What have you done today in the Garden?

Sounds great CC. I am always very slightly startled at how big this country is and consequently how different the climate is from one locale to another.
My husband & I spent the day getting the yard ready for winter: a final (hope so anyway) cut of the lawn & mulching of leaves, a coiling up & zip tying of sundry garden hoses (how did we get so many? Do they secretly multiply? Garden hose romance among the hostas? ), a raking of the driveway so leaves don't mat the snow blower, a readying of the snow blower in anticipation of a "snow event" (since went did weather become an 'event'?), etc.

My community garden plot is all but put to bed. I still need to layer compost on it, harvest the last of the swiss chard & kale. BTW my garlic is up too & looking good!

Does anyone know what one does with rhubarb? Cut it back before the snow flies?

CC: your description of a cold beer, moving blueberries and having a BBQ sounds so SUMMERY to my northern ears!

 

LOL couldn't stand the horrid humid heat das why we do stuff like dat in the fall down here in Cajun country.

 

Hey There Cayuga---Wait until the leaves have been frost-bitten and die. You then cut these off. You can leave these lie or not...but make a mulch of well-rotted manure or compost placed carefully around the crown, but not actually on the crown, because it may well rot if you do.

 

Ah! Thank you Sjoerd! I should have known I could count on you! I'll do it today. I have had a very successful composting year. One bin is full of very rich compost, another is of mix of great leaf mold & compost. Riches galore! Of course I shall have to dig around Ms Queen of Sheba to get at the compost. Ms QoS is a rejected hosta that I yanked out. The deer thought she was their own personal bowl of salad & she was always denuded. In disgust I yanked her out & threw her in the compost bin.......where she has THRIVED. Bigger than ever. Apparently deer don't like compost or they just have not figured out where she is. I don't have the heart to ditch her again, so I will just have to dig around her.

Re the rhubarb, some one told that that when picking rhubarb in the spring, you should pull the leaves off not cut them...I don't know why. Should I also do it that way in the fall?

 

You can pull or cut those dead leaves now.Why not give them a gentle pull now. Hopefully they will easily let go and come out without a problem.

The very reason that it is advised to pull the leaf stalks out is so that there will not be a stump left over to rot. Most bits of the plant above ground will already be dead now, but indeed for safety sake try top pull them off.

If they absolutely will not let go with pulling then leave them and cut it off as close to the crown as you can. You probably already know that the correct way is to grasp the stalk low down, pull upwards as you twist.

Good luck meid!

 

Well this wasn't today. But over the weekend before I pulled the last of my pepper plants I collected the last of them. 25 pounds accumulated throughout the season.

 

Ha! Toni! Hugelkultur!! Let me know how it goes!

 

I got 6 solar powered led lights mounted on the facia in the dark spots Hopefully that will spook the varmints that have been visiting due to the burning of the sugar cane fields

 

canning chicken tonight... not much in the garden right now.. but the greenhouse has cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers in it. I almost picked a cuke today.. but I refrained. I did pick up a free pressure canner but before that I was at two different grocery stores and got chicken breast for 1.49 a pound boneless skinless and chicken legs for 44c a pound.. all are getting canned tonight and tomorrow morning. I did 4 canner fulls tonight and still have about 10#'s left to do tomorrow. I picked celery and parsley out of the garden to use in the jars, too.

 

Garden is officially done now. It froze Friday and Saturday night. I'm going to finish drying the rest of my peppers today and maybe go work in my shop. In reality I'll probably curl up with a book.

 

Our first frost last night--chilly early this morning and the hens were all fluffed out. I picked green beans, peppers, and lettuce yesterday afternoon, just in case. So this morning I'm freezing beans and peppers, and wondering what to do with all that lettuce. Two people can eat just so many salads!

 

canning again today. I finished the major deal from Friday when I bought the chicken (14 more quarts), canned 9 pints of carrots and picked the jalapenos and med banana peppers in the greenhouse and canned those, too. still have plenty of banana peppers to pick but I have one more market... need to start getting ready for Thursday though.. finish cleaning the house and cooking food.

 

I got out in the garden for the first time since June 20th when I broke my ankle and elbow. I caused allow of pain for myself but it felt so good. We took 5 very large trailer loads to the local compost ditch.




It took 2 full days to do this. My phone counts my walking distance. It said I walked 5 miles on the first day and I never left the front gardens.