2015 journal of the gardens

Nyboy said:

People living in middle of a city get used to doing things different.

Click to expand...

love to hear more about how people do things in the big city.....

10/31/15 update
really not much to report the oats have sprouted.

the carrots have taken off with this cooler weather plus the little bed above the carrots are doing ok, hopefully we have carrots all winter long...
just wondering @thistlebloom how much are carrots in the store...

the peas are getting ready for the 3rd picking... might even get a small 4th pick...

this is for you @catjac1975 yes there are weeds in the garden...

always love the fall colors of the sumac

we went from having days in the cold 50's with rain to having a day in the 70's on Thursday. next week we'll have a few in the mid 60's. had i known the weather would have been this wacky here i would have done some late sowing of peas & carrots too.

11/15/15 update...
went out early this morning to get some shoots of the frost that we had last night got some really neat ones turned off the camera came back in plugged it in and how about no photos, somebody forgot to put the chip back in after she used it....... it is, what it is!
so you get this afternoons photos...
yesterday pulled more weeds and raked leaves out of the raised beds and pulled the joker lettuce....here's a little gardening weather flashback exactly 1 year
you all remember the yankee vortex of last year, if you don't look up last years heating bill...
here's last year 11/15/14

heres today 11/15/15...

wow is that just a wild flop of weather.... even with a couple little frosts the grass is so green wish it was warmer so i can walk on it barefoot..
talking about nice weather, here's the carrots on 10/31/15

and today... while getting the leaves out ran my fingers around a few, they are doing quite nicely.

as for the peas.. we are very impressed with them the dw has already done a 4th picking, we will go out shortly to pick a 5th for tonight's steaks, and if everything goes right we will have fresh peas for thanksgiving dinner as well<6th picking>.

the trees have pretty much finished dropping their leaves, so mowed the property yesterday, looks so much better.

the main garden...at my age so glad i can still sow my oats, dw told me i was a little weak on the right side...

the kiwis took last nights frost a little bit some of the leaves got frost burnt, otherwise they handled it quite well so they will stay out there at least for the next 10 days, no frost in the forecast....

This has been such a nice, long fall. I'm loving it! This week is supposed to get into the 70's; a few extra days to mercifully allow me to catch up on a few things I still haven't gotten done. I hope to be as on-the-ball and organized with my gardening someday as you are, Major! Everything looks neat as a pin.

well i was going to help the dw pick peas but got hung up on the phone with the boss...
not a bad picking.....



oh onto common sense thread.....

Major what kind of Kiwi do you have? I planted 6 vines of hardy kiwi, only 1 showed any growth and of course it is planted in wrong spot and needs to be moved.

have hayward it grows in zones 10-7 semi tropical so i am on the northern side..
then there is the hardy kiwi zones 4-7....
it only took 10 years before it either lived or starting to produce. so if you think it's going to produce...wham bam... nope
when i say lived it took 3 years of replanting them till i got them to survive and then another 10 years to start producing.

so i can not vouch for the hardy variety for your zone.......

out of that picking the dw did this is what she ended up with, dinner and then some..........

11/22/15 update.....
yesterday was able to enjoy a warm afternoon to wash out buckets/pots/trays and the cooler. need the cooler to brine the turkeys next week and the trays need them for the kiwis.

spoke too soon there's a yankee cold front coming tomorrow morning with lows in the mid 20's so set up my southern redneck hoop houses in the raised beds..
have quite a few baby lettuce, baby carrots, beets out there that would hate to lose early on...

and now for the 2015 kiwi weigh in.... was an respectable 41 pounds.
\
the best averaged 3 oz, not including this 6 oz mutant.. yeah we had a chuckle as well.

here's the break down over the past years of them producing......
2014... 57 lbs lost everyone of them..
2013... 63 lbs
2012... 33 lbs
2011.. 15 total

this year determined not to lose a single one, so they are going through a 4 stage bath and dry system...
step 1.. soak for a couple moments in a dilute clorox bleach mix .. to help remove any bacteria that might they may received while growing....
step 2.. soak for a couple moments in a diluted hydrogen peroxide mix..remove any pathogens that the bleach might have missed...
step 3... raised everyone of them with clean water..
step 4... dried everyone one of them thoroughly before putting into trays washed the day before, want to give most of them away as an thank you present to certain vendors that i deal with...