What have you done today in the Garden?

DHR good job sprucing things up. Your acer wiring system is brilliant. I spot some lovely display Phal orchids.
Along with your new rugs and new ottoman. Very fine stylish look. Updating home style is a , “Good Thing”.

@Oreti getting the garden ready for winter is a never ending job. The next storm comes along and we start the winter seasonal routine again as much as possible .

So sorry about your hip. If I may ask is it osteoarthritis or bursitis? The injection procedure involves injecting a mixture of medicine into the hip and can be quite painful. Experienced a few myself . I finally asked for a topical numbing agent it helped with the injection, also worked well for my hands too . So sorry you have a painful hip. Hope the injection helps . When is your surgery ? And I assume hip joint replacement? Lots to prep for that for sure.
Wish I was there to help. It’s a good time of year for surgery , by Feb-March you’ll be almost on your own again . The best part is most of the pain will be gone forever. And that my dear friend is a . “Good Thing”.
Hope you have home therapy set up after surgery. It helps us to get around at first once released - therapy for walking techniques , do’s and dont's from the hospital. If I can help you or if you have any questions let me know I am happy to help. We hippies have to stick together. The pre-op appts help out a great deal with rehab after surgery.
Sending good and happy vibes for your Holiday trip. Jingle Bells All the Way.


@Logan I’m with you too cold and wet to tackle anything outside today. Tomorrow’s another day!

 

Thanks @Pacnorwest.

Both my hips get Bursitis regularly and on occasions I need to get guided injections done in hospital but the last one ( in June) and this next one are being done at my Surgery by the resident Physiotherapist....in a bid to ease the pressure off our overstretched NHS. To add to the discomfort I also have Osteoarthritis and Osteoporosis in both of my hips and lower spine too.. The surgery is booked for the 1st week of January and it's for a right knee replacement. As my left hip is the weakest and most painful at the moment the injection is to help elevate the discomfort and make it more bearable to add extra burden to it whilst my right side is recovering from the surgery.......well that's the plan.. Adding to the issue is that I have the bones in both my feet fused too with screws so I am just aiming to make the left side as stable as possible to cope with the extra pressure it will be dealing with while my knee recovers.

Yes I agree the injections are pretty painful aren't they. Unfortunately I have had them many, many times too as I get recurring Bursitis in not just my hips but also in my shoulders and knees too. What a wreck I sound like!!! But I've learnt to put up with it and on the whole cope well and manage to carry on as normal but must admit to increased levels of pain/ discomfort during the cold damp Winters as most who suffer with joint issues do.

I'm in no doubt that come Spring time I'll be back out in the garden with muddy hands.......how blissful that'll be.
​

 

It's quite mild today, 13c. but damp. If the rain holds off, I'll collect leaves in the front garden. If it stays dry for a couple of days, I'll get into all the leaves around the roots of our "bamboo forest" at the bottom of the garden. The only way to tackle this as the canes grow so close together is to try to blow them out with my garden vac. But they'll go everywhere making more work.

As I had to get the Sunday joint out of one of our back-up freezers in the room in the back of the garage, (it was formally the "filter room" for the koi pool) I checked on the acer palmatum Taylor and the lilac which will be wintering in there. The lilac, had lots of nice buds on it, as did the acer, although these are so tiny at the moment, they are hard to see.










There's quite a bit of stuff in here I want kept out of the damp as far as possible, it includes our garden furniture, the two hedgehog houses which were unoccupied and a spare set of golf clubs, two golf bags and a "pull" golf trolley, in case my leccy one has to be repaired at any time.



The windows behind are in the garage back wall, which serves as the back wall of the shed. So some light comes through there.
It also gets quite a bit of light, through the skylight in the false ceiling and the clear corrugated panel is the garage roof above it.

 

AA—goodness knows I lurve a mystery. Are you planning to investigate this? I hope so. I am so curious about this.
Thanks for this posting.

Daniel— your work ethic is inspiring. I can sort of mentally envision what is going on there. All that work ought to keep you a bit warm, aye?

Oreti— I know how that goes with time.
It seems like you have a good idea of what needs to be done and when though. Good thing that your man can help some with doing the lawn. I have cut our grass the last time before spring as well as pricked aeration holes in it … as well as applied a hand full of calcium.

Today I continued working on the Wisteria and finished off that strip right outside our garden. Here and there you can see little green spriggles— those are iris plants.

 

@Oreti joints and bone structure seem to fail as we age. With so much to cope with you are a trooper to do everything you do in your garden. I guess that’s another thing besides gardening we have in common. Many joint issues. I agree the cold weather seems to over emphasize joint complications.
We are proof that aging has been a journey as we adapt to life learning our limitations and feel lucky to do the things we can and don’t worry about the things we can’t. ‘Mindfullness’ is a great way to maintain good strength and adapt to different situations as we continue down this journey . There’s more than one way to accomplish most anything. Creative thinking, preserve energy and stay strong.

 

Broken record here LOL. Today I raked up six or seven more wagon loads of leaves. I use them to continue spreading mulch. That section is completed with a thick layer.

More leaves to clean up and spread. I think I can finish the job before rains resume.

 

Same here broken record… mulched the leaves and mushrooms in the pastures. Mowed the front and back lawn. Easy to clear all the leaves off the roof and patio roof before it freezes.
Tomorrow .. rinse and repeat.

 

Dare I say the same too.........yesterday more leaves were raked up and stored away for use next year as lovely mulch.

 

Agree Pac we have to adapt or else.......??? Fortunately I am on the stubborn side and will never give up or be defeated when faced with a challenge.......a firm believer of ...' where there's a will there's a way'.

 

Last night's low was 18 degrees F and it damaged my celery (covered in frost blanket) and killed the peas, parsley and all lettuces except for the Winter Density.

Guess it's finally time to call it quits. 9/12 months ain't bad, but December beat me.

My baby carrots in a raised bed outside flopped over this morning, having given up. I had to use a trowel to pick the frozen soil off of the roots when harvesting them. They’ll all be eaten soon and I’m sure they are super sweet.



I pulled out all of the brassicas, dead plants, and parsley crowns. I left in the celery with a glimmer of hope they might recover. The weather isn’t supposed to be as cold for the next week.

The carrots and beets in the hoop house are holding up, it seems. I am covering them with frost blanket right before sunset every day.



Tomorrow I’ll flip the last of the Fall beds and start the process of cleaning up my tools and work stations in preparation for next year.

Some uplifting news: I finally caught the rat that was using my hoop house as shelter and harvested my very first cauliflower head! It weighs a little over one pound, so it’s small, but it’s perfect!


(If I'm doing the pictures wrong, please let me know. I might need help.)

Maddie

 

Too wet to tackle the leaves today, but I did give the mossy patched on the lawn a dose of iron sulphate.

 

@Oleri Gardening wow some really beautiful carrots, lookin yummy. And my fav veg cauliflower
Not to mention all the lettuce and mixed greens. Pass the salad dressing plz…

Very nice olericulture techniques which is the science of vegetable growing, dealing with the culture of non-woody (herbaceous) plants for food.
Looks really tasty .

Your post in this section in the right place . Also could go in the ..What’s looking good for December.

Or start a new thread introducing Olericulture showing your garden veggies grown in your greenhouse.

How did you catch the rat? Inquiring minds wantta know?

 

Those veggies look yummy Oleri (I'll get it right eventually)

My parsley looks fine, even though we have had some hard freezes. The broccoli looks good, but no heads yet, and the onions/garlic look fine. Even my lettuce and beets still look good. I think the peas are done in though.

I worked outdoors most of the day today. The battery for the trimmer was down, so I went and hauled wood chips and ended up tending one of my larger beds. I was digging out excess rose of Sharon bushes (the old fashioned tree rose of Sharons make hordes of babies and no place to put them), and had to move a lot of rocks to do that. My kids made a rock wall around this flower bed when they were growing up, so many of them had to be moved to get at those bushes. I hauled about 4 loads of wood chips --they are mostly composted now--so the bed looks very good. I have a few more bushes to dig out of that bed. I plan to put the rocks back tomorrow. I also used the trimmer after the battery was charged, and cut some of my pampas grass for straw for my chickens. I will finish cutting it tomorrow, and hopefully prune my asparagus and mulch it real good tomorrow.

@Sjoerd , I have not found out anything about that funny looking piece of metal I found. No one on fb recognizes it so far. My house is over 100 years old, it may have been in the soil a very long time? My one neighbor's grandparents used to live here, and her dad was raised here. I find all kinds of oddities around here.

 

Not doing much at the moment outside, got other things to do.

 

I raked the last of the easily raked maple leaves from the chicken yard. Those went to the border that has fig trees and forsythias, where some previous cleanup had resulted in bare ground.

I also collected a wagon load of chestnut tree leaves, which look much cleaner, to apply in the English Rose containers. Their old leaf mulch is mostly degraded now.

A few of the stupid hens continue to " hide" up in the bamboo grove. That adds to my work at night, bringing them in. They don't run away or peck at me - except one fussy hen. In fact, they seem to enjoy having me carry them to chicken house. Currently, none are laying eggs. Maybe I should find a water heater for them. I've always just brought them fresh water each morning.

That's all for today. Out of energy.