| Merry Christmas everyone! We are guaranteed a white Christmas this year. We got 24" of the white stuff Saturday night into Sunday. I have never seen that much in December. I am still getting seed catalogs and I got two more this week. More reading for the holidays. |
I picked the last of my carrots on Saturday and I think they are on the menu for tonight. I was able to pick some nice medium size and small carrots. I picked them around mid morning and had to chip the frozen earth around them. The top two inches of the ground was frozen. I could have waited until the afternoon but there were other things on the schedule. Did some cleaning later on Saturday which including recycling the pile of last years seed catalogs (why is difficult to part with them?). I have a few catalogs already for next year and have started a new pile. We've had some wind storms and the leaves have started to pile up in the usual places. But they are not posing a threat to my grass or gardens yet. Saturday afternoon as I went to borrow the extension ladder (to put up the outdoor Christmas lights on the house) from a family member I noticed not one but two red tailed hawks perched in the trees behind my house intently watching the birds at my feeders. In defiance I shouted to them "Leave the birds alone! There are plenty of squirrels!" Then one flew off. When I returned with the ladder, the other was gone. |
I've started to get seed catalogs already but I try not to look at them until after Christmas. |
On Saturday I was able to finish mulching the leaves in my yard. Most of the trees have finished dropping their leaves while a few remaining trees will gradually lose them throughout the winter. So until the next wind storm blows them in from my neighbor across the street, I am caught up. I asked my son to help me and he was able to give me an hour and that helped. I didn't have to do the complete front yard, there weren't that many leaves. I was able to blow the leaves into smaller areas so I didn't have to do the whole front yard. The areas in the back yard were thicker with leaves because I wasn't able to get to them the last few weeks so I ran them over with the mower a few times before I bagged them. This makes nice finely mulched leaves and I pile them separately. I use the finer leaf mulch to turn under in the veggie garden and to mulch in tight spaces (like my onions). So right now all three of my leaf compost piles are over flowing but in another months time they will have settled about a foot. I still have radishes and carrots to pick and I will be picking them on Thursday. I test picked a carrot on Saturday and it looks like I will have a bunch of baby carrots for snacking on Thanksgiving. Hopefully this variety will be sweeter. |
With the remnants of Hurricane Tropical Storm Ida passing by to our south and then reforming into a typical NorEaster, we got 1.4" of rain over a three day period. On Sunday morning, I can't remember how many times I went back and forth deciding whether or not to mulch leaves in the afternoon. When I got up it was cloudy and so damp it was dripping off the trees. It didn't look like it was going to dry out enough to mulch leaves. Then when I left for church it was getting brighter and it started to nag at me that if I didn't do it today then when? (especially since the long range forecast looks like we might get rain again just before the weekend). So after I got home from church, I did end up mulching leaves that were still wet but picked up by the mower. I kept telling myself as I was pushing the mower, "I have to do what I can, when I can," and it seemed to fit. At least this time I did get a little further into the back yard and it looks like no more leaves will be falling. There are still a few trees with leaves but those oaks don't seem to give them up until spring. So after I finish the back yard (hopefully next weekend) then all I have left to do is to mulch the leaves as they pile up in my yard from the wind (from either of my neighbors). |
Well the best laid plans are usually almost always foiled somehow. I was boasting that I still had zinnias, marigolds, daisies and cosmos still in bloom AND I had planned to take pictures of them on Saturday. But Jack had other plans. Saturday morning I slept in and the temperature in the bright sun at 8AM was in the 40's but in the shade of my neighbors fence I noticed that the grass was white as I took out the trash. Watching the news later on Saturday it was said that it got down to 31 degrees in the city of Philadelphia Friday night, so I know it was colder here. Everything had been touched by Jack Frost and not worthy of a photo. Oh well. Later on Saturday I did work on mulching the leaves in my yard and due to the thickness of the layer, all I got done was the front yard again. It looks like the layer should be thinner this weekend and maybe I will get more of the backyard done. I mulched leaves for about two and half hours. I could have done more but with all the bending over to remove the bagger on the mower, it would have been really difficult to put socks on to go to church on Sunday had I done more. So I stopped to work another day. I did change my approach a little bit this year. Instead of using the leaf blower to remove the leaves from my flower beds, I used a rake to remove the leaves. This way I don't remove the mulch from the flower beds (last years mulched leaves). I still use the leaf blower to remove the leaves from the driveway and out from under other shrubs and away from other obstacles so the mower can reach them. I still have radishes and carrots and I did pick some radishes and watered the carrots and radishes. I grow the radishes (which are so easy after thinning) for my father in law. I don't eat them unless they are thinly sliced and mixed in with a good salad. As I watered the carrots and radishes I began to wonder if my carrots will be sweeter this year (I like to pick them on Thanksgiving morning for pre dinner snack). I grew a different variety this year and put additional helpings of wood ashes in the soil. So all I am hoping to get is a bunch of sweet baby carrots. I couldn't help to think that the local farmers are picking carrots right now and of course they are huge compared to mine. So maybe I will plant them earlier next year and pick them earlier too. Right now I plant them in my onion patch after I've picked my onions because I have read that carrots and onions get along. I will have to research it and maybe I will plant my radishes there instead. |
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| As I was thinking yesterday that we really haven't had a frost yet...it was 33 degrees this morning. Close but...my marigolds, daisies, zinnias and cosmos are still in bloom. The cosmos next to my veggie garden are seven foot tall and finally in bloom. |
Here's a short note... I ran the mower over my fallen leaves on Saturday but left about 3/4ths of the back yard left to do. The leaves seemed to fall as fast as I was picking them up. But at least the layer of leaves is thinner in the front yard. Last week I completed the whole yard in four hours and it was difficult putting socks on for the next few days, so this week I mulched leaves for only two and a half hours. What I mulched last week was three weeks of leaves and that amount seemed to have fallen in just three days. It rained Saturday night into Sunday but I forgot to check the rain gauge. I emptied the rain gauge on Thusday and there was two inches from Tuesday's rain. |
Where to start? Who knows. Most every fall, my gardening desires wanes (at least until I start receiving gardening catalogs around Christmas time). This year it seems to be worse. The thing that comes to my mind is that anyone over 40 knows that life changes and life doesn't always let you do the things you want to do and you do what you need to do. I still feel guilty though. I feel guilty I haven't written. I feel guilty I haven't read your blogs and looked and commented about beautiful yards, your beautiful nature pictures and of course your silly dog (I've got one too). I want to say I haven't had the time but whenever someone says that I always say "You would have the time, if it were important." But when life changes as it does sometimes seasonally, you have to make do and somethings get pushed aside. You find time enough to do other shorter/not involved things (unlike gardening) to keep your sanity, but I still feel guilty. As I think of it, another factor is daylight. One of my most productive gardening time periods is in the evening after dinner which diminishes as fall begins. Saturdays and Sundays are usually filled with other activities as fall begins again. This will probably change as my kids get old enough to leave the nest (one commuting to college and the other in High school). And since I am the type of person that likes to do things the right way, I end up waiting until I have the time to do it right. A specific change in the yearly schedule that happened this year happened back in June. My mother had to have surgery and then she lived with us for a few weeks and that caused the priorities to shift and therefore time became lost for lower priorities and some things got put off. I have had more gardening failures this year than successes. I lost a bunch of perennials to the winter. Some perennials that did survive became food for critters that also survived the winter (never seen chipmunks as often as I did this year). I had ground hog take up residence under the concrete slab under my shed but I seem to have chased him off (for now). We haven't had frost yet but it was cold enough in September that ALL my tomatoes died, BUT NOT my peppers. It also was cold enough that all the Virginia Creeper that covers my back fence also died off. I am usually picking tomatoes until Halloween. But not this year, I am still picking peppers (they have reached the point of diminishing returns and are getting smaller). I have an 8 year old stump that I wanted to dig up as a project but that didn't happen. I did get a bunch of dead trees cut down and all the wood went to a friend of ours who uses wood burning stoves. One of the trees had to be cut down by a tree company so it didn't come down on my holly tree, my neighbor's fence or my house. In addition to the peppers, I still have carrots and radishes in the ground. Not sure how the radishes are going to turn out, I think it got too warm for them for a little bit. The carrots I am hoping to harvest Thanksgiving morning for pre dinner snacks. That is the remaining garden experiment for this year. I picked some on Thanksgiving last year but they weren't very sweet. This year I planted a variety known for its sweetness (or so they say). It has rained periodically lately but I probably should have watered a few times in late September and early October. I also still have lima beans but I don't think they formed many pods and I should have watered. I will definitely look at them and probably pull them when I next work outside to mulch my leaves. I am starting to mulch/collect my leaves weekly as I do every fall up until about Thanksgiving. We don't have leaf collection in my township and I don't have a place to dump them so I mulch them with the mower, bag them and put them in a compost pile to use as mulch in the spring. With the loss of about 10 trees in the backyard over the last two years, there is considerably fewer leaves to mulch in the backyard. Hopefully I will still get enough to have enough mulch in the spring. The winter winds help me collect leaves from my neighbor across the street and one of my neighbors on the side. We haven't seen the bluebirds since Spring. We'll probably see them when its gets cold. They come to my suet feeders during the winter. Or at least they swoop down from the wire holding the feeders and get the pieces of suet that fall to the ground as other birds are eating. I will be putting out the suet feeders soon. I don't like to put the feeders out when its still above 60 degrees. I got a new silo feeder for my thistle feed (for the goldfinches) and it is so cheaply made compared to the one I had for years. I will probably look for a better one during the winter. But in either case the silo feeders both collected moisture. Does someone make a silo thistle feeder that has a screen bottom for drainage? The box for my squirrel in the jar feeder needs to be replaced too. Maybe this winter. If the time presents itself and I have the materials... |
On Saturday as the East coast was getting slogged... I emptied 2.3" from the rain gauge. On Sunday I picked Tomatoes, Cucumbers and peppers. The cukes are just about done and I will be lucky if I pick anymore. |
Last night I picked tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. With the abundance of Juliet tomatoes, I even brought some into work today. I think I might change the number of plants next year. Instead of 12 plants of small tomatoes (cherry/grape or juliet again), I may decrease it to 9 and increase the medium sized tomato plant. I may even try a earlier variety to see how that works. As I was picking last night I was thinking that I should water the carrot seeds but never did. Mother Nature took care of that for me. I emptied 0.5" from the rain gauge this morning. |
I watered the veggies last night, (haven't had much rain since the beginning of last week). We had a couple of small showers late last week but it wasn't much. I can't believe I haven't seen any hornworms yet this year. I checked my records and last year I saw them as early as July 15. Because of June's weather my tomatoes are about a month behind, maybe the same for these ugly buggers? Last night while I was talking to my neighbor out in the yard, I saw a humming bird visit the Agastache Rupestins. It's a three foot tall weedy looking perennial that I started from seed a couple of years ago. They have a slender cylindrical flower similar to Bee Balm but is a pale orange in color. That was the first time I saw a hummingbird visit it. I wonder if they frequent it or if he was just checking it out? I will be on vacation next week at the Jersey shore enjoying some much needed down time. When I return and now that I am caught up with all the regular seasonal gardening chores, I plan on starting to remove an 8 year old stump by axe and shovel. |
Well on Friday I finally was able to cut the grass. It had been a couple of weeks but at first it didn't need it. Then we started getting rain at regular intervals and my calendar wasn't letting me out there to cut it. Soooo when I finally got to it Friday night, I had to go half speed at half width and raise the deck a notch in order to get it done before nightfall. While I was cutting the grass I avoided, not one, not two, not three but FOUR toads. That's a new record for me. Each were small, about as big as my thumb. It baffled me why so many until I realized they were out there chasing some of the hundreds of crickets I also saw in the thick grass. Saturday the calendar opened up again and I was able to get a nice chunk of time in the yard. I first harvested some green beans (first picking of third green beans), peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers and the last batch of onions. Then I tended the tomatoes (trimming suckers and tying). There isn't much tying anymore, most of my plants are six foot or taller and have out grown my 8 foot stakes (each stake is in the ground at least a foot). So I trimmed the suckers I could reach and tied the lower/slower growing tomatoes. I am surprised I don't have any hornworms yet. Now that I said that, I will probably pull of several tonight (I plan on watering tonight). I pulled out all the remaining onions and really didn't get many more. I noticed that the onions that went to flower never really formed an onion. So I think that starting next year I won't let them flower and I will snip the bud off when it starts forming. I added some wood ashes and then turned the onion patch and planted two rows of carrots. Earlier this week I received two German bearded irises (that I ordered in the Spring, but didn't realize at the time that they wouldn't be delivered until August). So I planted them in the front of the house. I pulled out a low lying evergreen first and planted them there. The evergreen was bare in the middle and the outer edges needed trimmed back which wouldn't have left very much. It needed trimmed, part of it was a trip hazard for my front steps and another part was growing into the driveway and so I wasn't liking it. After planting the irises, I finished cleaning up the tree debris from the tree I had cut down about a month ago, (my friend came by this week and picked up the cut wood for his wood burning stoves). I also had to fill in the depressions that the falling pieces left. And finally I weeded and mulched the front gardens and the other driveway garden. The other driveway garden is kind of bare. I lost a bunch of perennials there this year. So I will enjoy thinking of what I can plant next year. |
Who needs a fig leaf, I'll use cucumber?
Someone else likes the garden.
Tithonia.
Last Saturday's harvest. Yesterday's was the same.
The cosmos were getting big enough that I had to tie them to the fence.
It's a jungle out there. Here is the path between the cukes on the right and the tomatoes on the left.
On the left are two rows of green beans next to a row of lima beans, next to a row of peppers.
Here are the tomato plants. The stakes are 8 ft 1 x 2's, each driven into the ground about a foot and a half. Yes my plants are 6.5 ft tall. Saturday I picked the second picking of the second green beans, I picked 5 peppers, 10 cukes and 6 plum tomatoes. Sunday we had another round of storms. This time we got 1.7".
The Joe Pye Weed around the mail box is about to bloom.
The Agastache (rupestins) I grew from seed a few years ago are in bloom.
A red daylilly.
These marigolds came up on their own and I left them.
The daisies are blooming and the marigolds in fron but not the zinnias in between.Well I didn't do any mulching last night. I wanted to and I was prepared to do so but it rained before I got home from work and there were puddles all over so everything was soaked and I didn't feel like getting wet (sweat would have been enough). Combine that with a family schedule event (which the timing wasn't discussed with me although I should have presumed so) which would have required me to be bathed (if having been working in the yard) before dark. In simple terms, it was my daughter's 17th birthday and we were going to the grandparents house for ice cream cake (which we do every year for both kids) around 7:30-8:00 (so it didn't leave me much time to work outside and I would have had to cut it even shorter to get a shower). In any case... I emptied 0.6" from the rain gauge when I got home from work yesterday and after dinner I did pick about 10 cucumbers. Maybe tonight...??? |
| It rained for most of the day yesterday and I was nicely surprised when I emptied 0.9" from the rain gauge when I got home from work. It's so nice when Mother Nature does the watering chore, now maybe I can get to finishing mulching the flower beds? |
Last week I had put in some overtime and wasn't getting home until 8:30 or 9:00 for most of the week. Friday morning I sent a text message to my teenage kids and asked them to do a couple of household chores for me. I also asked my daughter to pick some of the cucumbers for me (I hadn't picked since last weekend). Luckily I didn't have to work on Saturday and was able to start catching up on the household chores. I also had a window of time to work in the garden where I tied and trimmed the tomatoes and picked the third picking from the first green beans. In the past I noticed that the beans drop off dramatically after the third picking so I pulled the plants after the third picking. So now I had an empty row and so I planted Lima Beans. I also picked some more cucumbers. It wasn't until Sunday while I was watering the veggie garden that I noticed a success that warmed my heart. The first planting of green beans were shading the next door row of green peppers and I have peppers coming. This is a first for me for July since I started gardening here when we bought our house in the fall of 2000. I have a semi wooded lot and I have always said that my garden gets only about 3-4 hours of good sunlight a day. I have lost some trees but the trees lost really didn't effect the veggie garden. Every year I since I started my veggie garden I wasn't getting any peppers until September. I know peppers like full sun and that's the only reason I can think of why I wasn''t getting them during the summer. It seemed like the plants finally decided that in September they better start making peppers because they're weren't going to get anymore sun. Last year I tried a different variety that had a shorter maturation time (by two weeks) and to my surprise I did get peppers two weeks earlier than in previous years. This year I found another variety that's time was even two weeks shorter and its those plants that have peppers on them. The variety is New Ace and it looks like its going to be a staple from now on. |
If you don't count the 90 degree day (s) we had in April (yes April), then Summer started yesterday. Yesterday was the first 90 degree plus day and the mugginess was there too. Now maybe my tomatoes and peppers will respond? I emptied 0.3" from the rain gauge this morning. Not quite enough to not water but I will take it. Especially since I have been working late this week and wasn't able to water anyway (nor pick cucumbers either). So when I get home I haven't had enough time to write in my blog or check out others. This entry is being entered through email. |
Here is a pic of the veggie garden, beans in the front hiding the peppers, tomatoes tied to the tall stakes and cukes in the back on their own fence.
Here are the beans in the front. Each row was planted three weeks apart (the family complained when all three rows had to be picked at once). I started picking last week so I will be picking each week for the next seven which puts me into September. The first row (on the right) I picked their second picking yesterday and I filled two one gallon bowls.
This flower bed has mostly annuals. Our cold winter this past year was down to the negative numbers and the winter winds buried it with a foot of leaves that I was unable to dig out until late and so all but a few volunteer daisies survived. I replanted some volunteer daisies in the back with zinnias in the middle and some marigolds in the front.
We'll start off with a bonus, two for the price of one. We have a dark red daylilly and some white Yarrow.
Here is a lavender day lilly.
Any guesses? How about ONION! Yes, my onions are in bloom.
Here is a look at my onion patch. they are starting to fall over so I will be picking in a few weeks.
It hasn't measurably rained since last week so I watered my veggies tonight as well as the marigold and zinnia I planted along the house on Sunday.I wasn't going to work outside yesterday but I was seduced by the dark side (or should I say warm temperatures and bright sunlight?). It was such a beautiful day and all I did outside during the day was to hang a load of laundry on the clothesline. But by dinner time I felt guilty of not taking advantage of the weather and temperature. So after dinner I worked in the yard. First thing I did was to transplant two daisies from one flower bed where there are plenty of volunteers to a flower bed alongside the house where all of my perennials perished this winter (except for a few smaller volunteer daisies). Then I planted about 10 zinnias and 10 marigolds that I started from seed in this same garden and in front of the daisies. I wanted to plant cosmos behind all of these because they can get taller but they didn't sprout so well this year. I planted the marigold in front of the zinnias. Next I moved to one of my five flower beds that run along a fence. On the end of one of the flower beds I had planted a pincushion last year but it too perished this winter so I planted some left over marigolds in its place. Then I just continued down the flower bed weeding and mulching as I went. As I was weeding, it always comes to mind that weeding is great therapy. You can always be on autopilot pulling weeds while your mind is allowed to think of whatever is on your mind. Then when you start pulling the weeds out from under the Holly bush/tree then one has to pay more attention to the weeds or you get a handful of dried holly leaves along with those weeds. So I consider weeding therapy unless the weeds are under the Holly tree and could be considered penitence. |
Yes I have Lymes and I had a real anxiety about working outside today. My doctor told me to wear a high sunblock and my brother who recently had Lymes said that he couldn't go outside because the medicine gave him a headache in sunlight. Yesterday on my way home from work I did get a headache (it was bright). After working outside for several hours (and putting on a sunblock before I went outside) I never did get a headache. I wear glasses and my glasses automatically turn dark when exposed to the sun's ultraviolet light. Anyone who has this type of glasses also knows that they don't work in the car since auto glass has been UV treated for years. The headache I got on Friday on my drive home was close to one of those headaches I get instantly when I get beamed with a red laser pointer. So I think I need to find my old clip ons for driving during the day. I started the day by Tying the tomato plants and trimming off the tomato suckers. About 1/3 of my plants top leaves are curling and seem to smaller. Wonder if its from the wet weather. It does seem to be affecting more than one variety. Then I transplanted two gloriosa daisies from the veggie garden into the flower bed next to the chimney. Actually its not a flower bed now and it was last year. Everything that was in that flower bed last year died over the winter. This particular flower bed was under a pile of leaves one foot thick (the winter winds pile them there). And we also had temperatures in the negative numbers this past winter. While planting I found a couple of volunteer daisies, so all is not lost. After I transplanted the daisies, I turned the garden using a spade where the radish bed was and then removed the sunflower twine and their supports. This made me think that I should mulch the 2nd green beans next before planting the third and so I did. Then I planted 3rd green beans and noticed that the 1st green beans could be picked next weekend. Then I mulched the remainder of veggie garden and all thats left to mulch in the veggie garden is alongside 3rd green beans after they sprout. Last night we had three dry thunderstorms. Each storm dumped a bunch to our west and then faded as it got close. My son cut the grass in the front yard for me this afternoon and I cut the back yard after dinner. My son mentioned that he chased a toad with the mower for a moment. Good to know there are still some around. During one of my breaks I was watching the Red Tailed Hawk circle around and was listening to the Blue Jays give the warning squawk. When I took my cool down break after cutting the grass, all I saw were robins looking for bugs/worms. |
I went to the doctor's yesterday and got checked out. He said he didn't need a blood test for confirmation (which wouldn't show it for a few weeks anyway) but I have Lymes disease. I have no other symptoms but a red rash on the back of my arm where I removed a very small tick about a month ago. So now I am taking an antibiotic for three weeks. In other news...it didn't rain yesterday! ... my Bee Balm is starting to bloom ...heard first cicada In the veggie patch, I took a stroll through last night and trained the cuke vines back to its fence and away from the nearby tomatoes or the outer fence or just blocking the garden paths. |
Here's the Butterfly weed a little closer.
Here are two Sedums. I like the larger sedums. I lost three this winter. The three I lost were just as big as these were and when I raked out the winter leaves, they were gone. They have since come back but you have to look real close to see them.
Last year some one gave me a 12-inch square brick of Joe Pye Weed. I cut the brick (with a hatchet) into four squares. I planted two of them next to the mailbox. This year, its looking great.
The Tiger Lillies are in full bloom this week, although last year they were about a foot taller (I swear). In this bed I planted a $3.99 Magnolia that's only 15" tall. It's in there and seems to be doing well. Yes I know it won't be seen for a couple of years.
It was in this bunch of tigers that I first spotted the rabbit this year and the following day I noticed that he had eaten some of the painted daisies.
