popular What have you done today in the Garden?

Just the usual nothing backbreaking today. Sprayed the pastures. Picked and prepped the hydrangeas and lavender. Carry everything in the handy dandy seat cover pockets.

 

Not much time to garden today. I did transplant another rose bush, from large container, into the soil. The ground was hard and dry, so I poured on water from the duck pond. That helped. It will need a trellis, it is a climbing rose.

I also blanched and froze another batch of green beans. One more batch to go.

 

Daniel your garden-fresh green beans are superior to store bought options. Your harvest every year is always highly productive and well worth the growing season full of constant demands and tasks . It’s a proud day when the dinner table offers those fresh vegetables you have grown from seed , harvested , and nourished for months.

 

Not much today. I worked at our community center this morning. This afternoon I did do some watering, and removed some dead flowers.

Last Thursday and Sunday, I did get some more mowing done here. I guess I mowed about half of my yard. I need to rake some areas before mowing. There are still plenty of leaves in the trees, but so many on the ground also.

Yesterday a friend took me to a different store, and I was able to get a bushel of gala apples for $24. Not many stores here sell apples by the bushel.

I am finally getting cucumbers from my vines.

 

Daniel— those beans look really good. I do love beans.
Those freezer-bound babies will be just the thing later on.

 

Nothing today as we've only just got home from a day out. We did however pick some more Pears and Apples before we left home this morning and took them to the Community Table.
Everyone has donated so much this year which no doubt has benefited and been greatly appreciated by a lot of people . Something so positive and public spirited is such a welcomed heartwarmer to witness these days.

 

Planted some more polyanthus in the borders, when i dug the holes i filled the holes with compost and weeded the rest of the existing polyanthus. Much the same as yesterday but got a lot to plant, it's surprising how long it takes.

 

Still clipping and taking out small trees and overgrown shrubs. My tarp sled attached to tractor taken to a pile.

 

I bought some more little envelopes yesterday so I sat out in the greenhouse in full sunshine, toasty warm happily sealing up the remaining seeds harvested from our own plants.

Collected up some Apple and Pears fallers that were undamaged for our consumption and took some handpicked ones to the community table.

Did the daily sweep of the East patio and the pathway that runs along our front boundary .It's even been reported on our national news about the bountiful amounts of acorns we have this year and how happy the Squirrels ,Pigs and Wild Boar will be this Winter.

Cleaned up some houseplants and repotted those who required it.

Super day out here and feels warm in the undiluted sun.
Just going in for some lunch but will be back out here this afternoon.

 

Another day of no gardening. Just fed the birds and the hedgehogs. We're into October and there's no sign of them hibernating, yet...well "the sign," will be when they stop coming for food. Itt's been a few weeks earlier in some past years.

Following my annual diabetes eye examination, a week or so ago, I'd booked an eye examination at Specsavers as I was advised to do. A couple of days ago I got an email from my GP advising the same thing.
I had the examination today. The optician at Specsavers used about for different kinds of apparatus to carry this out, all free, of course, as the NHS pays for it.

The result was that there was insufficient change in my eyesight to justify new glasses and I might as well carry on using the ones I got in March last year.
I really only use them for watching TV.
I'm still "street legal," without them to be fit to drive.
The optician suggested I had them re-tested in a year, instead of two years, just as a precaution. There were some minor defects like tiny cataracts, but I don't see "floaters" so my eyes aren't bad for my age.
It was quite a relief, as if my eyes made me unfit to drive, we'd be in a very difficult situation.
I think the equipment used at the diabetic clinic is pretty basic and the operator was not the same one as the one who carried out last year, so maybe they were being cautious and wanted to cover themselves.

My wife didn't help by saying,
"If you can't drive, you'll just have to get the bus, like I did when I had to do it, with four carrier bags, three kids and a pushchair!"
This is a running joke between us, as the number of carrier bags often changes.
But she knows we'd be in a difficult situation.

 

We are in that situation @Doghouse Riley, and have been for several years now. Initially we embraced it as an ideal opportunity to cut our carbon footprint and do our little bit for our poorly world and it's climate but although manageable it has been a tad difficult at times this year during recovering from my knee replacement. But...... I do think it's been beneficial as I literally HAD to walk and not nip into the car for, especially, silly local short trips. Where there's a will there's a way.

We live down a long ' no through ' lane which has only 5 houses and a farm at one end. It's quite a hike to the nearest bus stop....just walking to it and back again is just under 2 miles . We still have the car but this year we officially took if off the road . Hubs cataracts are too bad anyway and we are waiting for his surgery date. I personally have never enjoyed driving and haven't done so for years now.
You need to do a bit of advanced planning when going on days out a bit further afield from your locality, but it's perfectly doable as we have proved as we love getting out and about. We go out for the day at least 3 days during the week. I love planning our journeys , normally done via buses and can easily travel up 30 miles away. It's surprising how easily buses can be linked up. We have a Two Together Railcard and have travelled almost 700 miles in the last couple of years.

I know that should we need assistance one day in getting to medical appointments then we will have to register for Hospital Transport or rely on taxis.
The advantages to us are worth it, we have always been ' walkers' but obviously now we do more and really clock up the mileage that not only benefits our world but equally valued...our health.
We aren't young either, hubs will be celebrating his 80th next year and we both have health issues which I'm sure would get more severe if we hadn't made this lifestyle change.
I fully appreciate not everyone can make or even want to make such changes, but it suits us just fine.

 

I don't live where there is any form of public transportation, not even a taxi. If I can't drive I will sell the house, move where there is public transport and get myself an Electric Trike.

I don't drive in the rain anymore anyway and that would get me to and from the grocery store, at least. Actually, I will probably buy one in a couple years. I really want one right now but my car will be paid off in Feb. '27 and once I don't have to carry collision insurance on it, I can afford to save up for a really good E Trike. I covet the Dutch Bakfiets cargo bikes.
I could even bring home a bale of hay in that thing !!

 

I’d rather be on a horse taking them thru the drive thru getting hamburger buns and apples for the horses and my fav lunch any day. We live in a small agricultural community. So horses in town is no biggie. Besides as some familiar with horse riding may agree, riding a horse means your using every single muscle in your body and some you didn’t know you had.

Today’s garden tasks still clipping, trimming and cleaning up. Forgive my snarkyness , I’m on a rosemary high at the moment after trimming a huge 6’x8’ shrub , all I can smell is rosemary. It’s quit lovely really. Beats being chased by the Sweat bees… the black ones with no stinger just after the salt.

It’s starting to look like Winter is near .

 

I did not work outdoors today, but I canned up more of my apples into applesauce. I usually make my sauce chunky, but I used my electric mixer on the last pot full of apples. It is a great little mixer. I had to replace my 28 year old mixer last winter. The old one was good all of those years. The low speed on my new one is faster than the high speed on the old one. Odd, but I like the new one also. That old mixer was $8 in 1994. My new one was $25 this year... Anyway, I have a total of 12 1/2 quarts of applesauce, and a large wash pan full of more apples for pie. Yummy. I had some pears given to me a few weeks ago, and I saved those to go in my applesauce also.




I had a small amount left over that did not fit the jars, so I ate it. It is good.

I do not add sugar to my applesauce. I use the open kettle method for my canning. I am careful to wash everything in hot soapy bleach water, and then to sterlize everything. You cannot use it for everything, but some things like apples or pears, and some other things it is fine.

I still need to make my elderberry jam. Maybe next week.