It is a winding down fellow gardeners. I am proud of how the winter goodies are looking since I amended the soil. I popped the lime to it and that is what it needed.
You would not believe the amount of rain we have had. It has been 15 degrees below normal for this time of year. For the first time I can remember (remember is the operative word here, tee hee) I wore a sweater this early in October. Although, I hate winter the cooler temps are a relief, of a sort, after summer. According to the Farmer's Almanac this is suppose to be a wetter and colder winter for us.
I have been ravaged with henbit since I moved here years ago. I am determined to beat it this fall/winter so it does not set seed during the winter. It blooms in the spring and sets seed if not pulled up. It comes up again in the fall and casts more seed to come up again in the spring. And on and on... Grrrgrrr.....
It is colder than a ninnie in a well. I had to turn the heat on last night.
I sent the boy and my girl out to the garden to pick the last of the speckled butterbeans. Finally dry enough to get there. They picked for 2 hours. We will be shelling for the next 2 days. I was shocked at the amount. Did not expect it. The rains have been good. Good eating this winter.
I looked at our one big gangly tomato plant that is slowly frosting to death in the front flower bed and there are a half dozen or so big green tomatoes stashed between two holly bushes. I'm bringing them in for the last hurrah!
Got some cilantro growing in big pots on the porch, where even when it is cold they get lots of morning sun. Seems very happy there, along with some stock for the sweet smell. (Stock is a flower that grows in cool weather and smells real purty).
I want to try more beans next year, different kinds than just the green beans. Maybe limas, or who knows? I've gotten so much inspiration from this forum!!!!
You know, my next door neighbors garden, also. They have a couple dozen butternut squash just lying out there, untouched. They did the same thing with their tomatoes.
I am so tempted to go knock on their door and offer to help process this stuff, but I think they'd be insulted.
My parents were children of the Great Depression and also of WWII. They taught me it is a sin to waste food.
Grrr!
On a lighter note, I think we might grow the same squash next year, and also a few pie pumpkins.
WG, looks like nobody loves us anymore. They have left us all by our lonelies here on this thread.
Go get those squashes, girl. Rescue them from a life of abuse and neglect!! Maybe, you could go over, knock on their door, and say, you have the most beautiful squash I have ever seen. O. K. a little cheesy. Maybe, you could say, I have been coveting your squash. No, that wouldn't work, either.
Just tell them you have been admiring the squash and wondered what kind they are because you want to try and grow some next season. Then ask them, how do you cook those kind of squash? Then take it from there....
I have been pulling henbit (before it sets seed) from the rose garden. I never did put in that pond/water fountain I wanted in the middle of it. So many grandiose ideas, so little time.
Planted a Camillia bush yesterday. I forget the name at the moment (Yuletide something, I think) but the flower is a velvety red with a big, yellow feathery middle. Quite showy. While unpotting it fell into 3 seperate plants. Yea!!!
Waiting for the first little dusting of frost before I cut the collards. Mercy sakes, they are beautiful.
Oh, man, I miss camillas - and gardenias - and oleander (even though it's deadly poison), grew or at least saw them all when we lived in Charleston, SC. Beautiful.
Too darn busy working/housekeeping/going to seminars! Haven't even looked over there lately!
When we lived in NC, our next door neighbors let us garden in the country where they owned a house. One of the folks down the street also gardened. He had the first Troy-Bilt tiller I'd ever seen, and would put out the most absolutely fantastic garden anywhere then let it go once the crops came in. The wife of the guy who owned the land and I would regularly look at each other and say "I think it's a sin to waste food," and away we'd go! He apparently wasn't interested in the increase, just the plowing and seeding and weeding. I want something back for all that hard work!
WG, I, too, love those Camillias. What a spectacular wonder in the winter world that something so beautiful is so hardy that it blooms only in the cold. I have a Gardenia bush. The aroma is intoxicating.
I picked the last of the Crowder peas today. My favorite vegetable. Several years ago when I called my mama to tell her I was coming to visit I said, could you cook me some liver and onions and some Crowder peas. I cook that but it tastes better when mama cooks it. If mama would have allowed it I would have licked my plate.
I know this sounds flippin crazy but I am getting the best and biggest green bell peppers now. It is getting darn right cold here at night (40's) but with day temps in the 70's. Never have the peps produced so late.
We didn't actually grow any peppers this year, but last year we had the same experience; at the end of the season after I'd stopped even looking at the plants, here was one with two biggies!
On another note, Mr. Garden was cleaning up outside stuff and pulled the moribund sweet potato vine out of the pot and found a decent sized tuber. Is this a real sweet potato? It doesn't look right. I'm going to try to get it to make another vine.
On another note, Mr. Garden was cleaning up outside stuff and pulled the moribund sweet potato vine out of the pot and found a decent sized tuber. Is this a real sweet potato? It doesn't look right. I'm going to try to get it to make another vine.
WG
aparently they are all edible including the leaves.
I haven't grown these in my area before perhaps I need to give them a whirl this spring.
I didn't realize they are drought tolerant.
OF course my idea of drought tolerant is more stringent it needs to last at least a week with out water to make the grade for me and the longer it goes the better.
WG, I, too, love those Camillias. What a spectacular wonder in the winter world that something so beautiful is so hardy that it blooms only in the cold. I have a Gardenia bush. The aroma is intoxicating.
I picked the last of the Crowder peas today. My favorite vegetable. Several years ago when I called my mama to tell her I was coming to visit I said, could you cook me some liver and onions and some Crowder peas. I cook that but it tastes better when mama cooks it. If mama would have allowed it I would have licked my plate.
I know this sounds flippin crazy but I am getting the best and biggest green bell peppers now. It is getting darn right cold here at night (40's) but with day temps in the 70's. Never have the peps produced so late.
I have found that they like warm days and cool nights it allows them to get huge. some varieties actually prefer it to blaizng hot.. this is sweet peppers by the way
hot peppers prefer it hot .. the hotter the happer they are.
HI All School has dragged me from all the things I love...
gardening being one of them
RumRunner Congrats on the new home.... You will have a blast. I look forward to hearing your garden adventures.
I am winding down in the garden... I have not gotten a chance to plant any winter stuff yet.... and still there is more school work..
We had a very heavy rain which of course launched the winter weeds and grasses early and I do not have time to clean them out which sucks in a huge way but oh well
I have 6 more weeks of school
then I am throwing myself into the garden... okay into the weeding of the garden
this year I am going to bed the flower garden in an effort to keep the weeds at bay... for us usually their biggest growing time is January through April or May.
bedding involves copious amounts of fall leaves and maybe some hay as mulch!
Our winter doesn't break the hay down so I may not use it. but it will do a great job on the leaves.
Yikes, I am with you about no time in the garden. I look at the herb garden and cringe. The weeds abound. I had the boy put down newspaper and leaves on one garden. I keep looking out the kitchen window longing, when my work schedule permits, to get out there and do some work. Crazy, but my schedule with school winds down for about a month during December. That is usually my vacation time.
We were hammered pretty good from Ida. Flooding rain for 3 days. All is well though. Only a couple of pine trees down in the road. It did much good for the water table.
WG, a sweet potato vine is the most beautiful. My grandma would let a sweet tater sprout, put toothpicks just under the sprouts then place it in a mason jar of water. 3/4 's of the tater was under water. The toothpicks sat on top of the lip of the jar. Talk about some beautiful foliage!!
Hi Kimberly.... Well I went ahead and cleared out some of the weeds in the flower garden and bedded some of the vegetable garden Beds
I am going to leave two of them open to garden in this winter.
I am feeling every bit of that gardening this morning... I think my right hand and arm took the biggest beating.... 5 wheel barrels full of weeds and morning glory and Black berry brush and butterfly Bush for the Sheep They of course are happy... That was only one corner of the flower garden I am guessing there are at least five more wheel barrels but the rest of it can go on the mulch pile as it is just grasses and dead flower foliage and such.. I will have to work through the week to get it out so next weekend I can bed the rest of the flower garden While I have leaves falling to bed everything.
I have of course one bed about ready to go IT needs the final touches.
RumRunner
You may already know this stuff but
We got these two books on composting they are excellent.
This one is touchy feely but it has compost pile types and what to mix with what to get the right type of break down... Like, I use shredded paper to mix with my chicken manure, and then when this is broken down, I mix it into my regular compost pile to help it heat up. Also there are cold and hot piles and how and why to use each kind...
Edited to fix my spelling errors. And to say I missed all of you!
You have sheep? I dream of having chickens and you have sheep.....and you have chickens. I humble myself before you.
With my schedule it will be December before getting out and weeding. There are tons of leaves, oak and pecan, and saved newspaper to spread all over the garden areas. The boy has started on one garden. I have been the slacker doing this during the past winter months. Now I am ready to do anything to beat the henbit at its scourge.
I saved that tuber and I'm going to give it a try! The house plants need to be in for the winter, and the ficus Benjamina, about 10 feet tall, shed leaves all over the place and look quite sad by the time the sun starts to strengthen again. I still have my stock and my cilantro growing on the porch. They are green as can be but just don't grow very fast this time of year. They are quite protected, so it will be interesting to see how long they last.
We have amaryllis bulbs that are warming up in the sunroom and hopefully will bloom at Christmas. Over the years, our apple blossom and red lion have produced some interesting children, mostly magenta with very faint lines in the petals from their apple blossom parent. The original apple blossom grew two huge stalks with about 6 flowers each last year.
Yeh, WG, Ficus hates to be moved. I saw on a gardening show that gradually moving it from outdoors to in helps it acclimate, therefore, less shock, less shedding. And spraying the leaves, just like a fern, helps it.
I have one basil plant that I potted and moved indoors. It is sitting on a little table at one of the dining room windows. It gets the eastern sun until about 1pm. I am holding on to that baby as long as I can. Yum, yum, yum...fresh basil. My mom called back in the summer and asked what could be substituted for fresh basil in tomato pie and get the same results. Two words..absolutely nothing.
Are you doing the force blooming with the amaryllis? They bloom here in gardens in the late spring. I have forced bloomed daffodils and paper whites with great results. That was some years ago when I had an extra fridge in the storage room. I have never thought of trying amaryllis but I am sure it could be done. The deep red ones would be beautiful just in time for Christmas. Then again, any flower is beautiful in the dead of winter!!
Well so far I have about half the flower garden in winter beds of leaves.. Unlike you north easterners these are strictly for keeping the weeds at bay. IT is taking me forever because we had an Early big rain storm which gave me Weeds, lots of weeds... so now I am having to pull weeds before putting down the leaves which are of the fruitless mulberry tree type.
I have never done this in my garden before but am hoping for great results. ..
Usually I end up having to spend three or four weekends in the spring pulling up weeds that are five feet high and it is a lot of work and takes away from my time to plant. LOL any way I am hoping for improved soil and less weeding come spring.
I had to pull out a large purple bush thing.. I never remember what it is but it is a drought tolerant thing and it got just huge and woody and was taking over and looking not so beautiful anymore actually had a lot of dead branches in it. I am assuming it will come back from the roots and if so i can trim it to grow in a more usable fashion.
Some other flower finds.. the straggling Alaskan daisy that some how managed to not get eaten by gophers is doing very well and has managed to triple in size. I am debating moving it to a safer spot. And I have lemons... W00T... almost ripe on my lemon tree.
Also weirdly we are having a bizarre fall blooming of the rose bushes... A sure sign we will be having a mild winter. I may take advantage of it to try and get some more delicate stuff in that just needs a strong root system to survive the colder normal winters.
Still have a few tomatoes and still have a few peppers. and it is time to put up the greenhouse planting bed for some nice winter veggies and of course one bed of stuff that loves the winter and does not need to be covered over.
Kimberly the sheep are pets LOL they are barbados Black bellies so they do not grow wool and supposed to be eatten for their superior meat flavor which i have heard is quite good but we will never know as we wont eat them.. THey keep my weeds at bay
and the chickens I can not say enough good words about..
They give us fresh eggs eat lots of bugs and are just about as cute as possible... Bonus points for the manuer for the compost pile!
Leafy, the rain has been so abundant I can not get out in the yard much less the garden. We even had a tornado just down the road earlier today. A tornado in December!?!?!! Quite a stormy day.
Black and white newspaper, leaves, newspaper and more leaves. That is how to kill the weeds in the garden. Of course, some of the weed seeds just plant themselves on top of that mixture. But just kill them with more layers before they seed.
The Knock Out Rose I received for Mothers Day is flourishing. Beautiful pink flowers. Yesterday it was 29 degrees at 6am and 49 degrees in NYC. Go figure. I look out the kitchen window and those roses were vibrant.
Time to cut the collards since we have had a frost. Yum, yum, yummy.
Baby chicks, lambs and piglets....about the cutest and most precious there is.
Gonna plant some kale and maybe collards (though I really really like kale) about February or March. It's down in the 40's here, a good bit colder at night, but the cilantro is protected on the front porch. I clipped some last week for a chicken/lime/garlic/sweet peppers/cilantro meal we like. It will probably not bolt for a while, though!
WG
We did indeed let the amaryllis set out and grow their little bulbs all summer, bring them in, trim them, rest them in the basement and now they are indoors, in a relatively sunny location.
I also found some mystery bulbs in the front yard, just lying in the open side by side, and asked Mr. Garden why he dug them up and left them there. He disavowed any knowledge of the matter, so they are trying to make something of themselves in the sunroom also.
I also found some mystery bulbs in the front yard, just lying in the open side by side, and asked Mr. Garden why he dug them up and left them there. He disavowed any knowledge of the matter, so they are trying to make something of themselves in the sunroom also.
WG
LOL the gophers do this in my yard sometimes especially with daffodil bulbs which apparently taste pretty disgusting to them, as they do not eat them.... they will put them out side their tunnel in a little pile and I will find them and replant them.
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kimberly
gc, black eyed peas are for luck and collard greens are for dollars. I plant enough collard greens the end of August to last us all winter long. Oh, honey everybody, I have maters and more maters.
kimberly
Bramble, so sorry about your garden. Our weather has been crazy too. This time of year we are accustomed to the feeling of a hot wet towel wrapped around the face when we are outside. But it has
kimberly
When referring to the herb garden I meant the annuals. I broke down and watered/fertilized the dill and basil. I am hoping for a comeback. The perinnial's (sp?)are forging on. Nothing seems to f
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Watered Garden
Okay, next year I'm coming too!
WG
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kimberly
Come on girlfriend. The door is always open.
It is a winding down fellow gardeners. I am proud of how the winter goodies are looking since I amended the soil. I popped the lime to it and that is what it needed.
You would not believe the amount of rain we have had. It has been 15 degrees below normal for this time of year. For the first time I can remember (remember is the operative word here, tee hee) I wore a sweater this early in October. Although, I hate winter the cooler temps are a relief, of a sort, after summer. According to the Farmer's Almanac this is suppose to be a wetter and colder winter for us.
I have been ravaged with henbit since I moved here years ago. I am determined to beat it this fall/winter so it does not set seed during the winter. It blooms in the spring and sets seed if not pulled up. It comes up again in the fall and casts more seed to come up again in the spring. And on and on... Grrrgrrr.....
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kimberly
aaahhh, one last hurrah for maybe a while.
It is colder than a ninnie in a well. I had to turn the heat on last night.
I sent the boy and my girl out to the garden to pick the last of the speckled butterbeans. Finally dry enough to get there. They picked for 2 hours. We will be shelling for the next 2 days. I was shocked at the amount. Did not expect it. The rains have been good. Good eating this winter.
So much to be thankful for. Life is good.
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Watered Garden
It sure is!
I looked at our one big gangly tomato plant that is slowly frosting to death in the front flower bed and there are a half dozen or so big green tomatoes stashed between two holly bushes. I'm bringing them in for the last hurrah!
Got some cilantro growing in big pots on the porch, where even when it is cold they get lots of morning sun. Seems very happy there, along with some stock for the sweet smell. (Stock is a flower that grows in cool weather and smells real purty).
I want to try more beans next year, different kinds than just the green beans. Maybe limas, or who knows? I've gotten so much inspiration from this forum!!!!
WG
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kimberly
Leafy and Twinky how goes your gardens? Are things a winding down?
Anybody heard from gc?
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Watered Garden
You know, my next door neighbors garden, also. They have a couple dozen butternut squash just lying out there, untouched. They did the same thing with their tomatoes.
I am so tempted to go knock on their door and offer to help process this stuff, but I think they'd be insulted.
My parents were children of the Great Depression and also of WWII. They taught me it is a sin to waste food.
Grrr!
On a lighter note, I think we might grow the same squash next year, and also a few pie pumpkins.
WG
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kimberly
WG, looks like nobody loves us anymore. They have left us all by our lonelies here on this thread.
Go get those squashes, girl. Rescue them from a life of abuse and neglect!! Maybe, you could go over, knock on their door, and say, you have the most beautiful squash I have ever seen. O. K. a little cheesy. Maybe, you could say, I have been coveting your squash. No, that wouldn't work, either.
Just tell them you have been admiring the squash and wondered what kind they are because you want to try and grow some next season. Then ask them, how do you cook those kind of squash? Then take it from there....
I have been pulling henbit (before it sets seed) from the rose garden. I never did put in that pond/water fountain I wanted in the middle of it. So many grandiose ideas, so little time.
Planted a Camillia bush yesterday. I forget the name at the moment (Yuletide something, I think) but the flower is a velvety red with a big, yellow feathery middle. Quite showy. While unpotting it fell into 3 seperate plants. Yea!!!
Waiting for the first little dusting of frost before I cut the collards. Mercy sakes, they are beautiful.
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Watered Garden
Oh, man, I miss camillas - and gardenias - and oleander (even though it's deadly poison), grew or at least saw them all when we lived in Charleston, SC. Beautiful.
Too darn busy working/housekeeping/going to seminars! Haven't even looked over there lately!
When we lived in NC, our next door neighbors let us garden in the country where they owned a house. One of the folks down the street also gardened. He had the first Troy-Bilt tiller I'd ever seen, and would put out the most absolutely fantastic garden anywhere then let it go once the crops came in. The wife of the guy who owned the land and I would regularly look at each other and say "I think it's a sin to waste food," and away we'd go! He apparently wasn't interested in the increase, just the plowing and seeding and weeding. I want something back for all that hard work!
WG
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kimberly
WG, I, too, love those Camillias. What a spectacular wonder in the winter world that something so beautiful is so hardy that it blooms only in the cold. I have a Gardenia bush. The aroma is intoxicating.
I picked the last of the Crowder peas today. My favorite vegetable. Several years ago when I called my mama to tell her I was coming to visit I said, could you cook me some liver and onions and some Crowder peas. I cook that but it tastes better when mama cooks it. If mama would have allowed it I would have licked my plate.
I know this sounds flippin crazy but I am getting the best and biggest green bell peppers now. It is getting darn right cold here at night (40's) but with day temps in the 70's. Never have the peps produced so late.
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Watered Garden
We didn't actually grow any peppers this year, but last year we had the same experience; at the end of the season after I'd stopped even looking at the plants, here was one with two biggies!
Strange.
WG
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Watered Garden
Found some more acorn squash!
On another note, Mr. Garden was cleaning up outside stuff and pulled the moribund sweet potato vine out of the pot and found a decent sized tuber. Is this a real sweet potato? It doesn't look right. I'm going to try to get it to make another vine.
WG
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leafytwiglet
aparently they are all edible including the leaves.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/edible/msg102305194656.html
BTW there are many varieties of Sweet potatoe all different skin and flesh colors.
I suspect the ornamental varieties are ornamental because they do not produce as many tubers as the ones grown for the potatoes themselves,
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leafytwiglet
here is a more informative page
http://www.aces.edu/counties/Marion/files/Potato.pdf
I haven't grown these in my area before perhaps I need to give them a whirl this spring.
I didn't realize they are drought tolerant.
OF course my idea of drought tolerant is more stringent it needs to last at least a week with out water to make the grade for me and the longer it goes the better.
I have found that they like warm days and cool nights it allows them to get huge. some varieties actually prefer it to blaizng hot.. this is sweet peppers by the way
hot peppers prefer it hot .. the hotter the happer they are.
Ours will grow till a really hard frost.
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leafytwiglet
HI All School has dragged me from all the things I love...
gardening being one of them
RumRunner Congrats on the new home.... You will have a blast. I look forward to hearing your garden adventures.
I am winding down in the garden... I have not gotten a chance to plant any winter stuff yet.... and still there is more school work..
We had a very heavy rain which of course launched the winter weeds and grasses early and I do not have time to clean them out which sucks in a huge way but oh well
I have 6 more weeks of school
then I am throwing myself into the garden... okay into the weeding of the garden
this year I am going to bed the flower garden in an effort to keep the weeds at bay... for us usually their biggest growing time is January through April or May.
bedding involves copious amounts of fall leaves and maybe some hay as mulch!
Our winter doesn't break the hay down so I may not use it. but it will do a great job on the leaves.
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kimberly
Alas, our Leafy returns. Been missin' ya.
Yikes, I am with you about no time in the garden. I look at the herb garden and cringe. The weeds abound. I had the boy put down newspaper and leaves on one garden. I keep looking out the kitchen window longing, when my work schedule permits, to get out there and do some work. Crazy, but my schedule with school winds down for about a month during December. That is usually my vacation time.
We were hammered pretty good from Ida. Flooding rain for 3 days. All is well though. Only a couple of pine trees down in the road. It did much good for the water table.
WG, a sweet potato vine is the most beautiful. My grandma would let a sweet tater sprout, put toothpicks just under the sprouts then place it in a mason jar of water. 3/4 's of the tater was under water. The toothpicks sat on top of the lip of the jar. Talk about some beautiful foliage!!
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leafytwiglet
Hi Kimberly.... Well I went ahead and cleared out some of the weeds in the flower garden and bedded some of the vegetable garden Beds
I am going to leave two of them open to garden in this winter.
I am feeling every bit of that gardening this morning... I think my right hand and arm took the biggest beating.... 5 wheel barrels full of weeds and morning glory and Black berry brush and butterfly Bush for the Sheep They of course are happy... That was only one corner of the flower garden I am guessing there are at least five more wheel barrels but the rest of it can go on the mulch pile as it is just grasses and dead flower foliage and such.. I will have to work through the week to get it out so next weekend I can bed the rest of the flower garden While I have leaves falling to bed everything.
I have of course one bed about ready to go IT needs the final touches.
RumRunner
You may already know this stuff but
We got these two books on composting they are excellent.
Let it Rot by Stu Campbell.... This one my Husband liked because it was very scientific.
The Complete Compost Gardening Guide by Barbara Pleasant and Deborah Martin
This one is touchy feely but it has compost pile types and what to mix with what to get the right type of break down... Like, I use shredded paper to mix with my chicken manure, and then when this is broken down, I mix it into my regular compost pile to help it heat up. Also there are cold and hot piles and how and why to use each kind...
Edited to fix my spelling errors. And to say I missed all of you!
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kimberly
WEll, Miss Leafy, you are the go getter girl!!
You have sheep? I dream of having chickens and you have sheep.....and you have chickens. I humble myself before you.
With my schedule it will be December before getting out and weeding. There are tons of leaves, oak and pecan, and saved newspaper to spread all over the garden areas. The boy has started on one garden. I have been the slacker doing this during the past winter months. Now I am ready to do anything to beat the henbit at its scourge.
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Watered Garden
I saved that tuber and I'm going to give it a try! The house plants need to be in for the winter, and the ficus Benjamina, about 10 feet tall, shed leaves all over the place and look quite sad by the time the sun starts to strengthen again. I still have my stock and my cilantro growing on the porch. They are green as can be but just don't grow very fast this time of year. They are quite protected, so it will be interesting to see how long they last.
We have amaryllis bulbs that are warming up in the sunroom and hopefully will bloom at Christmas. Over the years, our apple blossom and red lion have produced some interesting children, mostly magenta with very faint lines in the petals from their apple blossom parent. The original apple blossom grew two huge stalks with about 6 flowers each last year.
WG
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kimberly
Yeh, WG, Ficus hates to be moved. I saw on a gardening show that gradually moving it from outdoors to in helps it acclimate, therefore, less shock, less shedding. And spraying the leaves, just like a fern, helps it.
I have one basil plant that I potted and moved indoors. It is sitting on a little table at one of the dining room windows. It gets the eastern sun until about 1pm. I am holding on to that baby as long as I can. Yum, yum, yum...fresh basil. My mom called back in the summer and asked what could be substituted for fresh basil in tomato pie and get the same results. Two words..absolutely nothing.
Are you doing the force blooming with the amaryllis? They bloom here in gardens in the late spring. I have forced bloomed daffodils and paper whites with great results. That was some years ago when I had an extra fridge in the storage room. I have never thought of trying amaryllis but I am sure it could be done. The deep red ones would be beautiful just in time for Christmas. Then again, any flower is beautiful in the dead of winter!!
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leafytwiglet
Well so far I have about half the flower garden in winter beds of leaves.. Unlike you north easterners these are strictly for keeping the weeds at bay. IT is taking me forever because we had an Early big rain storm which gave me Weeds, lots of weeds... so now I am having to pull weeds before putting down the leaves which are of the fruitless mulberry tree type.
I have never done this in my garden before but am hoping for great results. ..
Usually I end up having to spend three or four weekends in the spring pulling up weeds that are five feet high and it is a lot of work and takes away from my time to plant. LOL any way I am hoping for improved soil and less weeding come spring.
I had to pull out a large purple bush thing.. I never remember what it is but it is a drought tolerant thing and it got just huge and woody and was taking over and looking not so beautiful anymore actually had a lot of dead branches in it. I am assuming it will come back from the roots and if so i can trim it to grow in a more usable fashion.
Some other flower finds.. the straggling Alaskan daisy that some how managed to not get eaten by gophers is doing very well and has managed to triple in size. I am debating moving it to a safer spot. And I have lemons... W00T... almost ripe on my lemon tree.
Also weirdly we are having a bizarre fall blooming of the rose bushes... A sure sign we will be having a mild winter. I may take advantage of it to try and get some more delicate stuff in that just needs a strong root system to survive the colder normal winters.
Still have a few tomatoes and still have a few peppers. and it is time to put up the greenhouse planting bed for some nice winter veggies and of course one bed of stuff that loves the winter and does not need to be covered over.
Kimberly the sheep are pets LOL they are barbados Black bellies so they do not grow wool and supposed to be eatten for their superior meat flavor which i have heard is quite good but we will never know as we wont eat them.. THey keep my weeds at bay
and the chickens I can not say enough good words about..
They give us fresh eggs eat lots of bugs and are just about as cute as possible... Bonus points for the manuer for the compost pile!
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kimberly
Leafy, the rain has been so abundant I can not get out in the yard much less the garden. We even had a tornado just down the road earlier today. A tornado in December!?!?!! Quite a stormy day.
Black and white newspaper, leaves, newspaper and more leaves. That is how to kill the weeds in the garden. Of course, some of the weed seeds just plant themselves on top of that mixture. But just kill them with more layers before they seed.
The Knock Out Rose I received for Mothers Day is flourishing. Beautiful pink flowers. Yesterday it was 29 degrees at 6am and 49 degrees in NYC. Go figure. I look out the kitchen window and those roses were vibrant.
Time to cut the collards since we have had a frost. Yum, yum, yummy.
Baby chicks, lambs and piglets....about the cutest and most precious there is.
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Watered Garden
I've got cilantro and that's about all.
Gonna plant some kale and maybe collards (though I really really like kale) about February or March. It's down in the 40's here, a good bit colder at night, but the cilantro is protected on the front porch. I clipped some last week for a chicken/lime/garlic/sweet peppers/cilantro meal we like. It will probably not bolt for a while, though!
WG
We did indeed let the amaryllis set out and grow their little bulbs all summer, bring them in, trim them, rest them in the basement and now they are indoors, in a relatively sunny location.
I also found some mystery bulbs in the front yard, just lying in the open side by side, and asked Mr. Garden why he dug them up and left them there. He disavowed any knowledge of the matter, so they are trying to make something of themselves in the sunroom also.
WG
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leafytwiglet
LOL the gophers do this in my yard sometimes especially with daffodil bulbs which apparently taste pretty disgusting to them, as they do not eat them.... they will put them out side their tunnel in a little pile and I will find them and replant them.
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kimberly
We don't have gophers but the squirrels will do that. They think they own the pecan trees, too!!!
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