That's colder than it was here!

I love your butterflies! I have a few here & there, along with the cabbage moths of course. It’s also nice to see that things are getting back to somewhat normal for you, whatever that means. Do you have power back yet?

It’s indoor gardening season here too. Both gardens are cleaned out and put to bed. I’ll cover my garlic as soon as I have enough fallen leaves. It’s supposed to reach 77 tomorrow! Then back to fall, of course.

And I’ll be retired this time next week! If anyone hears a primal scream of pure joy coming from northeast Wisconsin this time next week, that’ll be me! It can’t come fast enough!

With all the work that you have to do there, it's nice to see that you can take pause to enjoy the butterflies.

JayneR13 wrote: ↑Sat Oct 19, 2024 3:49 pm I love your butterflies! I have a few here & there, along with the cabbage moths of course. It’s also nice to see that things are getting back to somewhat normal for you, whatever that means. Do you have power back yet?

And I’ll be retired this time next week! If anyone hears a primal scream of pure joy coming from northeast Wisconsin this time next week, that’ll be me! It can’t come fast enough!

YES! We got power back on Monday, Day 17. Oh happy day!

And congratulations in advance for the approaching retirement day. I remember the big smile I had when I got up the first day of retirement and thought about not having to do anything that day except what I wanted to do.

GoDawgs wrote: ↑Sun Oct 20, 2024 6:32 am And congratulations in advance for the approaching retirement day. I remember the big smile I had when I got up the first day of retirement and thought about not having to do anything that day except what I wanted to do.

Yup! That seven weeks off before this last big job really spoiled me in anticipation. I was not idle, however. I've adjusted my stock portfolio, got a really good grasp of my budget, and investigated Social Security requirements. And spent copious amounts of time playing Magic, of course! I'm sure I'll have a winter job at the food pantry as well.

Today was the perfect Indian Summer day after first frost. Low this morning was 46 and right now it's a gorgeous 77 with cool breeze. Time to get some fall garden stuff done.

All the frosted outer leaves on the squash got clipped off. What remains doesn't look too bad!


Lots of small squash on there. Starting tomorrow they'll have at least nine days of low 80's highs and lows in the 50's to finish up, or so the weather dude says.


These were the last of the peppers and they got pulled out right after I took the pic. Tomorrow I'll plant the third row of garlic on that other side. The poor zinnias are so scraggly but are still a butterfly playground so they stay for now.


And Tomato Row is gone until spring. Pickles pulled remaining plants and stowed away all the cages.


Last night I de-papered the garlic cloves that didn't get planted. There's this reddish silicone heat mat that is perfect for the job.


You put a few cloves in the middle, fold the mat over them and then roll it back and forth with your hand. It really loosens up the skins so that they just about fall off. This morning I shaved the cloves into thin slices with my mini garlic mandolin and got them dehydrated.

Yep, summer is officially gone and fall is here. This year has gone fast.

It's always the squash that get frostbit, even above the freezing mark. That's a great little crop you've got coming on though!

The last hurrah of green beans just might make it. The first planting of Contenders has finished and been pulled and this is the row planted 18 days after the first one.

The plants are covered with little baby beans that I call toothpicks. Maybe the first picking in a week.


I spied the first bloom of Camellia 'Stephanie Golden' by the back door yesterday. This is probably my favorite sasanqua.


It seems the fall garden has survived Helene and marches on. It's a great example of resiliency in the face of tough times! Cabbages in front bed, followed by a collard/kale bed, the squashes, then brocs, kolhrabi and cauliflower in the bed farthest back.

It looks remarkably good considering! What a lot of hard work by you two!

I'm just amazed... you pulled your place back together in no time. Wonderful!!

How are the early Morden cucumbers doing? Did they survive?

JayneR13 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 21, 2024 8:52 pm How are the early Morden cucumbers doing? Did they survive?

I just pulled them. Between the two plants only one cuke (2x4") was produced even though there were tons of flowers. And it seems pickleworms got into it. However I did manage to save 30 seeds from the non-wormy part of the cuke but they don't look good. Immature?


I will do a germination test on them but won't hold my breath.

I will have to add them to the MMMM wish list and hope that there are still some available.

They look more like noon-pollinated seeds to me @GoDawgs, flat looking with no real thickness to them

Well, maybe this is Mother's way of telling us something: grow something else! I agree, those seeds don't look viable. Oh well.

Yeah, they look bad. I don't get it. TONS of flowers! Pollinators in the garden. Maybe they all decided to go play in the blooming asters!

A few days ago I did pull out the pepper plants and stripped off what peppers were left, mostly small ones. With the picked jalapenos plus some I already had in the refrigerator I started fermenting them for hot sauce later. They've already reduced in volume by about a half with a pickling weight keeping them under the brine. There won't be a lot of either but waste not, want not and it's a new recipe I'm trying so if it doesn't turn out it's no big deal.


I was ready to plant a half row of garlic where the peppers had been. Something just didn't seem right and then I realized that the bed is the last one down at the bottom of the garden in the area that usually has some standing water at one point in time in the early spring. NOT a place for garlic so I found another spot. So now there's a total of two and a half rows (45') of garlic planted. I usually try to have it in by Oct 15 but there was too much other stuff going on with storm cleanup.

This is the collard (left) and kale (right) bed, 12 plants of each. I got the first collard cutting on Oct 10 and the kale's ready for it's first haircut. That's the younger of two planting of cabbages in the bed to the left. Besides cutting collards I also pulled the first three kohlrabi and made kohlrabi-celery salad with them. It's a nice cold, refreshing and crunchy thing.


So the fall garden is now cleaned up and starting to produce. Just waiting for those last beans to hurry up and finish!

l

The squashes planted mid-August are on the backside of life. They're still setting fruit but I believe it's the shorter days and cooler nights causing squash to mature while still about 4-5". Oh well, it's getting closer to killing frost time anyway. Hmmm, I think I spy a pickleworm hole near the bottom of that squash that's second from the left. Dratted pests!


A huge limb that's still hanging by a hinge to its tree took out the clothesline when it fell. It's resting on three or four big branches which will make removal problematic. So until we can figure out how to safely cut it or get someone in here to do it, the clothesline is kaput.


Yesterday Pickles found some big eye screws and some extra clothesline and strung lines between three tree-sized crape myrtles near the garden. No trips to town necessary for drying sheets at the laundromat! Where there's a will there's a way.

And a penny saved is a penny earned! Having done my share of time in laundromats, I too prefer the home environment. I wish I could string some clothesline here but 1) I don't really have room on my tiny lot and 2) theft concerns. Of course I could put my drying rack on my deck in summer. I hadn't thought of that until now! We'll see.

I've been burning branches early in the morning for the last several days trying to make a dent in the many piles that have been raked up. Today I finished with the big pile I was working on. Pile #2 of many. I keep the fire small and get maybe five loads in the cart burned before the breeze kicks up. Several more loads in the background. Then I let the fire go down while I water the garden, weed or whatever for about an hour.


I did pull that daikon radish. Wow! It weighs 2 lb 2 oz and there's another about that big still in the ground. It's time to make more kimchi so I'll add some small cubes of daikon to it. That reminds me. Today we're making grilled cheese and kimchi sandwiches for lunch. Sounds weird but it's really good.


The cabbages are coming along nicely and are starting to wrap. This is an Early Jersey Wakefield. It's one of those pointy headed ones.


Pickles is out there refilling the two 55 gallon water barrels used after the hurricane. Gotta keep them filled because you never know when something will happen. We went through one and about a third of the second during the 17 days without power after the storm. The stuff you put in it to keep it safe for up to five years eventually makes the water taste funky, kind of plasticky but the water got used for flushing, washing dishes and taking bird baths. We had a bunch of big canning pots and two wine making vessels full of good well water for drinking and cooking.

We've had burn bans here for the past several weeks, but it's supposed to rain for three days so I'm sure the drought will ease at least! Thankfully here in the city I can put any yard waste I can't use to the curb for pickup. The city will add it to their legendary compost pile. Their pile is legendary due to the-ahem-variety of items in it. I've heard of just about everything, including plastic doll heads, in their compost! Yikes.

My fallen leaves go to all of the usual places-covering stuff and adding to my own compost pile first. Excess goes to the city. I'm sure there are bumblebees resting in mine somewhere, and that's OK. I like my bumbles, they're like flying pandas. I find it a very Zen experience to be working in my garden with them.