Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:

lovely weather lately, sunshine, mid 60s-70s most of the
time.

Same here. Just enough rain a few days ago to keep all but the
hardiest of gardeners, among whose number I am not, indoors. The highs
you're having are within the range of the overnight lows here, with
highs in high 80s. Typical autumn weather for this part of the country.
Every year about this time, I get antsy to start planting and fearful
that days won't cool enough for "cool season" crops until it's too late
for reasonable expectation of a decent harvest before we get freezing
temps in January or February. However, my diary sez that "English"
peas, carrots, lettuce didn't go in until the last week of October last
year, and onions seeds in early November, so I guess I'll have to cool
my jets and wait for Mother to do Her thing.

i've got tons of fresh pea pods out there, wish i had either
energy or time to harvest them.


whatchu been upto?

With regret, killed a native pine tree. Summer squash blooming
nicely with the cukes not far behind. The tomatoes that carried over
through the summer are not showing me much; they're dangerously close to
becoming compost. Unless I hit a deal on some "sets", I'll probably
just do without fall tomatoes. Most years, fall tomatoes are productive
at least through November and, in 2011, they made it 'til early January,
2012. Everything else pretty much is over and done with, although, I
swear the cowpeas ("zipper cream") must overhear my threats to end their
days and set another little flush of blossoms when they realize their
peril. Started mowing, piecemeal, the "lawn" for what I hope is the
last time this year.

you folks aren't big on tomatoes anyways...

we've had a few plantings like that too. cucumber vine would
wax and wane and produce just enough to keep it where it was.


Repotting a few jalapeño peppers and some tender herbs that I want
to bring inside during chilly weather but a fair portion of the
gardening day is spent deadheading invasive wildflowers (prior to mowing
that damnable grass), fiddling with dripline and preparing raised beds
to receive bodacious quantities of well composted, drug-free and
grain-free horse dung, a lucky find.

yay for good horse poo! it smells so much better
than chicken or pig and is almost as good as fresh cow
pats for aroma. growing up next to a dairy farm makes
me roll the window down when i drive by a well run
dairy (when most others will be rolling the windows up).
smells like home...


"Preparing" this year means
double-digging about half of the beds in order to remove native tree
roots; the balance will get their normal "shake up" with shovel and
spading fork.

deadheading to prevent the spread of the seeds?
which wildflower?


I don't envy you your never-ending drainage project. I'd much
rather be cutting and cussing tree roots in my garden beds than trying
to excavate clay any day.

it is getting there. 100ft today is all cleared out and
ready for tomorrow morning's final check of the slope before
i put down the two drain tubes. muddy work all week, the
high water table, springs, kept me dancing to avoid getting
stuck. some times it was easier to just use the trowel to
move mud instead of scraping it off the shovel and my shoes
every few minutes.

good clean mud fun. and i got to see more crayfish
including one with eggs today and froggies trying to get
ready to hibernate for the winter.

the next higher 50ft section will have to wait until next
year as it is more important to get the lower part situated
and the berm built up before we have winter/spring chances
of flooding.


songbird