What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Rhodie Ranch]

Lordy. I need someone to come out to southern WA to kick my rear end in gear to get my garden in shape for next year. I'm finding myself lazy right now.

 

[ducks4you]

Maybe you are really a BEAR and your hibernation has begun.

 

[flowerbug]

Maybe you are really a BEAR and your hibernation has begun.

that's how i feel today. it's warm outside, but raining and i have two blankets on me as i sit here looking out the patio doors. have a late lunch or an early dinner, warm me up more and i'll probably feel a nap coming on...

 

[Zeedman]

Before the rain & wind arrived, I was able to pick up & shred leaves from my own property, DD#2, and 4 neighbors, This provided enough organic material to spread a total of about 6-7 yards of shredded leaves & grass clippings onto the gardens... including the (reduced) rural garden, which was the reason I bought the lawn vac in the first place. When snow covers the ground, I'll spread wood ashes over the gardens as well, to both help the leaves decompose, and increase soil fertility.

Wish I'd been able to turn everything under, but ra(i)n out of time. No more digging until next year.

 

[digitS']

Wish I'd been able to turn everything under, but ra(i)n out of time. No more digging until next year.

I started this "thought" in the Coffee thread but since Zeedman is on a similar path, I'll comment more on it here . First, I can say that I mowed the lawn today. So much wind, 35 mph gusts thru the day and 50+mph overnight -- the grass was dry and there was all this tree debris on the lawn. It was last mowed about 3 weeks ago. Finishing up all outdoor work, it began to hail ... briefly, perhaps it was just the clouds' frustration with seeing me out there doing "Summer" work .

"Officially," yesterday, I guess that we had 3" of snow. ... Now, the temperatures will be dropping into the teens every morning so the garden soil will go from soggy to frozen. It's gonna be too much for the rear-tine tiller. ...

@Manda_Rae was saying her garden looked Winter sad. should see mine ... no, i take that back!

Okay, here is that garden on a Spring day a few years ago. The tractor guy had finished with it and I had just started .


You should know that the ground where I am standing with the camera was sold and I no longer garden there. The 30' by 200" plot across the little stretch of lawn was still my garden in 2022.

Now, for two 2022 pictures from the backyard here at home. The first, the potted tomatoes after yesterday's little snow storm.


And, here are those plants this afternoon.


Not too clear (I must have been shivering a little from the wind & cold) but the plants are STILL ALIVE. There's some damage but this might be the first time that my tomatoes have been through a snow storm before frost killed them! They are protected in that location and bunched up so much that they protect each other. Additionally, those plants probably just thought to themselves, "Oh, more of the same." It has been near freezing again and again in their location.

Steve
who also brought the tiller out of the back of the pickup and put it away .

 

[flowerbug]

if things go right i will get the garlic planted today. at last!

 

[ducks4you]

This weekend...I have kept the north pasture open for the ponies. It has been pretty dry--rain Friday Night, then 40 mph winds and high gusts dried everything out again. So, i have been putting hay bales out there for them. Usually, they eat them, then poo on them, BUT, this time they haven't. There are bare patches, and the new hay is full of seeds. They leave some alfalfa stems that can break down during the winter, so I am pretty sure there will be my pasture grass filling in there next year. Their shelter is still a mess, tractor bucket isn't reliably holding (2019 tractor), btw, don't ASK me what I think about the place I bought it, HIGH bills whenever anything is served/repaired, probably bc most of their customers are farmers who can right off the $800 bill I got last year from changing the oil, etc. last year.
Hoping my friend who bought 50 acres just south of it and is creating a farm there AND has a sub compact tractor might be able to help me fix this.
If I sound a little bit down, a dear friend was killed in a car crash on October 29th, funeral yesterday, 38yo.
Senseless...
Anyway, when I take the hay out with my mower and tow wagon I mow swathes of leaves and pine needles and have created some neat piles, less raking, to amend with in the next few weeks.
Funny, I feed the horses their grain with buckets under the south fence of the 55' x 65' training area. I was closing the other gate to the north pasture before I realized that I could grain them and shut them in the training area (which has a chain to secure that gate), and I don't have to struggle with the bigger gate.
Horses will beeline towards ANY open gate, and I don't want them running the town.
I dug up 7 geraniums and I should have them transplanted in a 3 ft long window box to winter inside of the east facing 2nd floor window soon. My biggest problem with putting geraniums up there is I forget about them and they die of thirst. I have a solution for that...will post pictures of how I will do it differently this time.

 

[flowerbug]

it was windy, but not cold out there, i did get the garlic planted and worked on cleaning up a garden and weeded the edges. it looks much nicer and at least that half is ready for winter. the next half will probably take a few more days.

it was so nice to be doing some gardening for a change.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

Today was a big day for the fall garden! Garlic planting! I've planted 2 of 4 varieties. I love garlic and am excited to try three new varieties this year.
After planting the beds I have DH mowed up leaves and we add a thick 6 inch layer to each bed. This helps hold in moisture and also prevents weeds from growing. Last year I didn't even pull a single weed!

 

[ducks4you]

@Cosmo spring garden , IF you and I are successful with our garlic, let's braid some necklaces next year to ward off vampires.