popular What have you done today in the Garden?

Finished the standpipe today, just got the rest of the stumps to burn out now

 

No super duper front end loaders here. My goodness, that's some serious equipment, @Pacnorwest!

Today I hand -raked some linden and maple leaves. Left them in piles to transfer to the garden tomorrow or friday.

I planted the final two rows of garlic. This is in the "overflow" garden that doesn't have irrigation, but the hot season for garlic is pretty brief. I covered them with a thick mulch of aged leaves.



My experience now is that the leaf mulch will last into summer, preventing weeds and evening the soil moisture.

I roasted a pumpkin from the garden, pureed its flesh, and made a keto pumpkin pie. The crust is almond meal, and the sweetener is monk fruit. It used cream instead of condensed milk.







It's a little different, but pretty good and the first pie I've had in 18 months. Minimal effect on blood sugar so far, but it has only been 20 minutes. I bet it will be even better when fully chilled.

Next time I might try coconut milk instead of the cream.

All of the seeds that I ordered for next year have arrived.



It looks like a lot, and I guess it is. The tomatoes will be one plant per variety, so I expect those packets to last several years. Sorry the names on the packets don't show well with the medium picture resolution.

 

Daniel you have been buzy. Lots of seeds to plant how nice to see your planning ahead. Beautiful pumpkin pie and the blood sugar level remains good too. I’m vixen to make sweet potato pie next week . Another way to keep blood sugar level low.

Zigs sending smoke signals ‘Be Safe’ , your way. Nice job .


Today didn’t do much other than mowing and clipped several long low hanging branches off the ornamental weeping cherry tree . Used the telescopic battery op pruner. Took the clippings out to the burn pile for @Zigs to burn whenever he gets around to it.

 

First things first, appointments for our annual Flu and hub's Covid jabs this morning and then a visit to see my sister later on. Hopefully will be able to fit in an hour in two in the garden before it gets too dark out there. I would be happy to just get all the leaves and acorns swept up

 

I 've never had Pumpkin Pie but boy does it look scrummy @Daniel W ...yum!!
Makes my heart sing to see your super collection of seeds all ready and waiting to be sown ...next Spring, Oh how I love that word..SPRING!!

 

Too wet for any more leaf clearance.
We'll be into November by the week-end, but the temperatures aren't forecasted to go below 10c for at least a week.

Very little colour in the garden now. if you don't count green.

This clematis is hanging on.




and the acer palmatums are getting progressively more red.
Sometimes the frost comes before they even get to this stage.
As usual, there will be quite a bit of dead wood under the leaves. There will be several dead lower branches which will need pruning off, but they are always replaced by new growth at the top.





This acer has every shade of yellow green and pink throughout the year.



Just a bit of "moving the furniture around."






This rose, will get "promoted" next year.

 

I've finished planting the tulips in the borders,a lot was from last year that i dug up and kept the larger ones for flowering. Some of the next size down will flower but there's a lot that's too small so I'll bin them. Just got to plant up 4 large pots with tulips to go with the others under the kitchen window.

 

Not a dang thing. Instead I did housecleaning and made another big batch of beef stew.

 

I harvested my ginger and sweet potatoes today, and cleaned out the cucumber and tomato vines. The vines were dying anyway. I got a nice amount of ginger, and sweet potatoes, but have not weighed them yet. The ginger sure smells good.

I also made a pumpkin pie this week for DILs birthday. We are not big cake eaters, and prefer pie or other treats for birthdays.



We had two days of much needed rain this week. I baked some homemade oatmeal bread, and made some lentil soup for a cold rainy day.

 

Ann's Oatmeal Bread

1 c quick oats

2 c hot water

1 T dry yeast

¼ c warm water

½ c molasses or brown sugar

2 tsp salt

1 T or so of oil

1 ½ c oatmeal flour

4 c plain flour





Soften the yeast in the ¼ warm water.



Put hot water in a large bread bowl. Add oats, molasses or brown sugar, salt, oil, and the oatmeal flour. Add softened yeast, and let set about 15 minutes. Add the rest of the flour 1 c at a time, and mix well. When dough is stiff, you can put some shortening on your hands and knead well until firm and elastic. Oil bowl, and turn and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Divide dough in half, and put in greased bread pans. Pan spray works also. Let rise in a warm place until about 1” or so above the top of bread pans. Preheat oven to 375F. Bake at 375F for 45 minutes until browned. Yield is 2 loaves.

Here is my homemade oatmeal bread if anyone wants to make bread.
Note: You can also use 1/3 c honey instead of molasses.




I don't have a precise recipe for lentil soup, but here is how I make it:


1 part lentils
3 parts water

I usually cut up about 1/2 an onion, and add some vegetable oil to it. Whatever you like for seasonings is fine, but I season mine with garlic, oregano, parsley, and a packet of onion soup mix. You can various veggies if you like. I sometimes grate a couple of carrots to add to it. I also like to add a handful or so of pearled barley usually. Occasionally, I add a little spaghetti sauce to it. Diced bell peppers are good in it if you like bell peppers. I let it simmer for several hours until it makes a nice thick soup.



Lentils make a hearty soup, and are very nutritious.

I don't add meat to mine as I do not eat meat, but some like meat in their soup.

 

I too managed to get a few bulbs in the ground yesterday..just don't ask what ones .... onions!!!

It will be a nice surprise next year.

We're out all day today, just about to decide what to order for lunch. So nothing doing in the garden today.

 

Too wet for gardening, but still no frost, unusual for this time of the year, so the acers are going progressively more red.

 

Riley— that red acer is a stunner.
Daniel—Great posting. It is good to see the harvesting and your leaf mould work. That is such good stuff.
I have begun my leaf mould project as well.

 

I just mulched the leaves from 5 - 70’ birch trees . Yikes! The pasture is gonna be happy and healthy next season .
Found a lot of leaf mold under the bottom of the huge pile about 5’ x 30’ and 4-5” high. All composted / mulched and finally done. Then there are the deciduous cherry trees left .. more leaves to go. Mowed the pasture in a few spots then had to clear off the roof.

Up on the roof most of the day. Cleaning needles & debris from last weeks huge wind storm. 40-60 mph winds. The flat sections of the roof easy to walk on. The needles and debris from the wind storm were clogging the scuppers and drains . All clear again. I still have one down spout clogged . It’s 4’ down the drain pipe and hard to clear out . After struggling for hours to unclog the down spout , I’m ready to try Draino! No joke . I have a neighbor who does that . It’s worth a try? Last time I tried to unclog a down spout-12’ long I used a bamboo pole (from the garden), and dropped it down the 12’ down drain pipe & get that out. Geezzz. It’s been stuck there for 5 years, but it still drains well.

The tiles roof section tricky to clean. Will power wash it later just the hose with special nozzle.

Before


After


It was a soggy wet mess with water puddles. Still happy to have it finally done.

 

Today I collected five wagon loads of leaves from my yard. Mostly from trees I planted 15 years ago, mostly Lindens, persimmons, and a maple, plus a horse chestnut that has become a majestic tree over the years.

Linden leaves


I managed to clear the leaves from the chicken yard. There will be enough, without having to go into town for leaf collections this year. Three raised beds have thick leaf blankets already now.

The rest need to be saved until I can renovate three more beds. Moles got through the bottom barriers on those, so I have to dig them out and install hardware cloth under the soil, to keep the moles out next year. Then I can mulch them. Big job, hard work.

Colorful Japanese persimmon trees. They will probably ripen in December.





While at the grocery store, I saw some nice looking tulip boxes, so I bought enough for 12 bulbs. I planted those in a container.



Rufus posed for me next to a mushroom, encouraging me to take a break.



It's raining now, with more predicted for two more days. I covered those leaves with a tarp so they wont mat down and become soggy before I spread them.