What have you done today in the Garden?

Great Scott!— that is quite a bit of work.
What a great posting that was.

 

I guess I overdid things yesterday when hauling all that brush and a few logs. My neck is screaming. I had had a heating pad on it for awhile and have taken two naps so far today, and done nothing. I have no intentions of doing anything more than pet care today. The other logs and brush can wait for DS to cut them up with the chainsaw.

 

@AAnightowl be careful with that! Not that I am one to talk LOL.

My favorite neighbor texted me that she has another giant pile of liquidamber leaves ready. So I loaded up the pickup with those. They were very clean (no weed seeds), dry (not too heavy), and a nice size for mulch.

I moved the large containers that have plants, into the basement now. Im not sure the dahlias are all fully dormant. Two are very dwarf dahlias - I think they can overwinter but I don't know for certain. I think the geranium is dormant and one of the dwarf Alstroemerias is dormant. I'm interested to see if they keep over the winter. A couple of the geraniums are blooming nicely in the sunroom, so I'm not trying to make them go dormant.

 

@Pacnorwest - that was quite the day! busy busy busy.
@Daniel W - you are definitely on the leaf bus!! all aboard!!
@Doghouse Riley - I didn't know that you have five wisteria!! My daughter lives in Edmonton AB, and her friend has a wisteria growing along side her garage! I couldn't believe it. I've been doing a bit of reading, but I have to do more. I don't think the variety is as spectacular as yours, but I'm definitely looking into it!

 

Recess was sooo cold today. The kids even wanted in. We had no stragglers when we called them to the lines. I looked at the temperature on my phone.....24...real feel 14F. That real feel always bugs me, why not just say 14. Then it could have been indoor. 15 and below is supposed to be indoor. Too cold to do anything outside..for me, anyway.

 

I did not get outdoors to work today. It got into the 50s, but I decided to finish painting in the two front rooms. I did the closet, and touch ups on the window frames. The closet is small, so I got a lot of paint in my hair, even though I had it in a ponytail. Weather permitting, I will work on raking leaves tomorrow. That closet wall used to be an interior wall, but is now an exterior wall because my old bedroom had to be torn down. I wanted to be sure it was mild enough for the paint to dry. It has a small amount of insulation, but not enough.

@Daniel W , I did sleep almost the whole day Tuesday, and slept all night also. I must have really needed the extra sleep. The rest of those logs can wait for DS to cut them up for me. All those leaves for your garden sound great!

 

@Daniel W , what are liquid amber leaves?

 

Sweetgum. Liquidamber is the formal name, but I like the sound of it.

Just hauled and spread arborist chips. Making progress.

 

Where are you spreading the chips, Daniel? I mean, on beds, paths or in a more general way?

 

Dry and sunny and about 3c, so I did a bit this afternoon.

Took about half an hour to strip this wisteria. This was how it looked four days ago. But the freezing temperatures over the successive nights pretty much killed a lot of the leaves off and they were beginning to fall of their own accord anyway.



I pruned a lot of the branches back. Took about half an hour.








Then another half hour to collect all the leaves!
Called it a day at half past three, as it was starting to get dark.

All the wisterias will get another prune between Christmas and New Year.

 

Great work, Riley. I shall have to copy you on this task in the coming weeks. You are about two or three weeks ahead of us over there. I still have a couple of Rhamnus frangula as well as the Wisteria to go yet.
It was good seeing your work. You did a superb job, my friend. I like tidy.

 

Nothing today it's been too cold and frosty.

 

Generally all caught up with most of the winterizing projects. Never did get the wisterias cut back for the hundredth time or the grape vines. Or clear the needles off the barn roof. Or put the foam caps over the faucets yet.
But I managed to collect enough long grape vines to make a few wreaths. The deer taught me a short cut to making wreaths. Which is to leave the cut vines laying on the ground on the pasture side …by the next day the deer would have cleared off all the leaves from the vines. All that was left for me was to pick up the deleafed vines , curl into wreaths and no plucking off any of the leaves for me to do. Never thought I would be thankful for anything the deer did to my garden. Saved me a lot of time. So “Kudos”…”Dear Deer” !

Now it is just a waiting game for the first storm that comes along to litter up my prestine pastures with debris. Some storms can take down trees , heavy icy snow can cause havoc and huge limbs to break off the trees. Soon the winter damage cycle begins. Never a dull moment… All the pastures are gleaming , freshly cut and not one mole or gopher mound in sight . Going on two weeks.. that is definitely a first. Still not holding my breath for some ground critters to pop up.

Went out early this morning fed the horses then scooped up the recycled hay from the horses dropping's on the ground. Put it in a pile and coved it tightly with a tarp before the rain started later this afternoon. By next summer will have my own pile of black gold to top coat the garden .

Then decided to help my friend next door who is in his 80’s to clear the huge maple leaves fallen from a 100 year old tree covering 1/2 acre in front of his home. Got the mulcher tractor out and in a couple of hours all the dry leaves were mulched. Bob my friend that breeds Black Angus couldn’t believe the difference as he came out wondering where I put all the leaves. They were all mulched in place … all gone …was my answer. He brought out coffee and biscuits as a thank-u as we sat on his porch chatting away.

Finally pulled out some holiday stuff from the barn and tried to unravel some X-Mass lights I made from twinkle lights to hang on the entry arch over the driveway from the road. One of my favorites says..”Mare-E-X-Mass” , a lil pun on the word Merry. Put out some lights then tested them and cussed a few out as the fuses were burned out. How does that happen every year in storage? Next question, which bin are the fuses in ? Wrangled up a few extension cords then called it a day as light rain sprinkles with a light snow mix began falling.

Then decided to tackle x-mass decorations for the inside… where did I put the ? Ok now where are the fairy lights ? Does it ever end… spend more time looking for stuff than actually placing the decor . Ever year I swear I will put everything in a safe place thinking I will not forget where I put them for the next season. Everything labeled. And of course every year it’s always the same thing … where did I put x y z… ?

Received my amaryllis bulb order that I ordered back in august. Opened the box and the bulbs were all squishy . So took pics of them , sent to the company e-mail, per instructions and hopefully they will send replacements. I have ordered from them before never had this issue. If the bulbs are replaced they will not bloom till after the holidays. They were new double blooms that I haven’t seen before just hope they are still available.

 

@Sjoerd, those are going to an area that's impossible to reach with the mower and difficult to garden in anyway - a narrow space between fences. I've used it in the past for squashes, beans, flowers, potatoes, but last year it was just weeds. Every time I looked at it, I thought "that looks awful! I should do something!".

So now, if I don't use it again, at least it will be more tidy.

It's possible I might cut out small sections in May, and plant squashes there again. They like growing in there.

I moved Dusty Miller plants into the garage. The survived freezes so far, but possibly not the freezes ahead.

I also ordered some more seeds - Rose Moss (portulaca), an Alstroemeria mix, some cactus zinnias, a marigold (a pale yellow one in the "Alumia" series, I keep wanting to call it "aluminum"), dwarf Celosias, a dwarf snowpea with purple flowers, and some colorful chili peppers.

 

Thanks for the answer, Daniel. I was just curious. I have a similar space along a fence, but I just schoffel it every so often.