soil building - a pound or two. I don't have to be sneaky about it, they get thrown away. I just feel a little embarrassed.

I emptied leaves from the truck. More need to be collected. I want one of these vacuum cleaner trucks to make it easier.



Until then, it's hand raking.

Today wont be much in garden. Delivering senior meals in the morning. Might do more garden cleanup in afternoon.

 

….but do they mulch the leaves into tiny bits also? Ahhhhhhh…..

 

Still taking care of the odds and ends outdoors. Had an inch of slushy snow so I need to get my butt in gear and finish up.

 

Nothing today it's raining again, looks like it's going to be for a long time, but there's not much to do now.

 

Yes! More leaves! It was very windy, but I managed to fill the truck. Truckload #4.

I checked the overwintering pepper plants. Not much going on.



The stems remain green. The cayenne does have some buds. I left leaves on one, an early Jalapeño, for some reason.



They need to be very slow. I don't want real growth until April or May.

There were some whiteflies, or something, on the soil for one plant of the ten I'm trying to overwinter.



I sprayed the soil with this stuff, then with some neem. I don't know if that will help.



I also pulled some weeds and spread some leaves where I hope they dont blow away.

I bought these while at the hardware store, and planted them in the border.



If it's cold in the morning, I'll burn some logs with dried chicken bones, in the woodstove. The ashes will become fertilizer.

 

@Daniel W i hope that your chillie plants make it through the winter, I don't keep mine i collect seeds and start them in march. Those bulbs look good and i'll look forward to seeing them in the spring.

 

Those English bluebells are great. Our woods are full of them. Beware though of the Spanish ones as they are invasive. They appreciate a shady environment.(a bit like me)

 

Over wintering the planted hanging baskets, put a lot more leaves on the borders in the back garden.

 

The pepper plants are looking good. Not sure about those little white insects. They do make me think about whitefly, but they just seem longer than ours. Nice score on the bulbs. Tetters is right though about the Spanish invaders. Keep an eye out for those. There were some in our lottie when we took it over 25 years ago…and I still have them. At least they are all out of the veggie plots at least now.

I would remove the pot with the white insects totally from the same room. Out, out damned spot…errr flies!

 

Daniel, what are you using in those pots as ''soil/compost'' ? Does it consist of leaves etc or home made composted ingredients ? Do these creatures jump ? ,I ask as I had very similar thoughts to those Sjoerd had, and for now would move the pot well away from the others, although they could just be scavengers like springtail which clean stuff up and don't actually harm anything.
It is always good to try to identify insect populations, as they can be so beneficial, and we don't want to destroy our allies.

 

Today I cleand out the downstairs wood stove of ash and spread it on the lower garden. After this I'll keep the ashes until spring to spread on top of the snow. It attracts the sun and help it melt faster, and gets tilled in before planting. I just can't go too crazy - ash is like anything, and there can be too much of a good thing

First seed order was finished today through an heirloom seed company in Northern Alberta. The second is almost complete. The second is from my "go to" seed company in Northern Manitoba that only sells items that cater to cold climate gardening.

My shovel and I have a date with the front of the greenhouse this morning, once it warms up a bit. I want access to my coldframe/greenhouse sooner this spring. Usually I have to wait until I can move snow away from it with the front end loader. The burms from the plough truck have blocked it in the past. This winter though, I have been doing the ploughing so far, and have managed to keep the burms off of the upper garden, and away from the greenhouse. Blowing snow freezing in the door frame is proving to be an issue. When it warms up in a couple of days, my temporary fix will be to leave one side of the door open, and TuckTape a plastice drop sheet/doorway over it.

I'm pretty sure I could climb through the back window and did consider it last year....but that could get tedious and very embarrasing. Getting stuck could be a long term dilema until someone came along.

With the plastic over one door way, I can still get in and out even if the sliding doors freeze up. I'm pretty excited about this....it means spinach and lettuce can be planted much sooner in the early spring.