popular What have you done today in the Garden?

My son came over and we harvested the last 4 bags of potatoes. We didn't get as many; but the huckleberry gold were rising up out of the dirt. When I saw that, I decided it was time to harvest. Right now I think I may be inside for a bit until I go dig the hole for the gooseberry.

 

Ta Annie I struck a few back in the spring to plant on top of the turf wall that I haven't finished yet

 

It was time to harvest another broccoli head. The Bride had caterpillar concerns, so we submerged the head in water and held it down with a parsnip.




We could look on top to see if any would float up, and from the side if they would be wiggling around. No larvae were discovered, so we had it for supper.

 

Added more trimming piles to the pasture. Fighting battles with the ground squirrels have a surprise coming. I ordered a new pipe trap from the Forest Service. Been setting out plantskyyd… they don’t like that stuff… and been hosing down the tunnels with water. They are digging all the way around the perimeter of the house, barn , out buildings. Buzzy digging in and piling up winter goodies. At least they are not in the pastures or the gardens. Good news not a deer to be seen in more than a week. It’s so dry here you take a step on the pastures and dust flies up like smoke.

 

Looks great …you are so lucky to have so much fresh veggies and fruit… another home grown dinner.. from a fresh harvest. Nothing like fresh veggies. You must be so proud and your garden …

 

Those parsnips look great Sjoerd.

 

Just had a wander around this morning and fed the birds.

I'm quite pleased with this clematis. It was very prolific earlier in the year, but then suffered from clematis droop and died off. I cut it right down and it's grown back again. It needs a bit of a tidy, I'll do that this afternoon as I've shopping to do this morning.



I'm quite pleased with the lawn, it has almost completely recovered and no sign of any moss...yet.



Planning forward.

We've these two pots either side of the front door. The Apta pot on the right I put there a couple of years ago for different plants through the summer. The earthenware one on the left must have been there for 20 years.
There's a Mayleen clematis that travels up the trellis and then over more above the door.
I've tried to grow different ones trained along a wire under the bay window, with limited success. Although I occasionally freshen up the soil in the pot, it probably needs a complete change.

I've a spare matching Aptas pot, so in the late Autumn I'm going to swop them over.
I say swop, but I'll need to take a lump hammer to the old one, to avoid damaging the root of the Mayleen. I'm not bothered about losing the pot. This colour wouldn't fit in with the others in the back garden.



The crazy York stone plinth and paving stones I put there a couple of decades ago to make it easier for my wife to get in and out the door, without them the step would be too high for her to manage with her crutches.

 

Zigs— great looking propagation corner, mate.

Pac— yes indeed, I am very chuffed with my garden this year.
Good luck with those pesky ground squirrels when the trap order comes in. Menno beasts!

Loggie— cheers. They are not too bad this year. —Another load to freeze-in today.

 

I've been freezing a lot of raspberries. They make good smoothies in the winter. The potatoes are in the basement under burlap coffee bags curing. The last things I'm waiting for are the dried beans and the winter squash. I'm still getting peppers and tomatoes, but nothing like yours Sjoerd. It's still very cool compared to past seasons. Hasn't been out of the 70s (F) in weeks. If it's this cool now, I hate to think what winter will be like.

 

More harvesting. We also took that ghastly curtain off the outdoor toms in our garden, as strong winds are forecast. Also, the gauge curtain in the greenhouse door has been removed, and the door closed. Precaution is the name of the game today.

 

I woke up with a stiff neck so, all I did was water my mache and parsnip seeds, move one birdbath to under my Crepe Myrtle tree and clean and fill both birdbaths. The birdbath I moved was getting too warm from the sun and I noticed that the birds weren't using it. Now it will be mostly in shade where they should like it better.

 

Annie— how thoughtful you are. I’ll bet they use it more often now. It makes sense that birds will want to have coolish water at their disposal when it is the least bit warm.

 

Peach tree before.....



And peach tree after.....then the rains came back!

So I'm done outside.

 

Nothing today, this morning went to the opticians for an eye test and bought 2 pairs of glasses, one for reading and the other for intermediate use, was told that the left eye is going cloudy so will have to have that done when it gets worse and we had a lot of heavy rain this afternoon.

 

Nothing outside but inside I potted on the rest of the polyanthus. At least i don't need to do any watering.