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Post by Melissa on Oct 30, 2021 19:57:53 GMT
We are getting freezing temps this week so our garden will be pretty much over. Pulling out the old plants and getting ready to cover the beds with leaves. Had a good year!
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Post by susannah on Oct 30, 2021 20:09:54 GMT
Oh my gosh, the indoor lettuce that I planted on the 19th is just going crazy! I think the additional LED grow light is helping.
I ordered a bunch of seeds, some for outside but a few to (try to) grow inside - bunching onions (which we've had luck with indoors in the past). And Easter Egg radishes because dh wanted to see if we could grow radishes indoors and because I fell in love with them when I saw the pictures. So cute! If they grow, the grandchildren will love them.
While several nights of frost - including a hard freeze - put a stop to any outdoor gardening the cocktail tomatoes that I picked green before the freeze continue to ripen indoors, a few each day. And I have a bag of green tomatoes that the farm's owners gave me. Some I'm ripening indoors with great success and others have been - and will be - fried green tomatoes.
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Post by mogal on Oct 30, 2021 21:47:07 GMT
This has been the only sunny, calm day all week so DH and I put the cover on the veggie hoop house. Tomorrow we'll put the cover on the frame to make the hens' more spacious, warmer winter quarters. I have a bunch of cold tolerant seedlings started to transplant out there. That little space is my winter time "tropical" retreat on sunny days. I've decided to go ahead and plant the garlic in the hoop house along with some potato onions that need a warmer zone than we have.
We still need to pull up the tomato and some pepper plants but otherwise, the outdoor garden is done. Weather folks are predicting frost/freezes for later next week but rain Monday through Thursday. I've gathered seed from all the flowers, veggies and herbs so won't have to buy more for next year.
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Post by farmerjack on Oct 31, 2021 2:32:07 GMT
mogal, what do you use for cover on your veggie hoop house?
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Post by mogal on Oct 31, 2021 11:52:32 GMT
Hi, Farmerjack. It's a neat woven clear(translucent) plastic from northerngreenhouse.com. We remove it every spring so that it doesn't endure our intense sun during the summer. It's much stronger than the flat, extruded poly sheets that most folks use.
We got these hoop houses in trades about 20 years ago and some of the conventional poly cover was part of the trade. It only lasted one season between cats' claws and the holes where we applied it tearing out. By storing the woven plastic in the shed in summer, ours has lasted 7=8 years before we have had to replace it.
If you buy from NGS, do get some of the somewhat elastic strapping to keep the plastic from flapping in the wind.
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Post by mogal on Nov 1, 2021 18:57:06 GMT
We put the cover on the second hoop house yesterday and it was a challenge due to strong wind from the northwest. I'm very sore today but it will pass. We still have to replace the fences for the chickens' run and string extension cords for the water heaters. I'm really pleased to have it done because it was chilly and cloudy this morning and now it's raining.
I picked all the Roselle hibiscus calyxes that were any size and 2 buckets of slightly ripe or good sized green tomatoes this morning. After this rain goes away, the forecast is for freezing temperatures. It's that time of year.
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Post by susannah on Nov 1, 2021 21:26:32 GMT
Dh planted dill downstairs today. This is part of his experiment to see how long dill actually takes to get to maturity. We erred on the side of forgetting we live in the woods and some things take twice as long, and let's just say we needed to buy dill to supplement what we had this past year. Next year we'll be starting it indoors in the planters it'll be in outdoors. We just need to know when to do the indoor start. Or at least make a better guess at it.
I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my seed order, mainly for the Easter Egg radishes. I know I said the grandchildren will love them but who am I kidding? I'm the one who's enchanted by the idea of them.
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Post by countrymom22 on Nov 1, 2021 22:28:00 GMT
We're expecting our first freeze tomorrow night. I still got a handful of raspberries today, but the tomatoes are done. If I have time, I'll pull them tomorrow and then the garden will be done. I still have half a compost bin to turn and that will be it for work in the garden. I'd like to replace the fence but it looks like that may not happen until spring.
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Post by solargeek on Nov 1, 2021 22:35:54 GMT
I somehow ripped out my back this week and DH has been taking out the rest of the 29 raised bed garden. I did manage to finally cut down all the Russian red and Russian purple frilly kale to give to a family with 11 children who we love, & I have given them two large grocery bags full in the past. 13 heads of lettuce that somehow went unnoticed. Frisée, Tons of arugula, bib, leaf, and others. I gave them 9 heads and kept 4 Plus a lot of loose arugula. Very disappointed in our Brussel sprout harvest this year as we got less than a meal for out of 21 plants. Of course when we say a meal, it’s a full tray caramelized. We inhale brussels sprouts. This marks the 4th year in a row of a poor brussels sprout harvest after having 4 fantastic years. If I didn’t love them so much I would never keep on trying. I have changed the beds, change soil, and added nutrients. No luck so far Tomato Harvest from 209 plants was exceptionally fine, and they kept coming and kept coming. I think I ended up with 20 more quarts of sauce and 18 pints of “the prairie homestead” women’s salsa which I love, and untold quantities of sun-dried tomatoes in various states of dryness. We like the chewier ones on pizzas or made into pesto. I also made tons of pesto. I think we’re good on tomatoes for a couple years! Put in 42 cloves of garlic and got back enough to last the year and plant another 30 for next year. I will be roasting them next week and then freezing in small bags so that each baggie holds enough for two meals. Bought some “special” onion starts and probably won’t do that again. While they turned out absolutely perfect, the cost did not outweigh the size. However I’ve already gotten 15 pints of caramelized onions and likely will get another 8 more. But I have a friend who will probably give me 50 to 100 pounds of onions sometime in January which will help me last out the year as we tend to go through 2 pints of caramelized onions a week. The broth which is just water but takes on such a great onion flavor, we use for everything including gravies, soups and of course French onion soup. I used in MI Gardener’s broccoli again because it’s so prolific but the heads are just tiny. However I also sauté up the leaves so it’s abundant in production just not in the heads. Beans were fantastic, prolific with a very long season this year, and I canned some and roasted some. Cabbages took a long time to come but we did eat them as they came along. However the last ones I got tired of picking and so slugs got part of them. I have about 14 small heads Washed, sliced, and ready to be roasted as cabbage steaks. Beets. Turns out I am allergic. Of course I found this out after I bought 25 pounds as well as grew another 15 pounds. I pickled them because the family loves them. Really miss eating them!! My new strawberry beds from last year produced well and I can’t wait to see next year. I think I mentioned earlier in the year all of the blossoms on our fruit trees froze and dropped off so not a single piece of fruit. However the blueberries were OK because they were not blossoming at the time of the freeze in late late May. Still had to buy some to make it through to next year. All are individually frozen and in bags in our deep freeze. 10 1 gallon freezer bags full of black caps (dark wild raspberries ) and wild blackberries. My teeth cannot take the seeds so I asked my husband if I could have one bag to try my hand at jam. I will do that this winter. Potatoes oh we have lovely potatoes! I think I got around the same production as last year but I planted fewer beds. We actually do not need the 140 pounds I got last year. We finished eating that crop after the new crop was already starting to come in. But we found out we loved canned/jarred potatoes because they make the best mashed potatoes I’ve ever had in my life. Took about 1/3 of our crop and did a huge amount of quart jars and a few pint jars. Zukes! Not sure if I mentioned last year I either failed to plant any or they all got eaten by the vine borer. But I planted the same type this year and had a fabulous crop. I have already made several yeast breads with the shredded zucchini, and froze them. I found a recipe for the most wonderful zuke yeast rolls. Also made cranberry orange zucchini muffins -turned out very tasty. froze a bunch and gave some away to a wonderful widow friend of mine. None of these were my recipes— I can’t claim anything. But one of the breads works in the bread machine amazingly and is a light sandwich bread. Love zucchini! Forgot to plant enough basil when the first crop froze. Will not forget again. Garlic chives were plentiful and I made spices from them. OK that would be my 2021 gardening report. I did put in some Monarda last year and it was the scarlet beautiful kind! Hummingbirds loved it.
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Post by smokey on Nov 2, 2021 22:59:00 GMT
We're expecting the first freezing night of the year Thursday so my wife picked several pounds of green cherry tomatoes and a few slicers today with a couple of plants left that I'll pick tomorrow.
Hopefully they'll ripen indoors and we'll put them in the freezer for soups and stews.
I always dislike this time of year when we have to say goodbye to the garden for year.
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Post by mogal on Nov 3, 2021 1:45:29 GMT
A frost had been forecast for last night about 40 miles north of us but we still had patchy frost this morning, enough that the planting areas away from the house are done for the year. DH had to scrape his wind shield before he went to work. I do have some beans I left on the plants for next year's seed but I want them good and dry before I pick those. There was a thin layer of ice on the goats' trough as it was and we're under a freeze warning for tonight. I'm not a fan of winter.
Not our best year garden wise, but certainly not our worst.
Today, I prepped the big middle bed in the veggie hoop house to accept my seedlings. I'm going to lay down some weed barrier fabric and plant through it to see how I like that technique. I'm getting too old to stoop and bend to weed so if it's successful, I'm thinking about doing the main garden with weed barrier.
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Post by mogal on Nov 3, 2021 11:36:53 GMT
6:30 a.m. and the temperature outdoors according to our little weather station is 26o, officially from the airport, 29o. Either way, it's been this cold several hours and my guess is that even things close to the house are gone. I guess it's indoor plants and the hoop house for playing in dirt.
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Post by susannah on Nov 3, 2021 20:21:10 GMT
smokey , I hope your tomatoes ripen well indoors! When we tore up the container plants (cocktail tomatoes, but they were more cherry tomato size), we brought dozens and dozens of little green tomatoes indoor. I put them all in a glass bowl and put the bowl on the bay window ledge, and watched them ripen. We've been enjoying ripe orange cocktail tomatoes for several weeks now. They seem to ripen a few at a time, but we've used them in a number of salads. I still have maybe a dozen green ones, and several "almost orange enough" in the bowl, so we'll be having them for a little while yet. I'd bought green slicer tomatoes from the farm for fried green tomatoes but I bought more than I needed at that time. I wrapped the rest in newspaper and put them in a brown paper grocery bag, and they started ripening very quickly. So I asked the farmer last week if she had any more green ones to sell - we'd had a freeze so I wasn't sure she would. She said she'd check, then contacted me to say she had a bag of green tomatoes for me - for free, "as a thank you for supporting our farm." So nice! Those tomatoes are at various stages of ripening now - I actually have one that's fully ripe, and a couple others that should be ready in a few days. And lots of ones that are still green, so I'll be ripening tomatoes for several more weeks at least. Except of course for the ones I grabbed to put in the refrigerator for another round of fried green tomatoes.
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Post by countrymom22 on Nov 3, 2021 20:57:20 GMT
What a nice way to let you know your support is appreciated, susannah! Farmers are just the nicest people. We had a hard frost last night, so I pulled the last of the tomato plants and a lone onion this morning. Then I covered the last of the raised bed with the shavings and chicken manure from the coop. The only garden chore I have left to do is turn one more 1/2 a compost pile into another bin, but that will have to wait until next week when I get back from SC. The weather forecast for next week says the temps will be back into the upper 60's, so that will be perfect weather for gardening. Putting the garden to bed for the year is both sad and satisffying. Now I can begin to plan for next spring.
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Post by susannah on Nov 13, 2021 15:33:59 GMT
Reporting in on the basement garden - hopefully with pictures: The picture above is of the baby lettuce I planted on October 19th. I wanted to get a picture of it before I cut some of it for salads tomorrow. Above in the back is the second planter of lettuce, which I planted...sometime in the past week. I included it for a size comparison with the planter in the foreground. The dill experiment, above. We want to see just how long it takes for the dill to reach the point where it's ready to use. We planted it too late in the season this past summer, hence the experiment here. Finally, the Easter Egg radish seedlings are popping up. I need to thin them more, but I'm happy to see all these little plants. Next time I take pictures, I'll try and remember to turn off the LED grow lights. My seven year old granddaughter just loves the color of them, tho.
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Post by countrymom22 on Nov 14, 2021 21:37:13 GMT
susannah , your lettuce looks amazing. This is inspiring me to start my own lettuce indoors. Well, your great pictures and the price of lettuce in the grocery store! Today I finally got around to turning that last half a compost bin into the other bin. That puts the garden to bed for the year. Then hubby mowed the grass and leaves and filled that huge, empty bin again. Is it sad that making compost makes me happy?
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Post by mogal on Nov 15, 2021 19:15:08 GMT
FINALLY got some broccoli and cauliflower planted in the hoop house this morning. I've never tried to grow it in the HH this late but these are plants I never got in the ground last fall. I have floating row cover ready to put over them if we get a really cold snap. There's enough space between them that I'm going to over seed with radishes and leaf lettuce to get double duty from that bed. I pulled the last of the parsley last week and got it dehydrated. Still need to clear parts of the north bed and all of the south bed to accommodate whatever strikes my fancy to plant. Actually, it will probably be some potato onions and the garlic for which I haven't yet prepped a bed in the main garden yet. Oh, well. It will be more comfortable to weed in that space if I pull the shade cloth over the framework next summer.
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Post by smokey on Nov 17, 2021 21:19:17 GMT
Still slowly plugging away getting the raised beds ready for winter, Finished another of the smaller ones today. I was happy to see that the garlic I planted is starting to poke shoots through the straw so apparently the bulbs didn't rot in the frog strangling rain we got the day after I planted them.
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Post by grannyg on Nov 19, 2021 16:19:23 GMT
Had the containers ready, but had misplaced my seeds, and no seeds in town....finally found them yesterday, so spent the day dropping collard seeds in containers...Love collard greens...with hot sauce...LOL....never had one strawberry or bloom off the strawberry plants this year, very disappointing...the white radishes have become huge, green plants...I did not like them, tried the greens and did not like them either...fig tree slowly giving up a few ripe ones, freezing them down till I have enough, might get two jars of jam....little green onions are everywhere, thriving....have not gone outside yet, first freeze was forecast for last night....
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Post by smokey on Nov 19, 2021 18:07:06 GMT
grannyg, We had the same problem with our strawberries this year. The plants looked great but few blooms and only a couple of berries. It was really frustrating because our 4 year old granddaughter dearly loves strawberries and picking and eating them right in the garden is a big deal for her.
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jenn
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Post by jenn on Nov 25, 2021 13:44:53 GMT
South Alabama, remember this time of year is our payback for August and July! Just picked the rest of the satsumas two days ago, had first hard frost yesterday. Ate the first good fall salad- lettuce carrots onions and arugula with store bought tomatoes dressing mix and walnuts- two nights ago. Earlier fall lettuce had bolted and only the plants seeded later, or that sprouted after the first wave from earlier plantings, were sweet and not bitter. The carrots were a little long in the tooth- few had grown and so rather than pulling a few to see if ready, I only had 3 to pull from those too early planted ones (it turns out this year, our weather is so variable I need to just plant every week starting August and just pray, but life happens). I just brought a handful of satsumas to my north Alabama daughter's neighbor who is from Mobile and misses having satsumas in the yard. And thankfully our dog sitter (my brother visiting but tired of travel so missing out on this trip) will water my onions for me since the hoses were all frozen when I went to water right before leaving.
Sadly no spinach in sight even with new seed. Will plant another try when I get home again.
Got one saffron flower (fall blooming crocus) so far from 25 bulbs planted all over the place, from Bourgondien. Others coming up. So that's 3 strands; about 1/10 of a cent worth of saffron. Brother might try growing it in MD next year.
Here in North Alabama all is frozen for a while now. But there are a few green cherry tomatoes on a vine that volunteered under SIL's hunting blind in back yard. Daughter asks if I put one there- nope, maybe from guests spitting/ spilling tomato at a party. Finding it tough as usual to ignore all the tasty bags of leaves in her neighborhood, since at home I am bringing home pickup bed full or two weekly of bags plus now pumpkins past month plus. This year I put the mulch fixings up hill from the vegetable garden. Pretty soon I have to stop being lazy and wade into the mountain of bagged leaves and open them all, maybe put a pick up truck of cow manure from Alabama's only organic dairy (10 or so miles south of me) on top of it all. Plopped all the pumpkins I could pick up or roll downhill onto a failed cherry tree island- hope for some exciting results next summer.
CHarming tale: when I grabbed a pumpkin from the curb (for yard waste pick up in nearby town) the little girl playing nearby came over: "Do you know what?" "No, what?" "That pumpkin stayed green and never changed color the whole time! Some pumpkins do that." Now you know.
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Post by smokey on Nov 25, 2021 17:14:58 GMT
Cold wet and windy with a frost predicted for tonight so I covered the cabbage with frost blankets so I won't have to do it in the dark when we get home from the in-laws tonight.
I wish the cabbage would hurry up and finish heading up, Man I love fresh cabbage. I figure about another week and the first ones we planted will be ready to go.
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Post by countrymom22 on Nov 29, 2021 23:05:30 GMT
We had our first frost almost 2 weeks ago, but finally saw a few snowflakes on Saturday. But the grass is still green and might need another mowing! This is crazy weather!
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Post by solargeek on Dec 2, 2021 14:08:18 GMT
Central Wisconsin has had many many hard frosts already including down to the teens at night, but yesterday and today were in the mid 40s and hopefully hitting the lower 50s today. My blessed DH went out and scraped the top of all of the raised beds of all the plant detritus but left the roots underground to compost. I read about this on Joe L’Ampl’s FB site and decided we would try it since we were way late and getting anything pulled from the garden.
My latest attempt to get rid of those Japanese beetles that come to my place because we are the only organic area for about 25 miles around, is to leave the raised beds open to the incredibly frigid cold. The grubs cannot get out of the beds because we put 1/4” Hardware cloth over the bottom of the beds to keep the voles out and cardboard under that. Because the beds are only at most 12 inches deep but mostly 10 inches deep, they will freeze hopefully.
Then in spring I read that it was helpful to spread tulle, that wonderful fabric that Ballerinas wear around their waist to make their tutus, over the top of the bed so that the grubs cannot get out. You simply cut a hole if you’re planting earlier than that or put another thin layer of soil on top of that and plant your seeds. Fingers crossed and it’s a lot easier to do than putting black plastic gun which will eventually have to be pulled out and frays.
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Post by countrymom22 on Dec 2, 2021 23:17:58 GMT
It was 60 degrees here today, so I went out and cleaned up the flower beds along the house. Got everything out except the Salvia, which is still blooming. Crazy!
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Post by mogal on Dec 3, 2021 12:44:07 GMT
Countrymom22, it was in the SEVENTIES here yesterday. The normal high is in the mid 40's. I planted the last of the potato onions in the hoop house but had to take a fan out there to make it bearable inside. We'll be warm again today but Mother Nature will lower the boom starting Saturday. DH has been working on getting the last of the pastures mowed but won't finish today. He's been doing the areas most distant from the house and I'll hit the other bits tomorrow while he's "attending" an online seminar. He's pretty protective of me and this arrangement will allow him to monitor me more easily. In some areas out there, the vegetation is a good 4 1/2' tall, a terrible fire danger plus we get encroachment of weed trees. As soon as the mowing is done, we'll replace the mower with the blade to use to clear snow from the driveway and paths around the yard. After all this warmth, last night the weather guy was mentioning the S word for next week. We haven't had a heavy snow year so are probably due one. Yes, Susannah, Ann and others in points farther north, I'm sure snow year is a relative term. We had 17" of heavy wet snow a few years ago that partially collapsed one of the hoop houses. Yes, I have already put the supports in place at the intersections of the bows and ridge purlin to prevent another collapse. Hopefully.
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Post by susannah on Dec 3, 2021 14:57:36 GMT
Countrymom22, it was in the SEVENTIES here yesterday. The normal high is in the mid 40's. I planted the last of the potato onions in the hoop house but had to take a fan out there to make it bearable inside. We'll be warm again today but Mother Nature will lower the boom starting Saturday. DH has been working on getting the last of the pastures mowed but won't finish today. He's been doing the areas most distant from the house and I'll hit the other bits tomorrow while he's "attending" an online seminar. He's pretty protective of me and this arrangement will allow him to monitor me more easily. In some areas out there, the vegetation is a good 4 1/2' tall, a terrible fire danger plus we get encroachment of weed trees. As soon as the mowing is done, we'll replace the mower with the blade to use to clear snow from the driveway and paths around the yard. After all this warmth, last night the weather guy was mentioning the S word for next week. We haven't had a heavy snow year so are probably due one. Yes, Susannah, Ann and others in points farther north, I'm sure snow year is a relative term. We had 17" of heavy wet snow a few years ago that partially collapsed one of the hoop houses. Yes, I have already put the supports in place at the intersections of the bows and ridge purlin to prevent another collapse. Hopefully. mogal, I think it doesn't matter where you live, 17 inches of snow - particularly heavy wet snow - is a LOT! That amount in one storm isn't all that common even up here. While we often exceed 100 inches of snow in a year, a lot of that comes in 1 to 3 inch increments. That being said, we're supposed to get our first big (or bigger, anyway) snow dump Sunday into Monday - 6 inches or more. It's time, we're in a drought, we NEED precipitation - but I have so much going on next week the timing isn't the best. Oh well. I'll take snow over freezing rain/ice any day.
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Post by mogal on Dec 3, 2021 15:22:25 GMT
Susannah, ditto on the freezing rain/ice vs. snow! Being of the "Southern persuasion," I'm not keen on any of them. When I was a kid, we'd get unusual heavy deep snows--10" or more--that shut down everything for a day or two when the temps would come back up to the normal winter ones--mid 50's and higher even in January, and we'd be in mud like crazy. It wasn't feasible to maintain snow removal equipment because those events were rare.
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Post by Woodpecker on Dec 3, 2021 18:07:38 GMT
Winters here when I was a child were much, much different. We had snowfalls over a foot or two many times. What I recall most was how high the snow drifts would be!
In the 1970’s when I lived in a garage apartment, like my own little house, loved it there, it snowed overnight and the drift in front of my only door was above the top windows. I couldn’t push the door open, so called my neighbor for help. She came and shoveled the snow so I could get out. Even in the 1980’s and 1990’s the snowfalls were much more frequent and a lot more of it.
Now it seems for the past few years we get fewer snowfalls and smaller amounts, but that too causes a big fat mess. I love watching it snow, it’s peaceful to me.
The landscaper was to be here last week for the fall clean up. We have a lot of trees and leaves. I do a little, the paths mainly but can’t rake much because of my torn tendons. Son wants no part of it, because now at work all he’s doing is blowing leaves! The guys decorated the Village this week. My son is a pro at it and I can’t wait to get the leaves picked up and put up my lights and decorations. I enjoy Christmas weeks before the actual day…After Christmas I leave all the decorations up for only a week or so.
Three out of four of my Christmas cactus are in full bloom, beautiful.
I will be going sometime after Christmas for the reverse shoulder repair. It’s very painful. Seems like a lot of us are having operations, must be oldER age😝
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jenn
Full Member
Posts: 226
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Post by jenn on Dec 6, 2021 14:33:14 GMT
16th year living here (zone 8a/b heat zone 8-9) and climate change on top of that so never know what to expect/ plan. I've also been working on and off so never fulfill my best laid plan of planting everything small amount weekly during the 2-6 month window (for some things twice a year- fall and spring) when it MIGHT do well. AT the moment just hoed under the weeds growing where I planted spinach none sprouted AT THE RIGHT TIME last month but have spinach sprouting under lights inside to try again with. Eating fresh raw peas (English peas they say down south vs black eyed peas or crowder peas etc which are really beans) off the few plants at the end of a bed, eating my salad standing there with a leaf or two from 3 different types lettuce while I water (no rain now for a month or so), pulling the few potatoes from the grocery store rainbow small potatoes I planted a few months back under the withered frostkilled vines, onions and leeks coming up let's see if we get bigger bulbs overwintering them, and have a haystack worth of leaves collected from town and deciding how to add more or if I should water or toss a pickup of organic cow manure on top. Friends' gift of lemons and kumquats gracing the table. I put in way too many flower bulbs last month and the leaves are coming up- one of the saffron crocus bulbs gave me a flower and 1/1000th of a cent worth of saffron strands! The other saffron bulbs just leaves this year, hope they prosper here.
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