What Did You Do In The Garden?

[ducks4you]

This morning I dug out my red Amaryllis from the front bed, before it goes below 32 degrees F tonight. It never DID bloom last winter, but it looked very healthy this morning. I snapped off the leaves, dug underneath it, pulled out some very nice roots and a quarter sized corm and tiny dime sized corm. I knocked off the soil, and am storing it on it's side in a pot in the dark in the basement. I should try growing it again mid January. MAYBE it will bloom for me, then.

 

[Beekissed]

Rolled out 4 large round bales of mulch hay in there. Fashioned a duck house out of an old igloo doghouse for the garden and they seem to like it. The garden is the duck's night time space, their safety zone.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Sawed limbs, piled limbs, dragged limbs, blew leaves, blew leaves, winterized the irrigation lines.

 

[ducks4you]

BAD tomato year!!! Blech!! Cannot beLIEVE how many green tomatoes I picked this morning. Pretty much 1 painter's bucket full!! I promised DH that we would make ketchup this year, so whatever ripens inside will make the base. I had some red tomatoes inside on the table AND the leftover salsa from my party in jars in the fridge. Tonight I managed to can 2 1/2 quarts of tomatoes, 1 pint and five 1/2 pints of salsa. Waiting on the final jars for the next 5 minutes, then I can go to bed. I covered the annuals that I didn't have time/energy to bring in. Every one of my moving blankets is outside on top of plants. It will bottom out at 25 degrees tonight! Ponies are in their stalls. TOO wet, TOO cold, TOO EARLY!!! We only had 2 weeks of Fall this year!! The temperatures for the next TWO WEEKS are almost the averages for our winters. Only good thing...last (2nd) batch of hay will be delivered on Sunday, 52 degrees, light winds, NOT the usual 90 in the shade and no relief in the barn loft.

 

[digitS']

@ducks4you , I have found that tomatoes ripening indoors within days of coming off the vines, have very little difference from vine ripened. Weeks indoors before ripening - flavor is waaayy down.

Would playing with a recipe be called if many of the tomatoes will not be ready soon? There are several catchup ingredients. I have been curious about different vinegars and different syrups and the flavors they provide.

Record monthly averages for October temperatures have been noted by the Weather Service. Records have been kept for nearby communities for 100 to close to 150 years. Last year, the growing season was through a severe drought. Summer 2019 was fairly normal but it was the weeks on either side of it created some limits.

Steve

 

[Trish Stretton]

I plucked my baby tea hedge today...all 5 metres of it.
Got a small bowl full of leaves, took them inside and tossed them in my (dry) wok. Took it off the heat and rubbed them as I saw on a you tube vid.

That was 12 hours ago.
My small bowl full is now looking rather tiny...lol but is actually starting to smell like tea.
the leaves are now in a paper bag which will get hung out in my apple tree- that being the most shady but windy spot at the moment. to finish drying.
I might get a weeks worth of green tea this year but its been fun and next year....

 

[ducks4you]

@ducks4you , I have found that tomatoes ripening indoors within days of coming off the vines, have very little difference from vine ripened. Weeks indoors before ripening - flavor is waaayy down.
Steve

Good questions. I plan to store a quart's worth or two at a time, refridgerate them and then use them for ketchup. It's a roll of the dice, but they are still good for using in pots like for stuffed peppers.

Would playing with a recipe be called if many of the tomatoes will not be ready soon? There are several catchup ingredients. I have been curious about different vinegars and different syrups and the flavors they provide.
Steve

Several recipes suggest that the tomato ketchup was fermented, too. I always thought the tang came from the vinegar, but we'll see.
These tomatoes were toast, anyway, so it is worth a try.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

For the first time in a week or more I went out and put some compost on the garden. Sun is shinning and I feel better.

 

[digitS']

I dug out about 20 square feet of one backyard bed.

There was a 5 gallon bucket of kitchen peelings, a previously frozen pumpkin, and the two Jack o'Lanterns. Everything was chopped some with the shovel. Quite a few pots of this and that including 2 big houseplants DW didn't want any longer - it all went in and was covered with a good 8" of soil. My experience digging up and looking at a Jack o'Lantern in the spring is that it will still be identifiable and teaming with earthworms.

Took the two-part door back through the fence and reinstalled it to close the shed in that garden.

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

I dug up my 7 geraniums and they are on the enclosed porch until the weekend. I covered them last week with moving blankets. I also dug up Some kind of spiky annual, there were 5 of those, to overwinter. Those will sit in the basement until the weekend, too, then all shade annuals will go upstairs in front of the windows for the winter. As long as I water them, they should make it until the Spring.
I dumped the water tank full of well rotted manure and radishes and moved it to it's winter quarters, blocking the wind for the chickens.
I redug along the path for the wheel for my gate in front of the barn. Not done yet, put I will take pictures and it will make more sense.