What have you done today in the Garden?

Sjoerd, I would so gladly settle for your "messy" flower garden. It's lovely, as is your veggie plot.

I have been away and much to my surprise, late blight hit several of our tomato plants. Therefore,
I took out almost all the plants to save the ones not yet blighted. Final batch, but not the green ones.
These are just a few.

 

Beautiful tomatoes Growing Pains!! I love the different shapes & shades.

My husband & I are rehabbing our bathroom. I have been on spackle/sand/clean up duty for what feels like an eternity, with more still to go. Consequently, not so much is getting done in the garden at present. I did dump a few pots of annuals that have gone past on the compost heap & harvested some basil.

 

Cayuga, I too appreciate the varied colors and tastes of tomatoes.
This morning, I took out the last tomato plant. Two Grape tomatoes.

I layered the oval garden with paper bags, (The huge bags people use for leaves and grass clippings)
and cardboard boxes, all torn apart and placed flat, wet down and covered with dirt, grass clippings,
leaves, tomato and pepper plants torn apart. When all is well covered, we will spray with Black Strap
molasses mixed in water. It is supposed to aide in decomposition of vegetable material.

 

Today I picked two bushels of beans... more to pick the rest of this week, I just hope I can get them all picked before frost hits. I also had a tomato presentation at the local country club at lunch time... *gulp* on those prices... none on the menu. I just can't ever see me "doing" that for pleasure, I would feel guilty each and every time I ordered, I think. I did get a card from the chef though wanting my tomatoes next year. Yay on that.

 

Oregano picked yesterday and dried.--today using it in the chilli sauce. Can you smell it cooking on the stove?
continued cleaning up. The sun came and went off and on, but it was dry--good working weather.

I came across these slug eggs--they became minnow food in the canal.


This lovely aster is blooming its heart out, but the weather is too cold for pollinators to fly. What a shame.
Thre said on the news this afternoon that it was the coldest october 14th ever.

It is strange to be working in the beginning of october and have a cold nose and ears. Fingers crossed that it is not going to be a really cold winter this year. The doomsday-sayers are already predicting a very cold winter...but they line-up to say that each fall. One of these years they may be correct. It may be like the boy who cried wolf.

 

Ah Carolyn, you are by far the hardest working woman I know. I award you a Gold star.

Toni, I wish I could share our weather with you.

Sjoerd, perhaps October will warm up in a day or two?
So you have Slug eggs and I had Snapping turtle eggs. I waited more than a month
after accidentally digging them up and re-covering them, but no apparent action.
Finally, I could wait no longer. I gently dug into the soft dirt and found all eggs had
been opened. No baby turtles. No evidence of having been dug up by a skunk or any
critter. Is it possible the babies crawled out, replacing the dirt behind themselves?

Today I took out the Kale, sprayed it with garlic water because Cabbage worms had
been eating it. If I plan to use it in the compost pile, I figured I best kill off the worms
first.
I also need to read up on Late blight on tomatoes.

 

Ahh Growingpains, you are generous and thanks for the star. It has been quite some time since anyone has awarded me one.. I have a goal in mind and I need to get it done and work work work is the only way to get it accomplished. I can't do it so I need cash to pay someone else to. I am started on it though and then next year I think I'll cut back on the farmers markets and see about growing for a chef at a country club.. that should be interesting, anyway...
today we picked 2 more bushels of beans, I have two rows left, and all of the tomatoes... maybe 3 bushels. It is hard to guess as they are picked in flats this time instead of in peck baskets. Maybe they are close to the same quantity, though. Friday night sounds as if the end of gardening is nearing for us. 32 for two nights in a row. I really need to be done with it though as I need to start on my kitchen cabinets to refinish the doors for the shop that is making the other cabinets for my kitchen project. They are going to varnish my old doors for me.

 

I am almost done picking beans. I have one more row to do if it doesn't frost tonight. today I got one more picked and it was 1/2 bushel. other than that.. not much.

 

Yesterday I picked food for last night's dinner: the last cantaloupe, kale, tomatoes, a bunching onion. We made omelets with it all (excepting the cantaloupe).

 

This afternoon I gave a presentation to the local garden club on beekeeping. Texas ladies are so nice, so gracious, and can stay awake through a presentation about small stinging insects! I didn't take any bees with me, which is the first question the hostess asked as I lugged demonstration stuff into her home.

 

Chuckle, MG.
How did your presentation go and what subjects did you cover? Did you show any slides?
Tell more!

 

Ah, Sjoerd, I didn't bore the ladies too much, so I'm not going to press my luck with boring the Stewies.
No slides--this was in the home of one of the members and I wasn't sure of the set-up. I did bring frames, a smoker, hive tool, photos of a marked queen, bearding bees, and worker bees with their little leg sacks filled with pollen. We talked about how many bees are in a hive; how many miles bees fly to gather nectar and pollen; Africanized bees; and how important planting for bees can be. I also had a basic beekeeping booklet that my husband wrote to give out to anyone interested, and a booklet he wrote for Texas Parks and Wildlife about providing for wildlife, which includes a list of beneficial plants for hummingbirds and butterflies, and which also work for bees (hey, nectar is nectar!).
I was pleasantly surprised at how much they knew, and cared, about honeybees!

 

Marlingardener, we should all love bees. Honey is delicious and medicinal. Plus, without them, our produce / fruit is doomed. I can imagine how fascinated the ladies were with your presentation.