Catch up in the garden.

13 years ago

As of now the last garden chores before winter are to redo afew markers that need redoing as they are getting faint. I redid most as I went along moving them this summer so that I would not have to do them later but at the end got sloppy and left some. I should get to that tomorrow.

Still lots of mulching left to do although I have been doing mulching. Whatever I decided to do with straw I started and will be getting bags of fall leaves to stread around also but its too early here, none to be had yet.

We still have not had a frost here which is fine by me. But its been either cold, rainy or windy these past two weeks and only today did we have a nice sunny day. Cool but much better than it has been lately.

I have gotten the last of everything planted that had been sitting around. Like 2 potted roses and all the daffodil bulbs. I am really glad that I did not buy more bulbs. Not that I don't love the look in the spring, I just didn't feel up to planting more this fall. I will have to do better next year but at least these will brighten things up in early spring.

I also put some Belgium Blocks around the first tier of Tall Bearded Iris that I had planted out in front. When I dropped the blocks there meaning to fix it in the summer but didn't get to it until fall. It looks good and means I can build upon that and put another tier of iris. I still have some I want to move from my Tower Square Garden. Will be doing that come spring. Will also be working on finishing that Tall Bearded iris row in the backyard come spring.

I really am trying to have less to do in spring than usual but less doesn't mean I don't have lots of work still needs doing come late March and early April. Just as long as I don't have to do much all summer long, I will be happy.

Another thing done here is that those REALLY BIG rocks that have sat around here forever got carted away and that makes me so happy. I found a guy here locally that wanted them but had to wait until he could arrange for a friend with a truck and a forklift but they showed up today and loaded those rocks. They are gone from here and all I can think of its HURRAH!!!!!

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Comments (9)

berrytea4me
13 years ago
Rita,

I don't think garden work ever gets "caught up" but it sure sounds like you've been making progress! I'll bet that really feels good.

Good for you!

Saturday will be a big catch up day for me. The town holds a free "clean up" day where you can dump anything you need to be rid of for free. I hope to get the rest of my sunflowers and some tree suckers pulled too. I have been saving all the seedy weeds and big stalks like sunflowers on my trailer all summer so that I can haul it all to their dumpster. It is a mountain.

Then the community gardens require so many hours of volunteer time and their last work day is also on Saturday. I still owe them 1.5 hours so I'll be helping winterize things down there too.

If I get done with all that I have a plot there ready to till and cover with black landscape fabric so that it is ready for spring planting when I start moving daylilies & iris again.

I would love to mulch my yard too but need to buy & install edgers first as the soil is already washing into the walkways in some areas.

Then there is the rest of the 12.5 yards of sheep poop that I still need to spread. I guess it could be used as a mulch too.

Then there are the beds around the house that I didn't have time to weed this summer & now need to really be dug......then...it never ends :)
newyorkrita
Original Author
13 years ago
I could never manage to take care of your gardens much less the massive moving project that you have taken on. I feel like it was the effort of the century just to do the digging and moving of the daylilies and roses that I did this past summer. Buts its nothing compaired to what you have going on.

The weather here continues to co-opperate with lovely mild days with the highs in the low 70s. So I have been mulching away in the garden. When I finish as area, I love the way it looks all snug for the winter and of course no weeds. I will take some pictures as things get done. But I am really enjoying this weather. Not Indian Summer as we have not yet even had a frost. Fine by me, I can wait.
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a personal thanks to all of you
Q
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To my many friends, I have not read or posted anything for almost two months and I feel all yall would like and explanation. It is with a grateful heart that I can give you one and give all the glory to our God. I am and my life is a miracle. My time line is vague but you will understand in a bit . about the first of April, My doctor decided, after 6 months of pain, to remove my gallbladder. she made an appointment with a cardiologist to make sure my heart could with stand the surgery. I am a diabetic. On the day I was to see the cardiologist my sugar shot up to 400, I was taken to E R and was admitted. After several days my sugar was down so they did the heart cath. and got clearance for surgery. They did the surgery. It went well. while recovering, still in the hospital I had a panic attack. Oh that was the most horrible experience I cried and screamed for no reason ...and then it stopped. I think with the help of a medication. finally I came home Sunday evening. Monday was slow and a hard day. Tuesday I got up and came into the living room and turned on my computer. I was chatting with my neighbor 2 doors down., my lip started to twitch and before I finished telling he about it she was standing in my door way. they rushed to the hospital where I had had my surgery, the put me in an ambulance and rushed me to LAKEAND REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER to the ICU ward. I had a 3 " bleed in my brain. I had suffered a stroke. after 3 days in ICU I was transferred to the stoke unit. A few days later the went to release me. I was sitting on my bed and the nurse handed me my discharge papers to sign. I reached for the pen, my hand slowly passed by my face ........the next thing I knew I was being transferred from the Cat scan machine back to the transport gurney and returned to my room for serveral more days. I had suffered a GRAND MAL SIEZURE ,When I did come home I had to return to the E R as the seizure med was causing all kinds of side effects. Then I had to make a special trip to my pain management doc to have my chronic pain med adjusted. So finially I was able to home and rest. I laid down to ,rest My daughter came in and said I needed to come in the living run. I have to tell you I was very tired and very very week but she insisted so with my walker I stumbled into the living and found there on my couch was my daughter Darcy and her friend who I had not seen in 6 YEARS!! I Screamed with pleasure and scolded her that I had had a stroke , a seizure , was she trying to give me a heart attack, we all laughed. they stayed a week. They help me catch up on my gardening. I am recovering slowly ....I had so many emails I could deal with them, so I deleted them all My doctor in ICU , a Neurologist said HERE IS THE MIRACLE that in 30+year he had had only 1 other patient with a bleed the size of my where the patient was not permanently disabled. My God is good He is real and He is alive and well on planet earth. Im still week and my words get switched and I have pause in my thought pattern when I am talking. 75% of plants are in self watering buckets THEY ALL SURVIVED! I LOST 3 fig the other 3 were are growing good - these were grown from cuttings sent to me from the keys, star fruit tree doing well, all of the ÂStick TomatoesÂ germinated and are growing,ÂÂ I am sorry I cant remember the names of who sent what, but I am grateful. The Doc says as soon as brain swelling goes down MOST of memory will come back I love you all Ssmittee
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Q
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The problem with photographing a cutting garden, guys, is that ...well...you CUT the flowers before they are in full bloom! THus, it is seldom gorgeous! I might be able to get a shot before the first picking after my day off, Tuesday. (Actually I don't get the full day off because I have to pick Tues afternoon for Wed.) I will try to get some photos of my main personal garden but it is recovering form a massive redesign last year and a lot of the rose bushes are still small, But oh well, a garden is never finished and I do enjoy the whole process, and certain flowers when they bloom. MOst of my photos are of individual flowers, lilies, roses, dahlias. Guess I should take a photo of my sweet peas while they are still beautiful too. After the first of Sept I might find time for photos. With the trip 3 hours away to get the puppy this Sat It makes the rest of the month totaly nutzoid! Oh yeh, my Garden is "Hartwood". Cause the place was full of deer (hart) when we first saw it. And yes, I have deer fencing!
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Q
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Sherry, Thanks, I'm glad you like the picture. Your place sounds like paradise! I wish other people would be so careful of what and how many trees they cut. There's someone building just up the road from us on a property that was always wooded and I'm cringing every time I hear their power saws going because it seems like there's never an end to it. I'll really be unhappy when the woods next to us gets cut down someday to make way for a house, but there's no stopping "progress". We live in an older house, but this area is getting more and more developed (as I'm sure most areas are). It's a rural area, but we live right along a pretty main road. We get lots of birds here too. I was into birds before I was into butterflies, so now I feed both and love to watch them. I guess I'm pretty lucky despite not having many butterflies so far this year. It's just that it's a little disappointing having all of the host and nectar plants that I have and hardly any butterflies show up to enjoy it and so we can watch them. My daughter (grown) surprised me today by letting out two Red Admirals for me when I wasn't around. I also let one out later on. Just when I think that she's become disinterested in butterflies, she warms my heart by doing that. She used to help me raise Monarchs but then got away from doing that, so I thought that she was no longer taking an interest in the butterflies. I'll let you all know if butterflies start showing up here. At least I got to raise the Red Admirals, something that I never raised before. Most of them had been parasitized before I brought them in, but I saved at least a dozen from harm's way. I'm glad that you're having such a great butterfly year. finchelover, That sounds about like here with the lack of butterflies. I had also seen some Clouded Sulphurs here at least a month ago, and I also had a Question Mark checking out my small potted hackberry trees, but I never found any eggs and haven't seen it since. Cathy
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a personal thanks to all of you
Q
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Smittee can certainly sympathize with you . Went in for a cat scan and my left lung collapsed so spent 5 days in the hospital.. The biopsy was positive but they tell me the cancer is inoperable . so now the tough decisions lol Do nothing and enjoy what time I have left or let them work on me and maybe extend my life a year or two??. One oncologist wants to try a new treatment but is not FDA approved so not covered by insurance . Not sure I can afford to be THAT sick lol. May be able to get some help with costs in trade as a "Guinea pig" But would have to drop my regular doctors .maybe even go to another state. That doesn't sound too cheap either lol. Good luck with your problem!!! Always planned on dying but it's sure a LOT different when it's staring you in the eye HUH?? gary
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berrytea4me
13 years ago
Ha! and I could not imagine taking on building all those walls and new garden beds you have been doing!
newyorkrita
Original Author
13 years ago
It rained here really hard all night Friday night, drizzed most of Saturday and then rained downpours on Saturday night into Sunday. The day did continue nice and sunny and clear so I decided to take a long walk in the park accross the street as it was still too wet to be messing around mulching but just too nice not to go do something outside.

First time I have gotten down there since early this spring as I just got too carried away with garden work this year. I noticed that I didn't see all the pesky (and messy) Geese that I am used to seeing and was thinking maybe they were gone. But just on my way back I did see three of them being chased around by some children way, way accoss the other side of the park. So I guess they are still here, just making themselves scarce with more people around as it was such a nice day.
Cindy zone 6a
13 years ago
Good for you Rita, I'm glad you took that walk. It was a very nice day here too. I just raked, shredded and bagged leaves, and I took a walk too, just couldn't hear or see the ocean surf, but did see those pesky Canadian Geese!!!
Cindy
newyorkrita
Original Author
13 years ago
Those Pesky Geese are everywhere now. I can remember when they were endangered. Endangered, ha. Now they are an absolute pest, pest, pest.

This is a great time of year for long walks but as its now time to go around and start to collect bags of fall leaves that people put out at the curb, I am sure I will be too busy to be walking. I need those leaves to finish all my mulching. Every year I seem to need more and more leaves to get done here. But that should not be surprising as I keep putting in more and more garden beds.
organic_kitten
13 years ago
Rita,
It sounds like you are in a great position!

I am no where near through planting bulbs, because I lost my mind, as usual, and ordered far too many! I have two more deliveries coming this week.

I had ordered a couple of daylilies about a month ago from Jim Murphy, and hadn't heard from him, and suddenly a box arrived 2 days ago. The plants are beautiful but it is a little later than I like to plant even in Alabama, but the plants are in the ground now.

The non-ending rain took a toll, there was just too much moisture for too long. I lost two iris and one daylily to rot. DH kept telling me to quit worrying, I could do nothing about the weather, and we would buy replacements for anything I lost. I won a replacement for the daylily (Johnny Cash) on the auction today. It is spring delivery which is good. (At least it has a place already.)

I have a lot to do in the yard, and the ground has not really dried out enough...and we are supposed to have rain again Tuesday. I will plant the other tulips tomorrow. The ones coming in the mail should go in the refrigerator for a few weeks before planting anyway, but since they are annuals to me, they may just go in the ground sooner, and the lilies could go in the crisper drawer for a few weeks.

kay
newyorkrita
Original Author
13 years ago
I am pretty organized as far as fall because I am on mulching and then I am thru. But I already know I have daylily moving to do in the spring and also some bearded iris. I didn't finish either the iris moving nor the daylily moving. I simply got to a point were it seemed reasonable to stop. Plus its not as much compaired to what I did this summer and fall. At least I don't have to move a bunch of roses this coming spring.
organic_kitten
13 years ago
Yeah, but chances are there will be something else you discover that you need to do next year.

I have to admit, today has been a gorgeous day, and I enjoy working in the garden. I planted most of the tulips, then got distracted by a so called humingbird plant. The hummers do love it, but the tiny twig I planted is a thug!!!

I am trying to dig it out, but it has massive roots. I will plant the twigs I saved where they can do no harm, but this monster is not staying in this bed. lilies and other ornamentals do too well here, no thugs needed.

The roots are huge though. Wish me luck. I have other bulbs coming still. A couple hundred tulips, some alliums, some foxtail lilies, muscari, and another 25 lilies, so I'll be planting for a while yet.

I doubt I've mentioned it, but I have been busy indoors. I decided it was time for a makeover of the bedroom, so I have spent quite a few hours doing that. I'm about 2/3 to 3/4 through, but on hold for the extra work I'm doing this week. I will be tired but happy when I'm through working Sunday morning, since I'm working a couple extra shifts that will be paid back in December. My friend is going to Tampa to walk in the Walk for the Cure.

Ah well, back to the thug plant with roots to China...
kay

kay

Catch up in the garden.

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berrytea4me

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Catch up in the garden.

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berrytea4me

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