What have you done today in the Garden?

About 20 miles from there, near a town in Missouri that is unincorporated and has no businesses, but there two churches. I was born in Quincy, IL, also about 20 miles from Hannibal. I really grew up there, farm on weekends. My family in the German part of Quincy gardened all their lives, since the 1870s. They gave me my love of gardening. For them, a garden was a natural part of life, not something separate.

I read a lot of Mark Twain. Also, my family fished those backwaters for decades.

 

Cheers for that answer, Daniel. Your past is an interesting one. What a great area to grow up in.
I enjoyed Twain’s books as well.

 

When I was about 5, we lived in a house with a giant old English walnut tree, and they have always been my favorites. But in Missouri, they have black walnuts. I have several black walnut trees on my place, they are very common here. This big one is in my yard. The others are on the edges of the woods where it is more wild.

Nuts of any kind are very expensive in the stores, so it is good to have free nuts.

My favorite kinds of nuts are: English walnuts, pecans, cashews and peanuts. Almonds are nice, but I have to chop or slice those. Some people around here have chestnut trees or filberts.

They have people around here who 'buy' your black walnuts, but friends have said, they had a pickup truck FULL of nuts and barely get enough for 1 tank of gas out of them. I don't think it is worth the effort to sell them.

I forgot to mention yesterday, that the seeds from my summer dill are sprouting, so I have a lot of dill seedlings in my garden again. I hope they make more seeds before it turns cold. I did save some seed indoors for spring.

 

Thanks Sjoerd, it really comes in handy and it was less than $5 to make. I found the netting in the remnants bin at Hobby Lobby.

We had 5 pecan trees in our yard in Texas. When they're ready you see people carrying 5 gallon buckets everywhere. We kept ours or sent them back to Washington State for my son. That was back before postage was ridiculously high.

 

Thank you Pacnorwest, feeling better today but still taking it easy for a while. Can't do much in the garden it's rainy weather.

 

@Logan good news to hear your better today. Sending blessings for Improvement thruout the next few days til back to work.

Not out in the garden it’s overcast with rain on and off. Way too cold for these ole bones. My joints are telling me it’s winter weather already. Who needs a weather forecaster…

 

Thanks @Pacnorwest
I hope that you'll be ok with the winter weather and have to listen to your ole bones.
Anyway can't do much in the garden it's raining again.

 

Same weather as yesterday but colder outside. Marine layer and fog.

@Logan yeap. listening to these ole bones. Ouch…

 

Done nothing , although my intentions have been good but after going out to start on jobs it hits me at just how poorly I'm currently feeling. I will have another attempt at some bulb planting maybe this afternoon. I have just found pkts of bulbs that I bought last Autumn ...this happens every year. I might plant them and keep my fingers tightly crossed.

 

I picked Roma tomatoes.



Minimally processed them. Wash, cut the stem end, boil 1 minute until skin starts to peel off. Peel the now- loose skin, cut into quarters, measure 16-oz per bag, freeze.



There are about 12 pounds now in freezer. Might be another 5 or 10 pounds still on the plants.

These are good for recipes that call for canned tomatoes, but better.

I also need to pick green beans today.

 

I did laundry today. Nice enough to hang outside. I picked a few raspberries and promptly washed them and put them in yogurt for breakfast. They seem to be slowing down.

Your tomatoes look great, Daniel. Mine are still green. I still have about a week and a half before the first frost, so I'll keep checking the weather and bring them in green, if need be. Then, I'll be over run as they ripen. I did pick more basil and will make some pesto to freeze. I'll dry what's left. I may dry some mint for tea this winter.

 

With chilly nights here, I started bringing tender perennials / indoor plants, indoors. It's a bit tricky because the sunroom heats up too much. A window fan helps.



Mostly Schlumbergeras. In close inspection, they have tiny flower buds.



The seedling Schlumbergeras grew very nicely. I don't think they are ready to bloom yet. They are still growing new pads.



The herb cuttings look ok, but no roots emerging from the bottom drainage holes yet. Except one of the Pelargonium cuttings and one container of Rosemary cuttings.





The other herb cuttings actually look OK, and not wilting. The sage cuttings have tiny new growths emerging. So maybe they do have little roots.



The small woody section that broke off of a larger lavender plant, so I pruned it back and planted it. That was a month ago. leafy buds are emerging, so I guess it will survive.



I think that growth will be too tender to survive outdoors this winter. So it gets to overwinter indoors. I don't mind. They smell very good.

If those fragrant herb cuttings grow, that's a lot of "free plants" for next Spring. Plus they are all varieties that grow well here.

 

Trimming trees, and started trimming the wisterias. UGG. And a bit of clean up around the garden. Not nearly as much clean up yet, until the battle of the leaves begin - when all the leaves fall.

No new critters above ground or underground …. Brought in the amaryllis collection after trimmed off the leaves and placed them all in a large container with lid.

Saw the bobcat today running down the trail to the woods. And haven’t seen many quail lately . The apple tree is loaded with apples need to pic them all soon. I back the pick up under it and shake the branches . Most fall off in the pickup bed.
My neighbors help pick the apples and berries to keep.

Cleaned and sprayed houseplants large palm, large bird of paradise, a couple other large dracaena’s and some smaller houseplants . Thank goodness for plant stands with rollers. I’m trying to downsize the house plants ….again.

Soon it will be October the spiders will be out crossing their webs back and forth along the garden trails and every where else. Already the wolf spiders have webs thruout the pasture floor and several shrubs and trees.

The hummers are out and about feasting on feeders and setting up nests in the dense dwarf alberta spruce trees.

 

I was going to ask about this. Is your method, cut off all the leaves and put them, dry, in a box for a month, then bring them out and start watering again?

I only have one, but am happy it survived the summer.

I just bought a mini chain saw, battery operated, to help with cleanup.

 

Daniel so glad your amaryllis bulb is all set until the holiday season. I just leave my bulbs in the same pots. Just cut the leaves off , place in a dark area 10-12 weeks temps not below 55 degrees. Then ready to bloom for the holiday season.