What did YOU do in your garden today :P

[Carol Dee]

@freedhardwoods you have been busy!

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I have been picking beans, tomatoes and blackberries, just a few blackberries now. I picked all of the peppers when I thought there was going to be a frost, but I saw a lot of peppers today, but I am leaving them for now. There is more squash and a lot of cucumbers. I am waiting for my day off to bring the cucumbers in and going to make some kind of pickle relish. The kale is looking really good, but I need more room in the freezer, so I am dehydrating things. A friend let us pick plums on his tree. My DS and I went and I had no idea there were going to be so many. It took us all morning and I think I got 200 pounds or so of small red plums, very sweet. I froze a lot, no telling how much and have 60 1/2 pint jars and 42 pint jars of jelly, syrup, plum jam, plum/blackberry jam, plum/raspberry jam, filled the dehydrator and made fruit leather, have made 2 plum crisps and have eaten so many I am sick of them, and gave some away. I have a lot of weeds and clean up to do. I planted lettuce and spinach and had lettuce for tacos. I am thinking of making an area of greens and cover for the winter. If I do, I have to get it done Tues. or Wednesday.

 

[freedhardwoods]

That's a lot of plums!

 

[so lucky]

@freedhardwoods, do you sow the radish to use as a soil conditioner? Or for what purpose?

 

[digitS']

@freedhardwoods , is that all your sweet corn?
Or! Are you gardening beside a cornfield?

Have you used the GH daikon radish before? Maybe you can give us some ideas about winter cover crops.

Steve
and, there is @so lucky with the same cover crop questions

 

[digitS']

That's a huge amount of plums, @Gardening with Rabbits ! You will have syrup and jam for the remainder of the decade!

Our little peach tree was loaded this year. Way to many were left on it but the windstorms looked like they would thin it for us. Didn't. Just broke a loaded branch despite the 2 by 4 (1 of 5) I had for support. Surprisingly, the leaves stayed green and fruit on that branch continued to ripen. I couldn't move it because it was hanging by a thread ... Must remove it now.

Steve

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

That's a huge amount of plums, @Gardening with Rabbits ! You will have syrup and jam for the remainder of the decade!

Our little peach tree was loaded this year. Way to many were left on it but the windstorms looked like they would thin it for us. Didn't. Just broke a loaded branch despite the 2 by 4 (1 of 5) I had for support. Surprisingly, the leaves stayed green and fruit on that branch continued to ripen. I couldn't move it because it was hanging by a thread ... Must remove it now.

Steve

I had that happen on a branch on the elderberry. I left it hanging and was going to take it off later, but watched the fruit on the branch continue to ripen and the leaves stay green. A lot of fruit this year it seems.

 

[freedhardwoods]

@freedhardwoods , is that all your sweet corn?
Or! Are you gardening beside a cornfield?

Have you used the GH daikon radish before? Maybe you can give us some ideas about winter cover crops.

Steve
and, there is @so lucky with the same cover crop questions

@freedhardwoods , is that all your sweet corn?
Or! Are you gardening beside a cornfield?

Have you used the GH daikon radish before? Maybe you can give us some ideas about winter cover crops.

Steve
and, there is @so lucky with the same cover crop questions

@freedhardwoods, do you sow the radish to use as a soil conditioner? Or for what purpose?

That's a cornfield beside me. My sweetcorn is long gone.

I know there are lots of cover crops that have a good purpose. I started using soybeans a long time ago because they pull nitrogen out of the air and if you sow them early enough, the make a lot of foliage (organic matter) to till in.

I found out about ground hog radish when lots of farmers around here started using it. This is my first year trying it. I'm using it mostly for deep tillage. You're only supposed to plant it in the same place every 3 years. Here is an ad that tells a lot about it - http://www.ampacseed.com/groundhog.htm

I'm going to get the people that farm beside me to run their ripper through the garden spot I put in soybeans when they come to fall till the cornfield.

 

[digitS']

An Oregon seed company ...

We were just referred to a Portland farm supply, I didn't bookmark that! Those Oregonians are always trying something new in a scramble to keep up with the Californians, no doubt.

This morning, I will try to get some bush beans picked with needing to have DW at an MD appointment right in the middle of the day.

Today, the Earth tilts far enough that the sun will be directly above the equator. The Naval Observatory tells us that that the 24 hour day in the northern hemisphere will not be evenly divided between light and darkness until the 26th ... I don't know how they come up with this but rest assured that they know more about it than I do.

Anyway, at this latitude, it always feels like the Earth is careening about in its perpetual wobble. The daylight is remarkably less, sunrise much later, sunset much earlier ... I will get little done other than gears shifted and miles covered. There are, however, more important things than a hill of beans.

I'm thankful, in some ways, that my months are not divided by doctor appointments, weeks by when I set the garbage can out, and days by the letter carrier arriving at the mailbox.

Leveling my horizon ...

olde digitS'

 

[canesisters]

I like that 'Leveling my horizon'
Gonna use that now and then.
Thanks Steve