The Garden Thread that two people wanted

[notthatamanda]

I've still got dahlias blooming, they didn't really bloom all summer with the drought. I need to dig those up but is it so nasty out there right now.

[idontknowyet]

We got a cool evening. My peas shot up and oh the broc and cauliflower look amazing. YAY for lovely cool evenings and mid 70s days.

[notthatamanda]

Jealous

[idontknowyet]

Jealous

We need something to even out the 100+ rest of the year.

[Jeff Tanyard]

I've been without internet for the past two-and-a-half days due to Hurricane Zeta.  It only just now came back on.  I never lost power, though, or had any property damage, so I fared pretty well compared to a lot of folks in the area.

In the dark-age interim, I cut down a tree and chopped it up into manageable pieces.  I'm still sore from the exertion.  I'm in terrible shape.     But I removed a sweetgum before it got too big for me to handle by myself, so mission accomplished.  Trunk was about five inches in diameter, and the tree was twenty-five, maybe thirty feet tall by my estimation.  I took it down with a Sawzall.  (I'm leery of chainsaws, and I only use one when there's no other option.)

[LilyBLily]

I've been without internet for the past two-and-a-half days due to Hurricane Zeta.  It only just now came back on.  I never lost power, though, or had any property damage, so I fared pretty well compared to a lot of folks in the area.

In the dark-age interim, I cut down a tree and chopped it up into manageable pieces.  I'm still sore from the exertion.  I'm in terrible shape.     But I removed a sweetgum before it got too big for me to handle by myself, so mission accomplished.  Trunk was about five inches in diameter, and the tree was twenty-five, maybe thirty feet tall by my estimation.  I took it down with a Sawzall.  (I'm leery of chainsaws, and I only use one when there's no other option.)

Quite a feat. I was eyeing an oak just this afternoon and acknowledging that it's too late; it has grown too big.

I have two chain saws. I got over my fear of them when my good friend who is a tiny thing almost a foot shorter than me confidently chopped up her Christmas tree with a small electric chain saw on a power cord. I went home and bought one for myself. Even more versatile and non-scary is my battery-operated baby chain saw. It's very small, and it's perfect for going far out on the property and sawing small saplings very close to the ground so we never trip on a tiny stump. In fact, I just ordered a battery-operated hedge clipper that I hope to use mostly as a bush hog to reduce the amount of rampant wild blueberries. They seem to grow bigger without producing anything, so goodbye.

As for being in poor shape, only people using those exact muscles regularly will not get sore from the activity. I try to alternate tool days. One day I go out with the spading fork to dig up invasives. The next day I use clippers, and maybe the third I'm out there with a folding hand saw. That way the muscles are not overused.

[notthatamanda]

Dug up the dahlias and boy did they multiply.  Cut back the dead peony and salvia growth. Apparently one sub freezing night was enough for the saliva which is now sprouting again. It is almost 70s here. I'm going to write on the deck this afternoon since for November that is a treat.

[LilyBLily]

I just painted half the deck. I ran out of steam before I ran out of deck, but also the wind started to deposit leaves and two different tools proved inadequate to the task. I'm going to try again tomorrow when it's supposed to be circa 70 degrees again.

The next project for today is planting more bulbs. I'm leaving my NaNoWriMo writing for later. This weather is too nice to miss. (Of course I hope some people are staying in and reading or buying my novels. Ahem.) 

[notthatamanda]

They can stay out and read too. I'm about to do that. I put the hammock stand away before the snow though. :(

[idontknowyet]

One of my pepper plants has gone crazy producing. There are maybe 9 decent sized peppers all of the sudden.
And i've got my first tomato baby of the season. All of the tomato plants i put in the first round have tomatoes on them

Planted some white potatoes today... this will be a first for us.

The pea plants are getting nice and tall need to put the second row of trellising up for them to climb. I have one bed of spinach that isnt doing a single thing no idea why. All the other beds are flourishing. I'm going to end up with several hundred plants just from that 3 that are doing very well.

And my compost bin is growing sweet potatoes. Like crazzzzzzzzzzzy. They are crawling out everywhere and completely invading the bin.

[LilyBLily]

The deck is done, and I got more bulbs in. I had to take my tomato plants off the deck but I've put them up against the house and in this mild weather they may be fine. They're too tall to bring inside, so it's just a matter of time before cool weather does them in. I've already brought in the lantana, which is not winter-hardy around here. The morning glory gave up a couple of weeks ago, but there's still a self-seeded petunia blooming under the cannas. A garden surprise of the good kind.

[idontknowyet]

I got a dozen seedlings in the beds today.

My first pea flowers bloomed today. It's funny like 1/3 of the plants are two foot tall and the rest are all like 4-6 inches.

Found even more sweet potato shoots. Ugh.

[notthatamanda]

Why not just grow more sweet potatoes? I have the mint problem so I'm not unsympathetic but sweet potatoes seem more useful.

[LilyBLily]

Mint is so amazing. I have some mint that has survived four moves.

[idontknowyet]

Why not just grow more sweet potatoes? I have the mint problem so I'm not unsympathetic but sweet potatoes seem more useful.

Because we are going into winter (sort of eventually) once sweet potatoes get under 40 i think they rot and die. it takes 4 months to actually produce fruit of a size you can eat.

The sweet potato roots are squeezing out my spinach roots and trying for the tomatoes

[notthatamanda]

Gotcha. For some reason I thought the sweet potatoes were in your compost pile.

[idontknowyet]

Gotcha. For some reason I thought the sweet potatoes were in your compost pile.

They are there too! they are everywhere. I havent pulled them out of the compost bin though i have tried burying them more without success

[Mark Gardner]

This weekend I went ahead and harvested any vegetables that were left. The overnight was under 35 a few days last week, plus the tomato and pepper plants were looking pretty funky. Aubrey and I ate the carrots right out of the ground It snowed last night, so I guess I'm done until February or so...

[Vijaya]

that was a short season. our tomatoes stopped producing for a while but came back to life. still eating okra. i never get tired of the spicy "bhindi bhaji" but decided to make soup--well, my husband did but i directed. i'm out of commission for a while--had 2 surgeries and recovering. of all things i miss writing the most but here i am typing one handed. lol

[notthatamanda]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

[idontknowyet]

that was a short season. our tomatoes stopped producing for a while but came back to life. still eating okra. i never get tired of the spicy "bhindi bhaji" but decided to make soup--well, my husband did but i directed. i'm out of commission for a while--had 2 surgeries and recovering. of all things i miss writing the most but here i am typing one handed. lol

I hope oyu feel better soon

[Jeff Tanyard]

that was a short season. our tomatoes stopped producing for a while but came back to life. still eating okra. i never get tired of the spicy "bhindi bhaji" but decided to make soup--well, my husband did but i directed. i'm out of commission for a while--had 2 surgeries and recovering. of all things i miss writing the most but here i am typing one handed. lol

Sorry to hear about that, Vijaya.  I hope you recover from the surgeries soon.   

[Vijaya]

thank you.

[LilyBLily]

Nice that your husband cooked for you. Get well soon.

[Vijaya]

thank you. he's a good cook. we have a bounty of peppers (both hot and sweet) and he routinely stuffs them with cream cheese, wraps them in bacon, and roasts them. delish. he's also made a hot sauce from the ghost peppers--pretty pictures on my blog: https://vijayabodach.blogspot.com/

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Our summer rains are beginning and everything is coming into bloom (unfortunately, so are the weeds  ). My hibiscus has started flowering and agapanthus have buds on them. Wil post when the buds open. 

[Maggie Ann]

Our summer rains are beginning and everything is coming into bloom (unfortunately, so are the weeds  ). My hibiscus has started flowering and agapanthus have buds on them. Wil post when the buds open.

Oooh, double yellow. My favorite.

I'm going to Home Depot tomorrow to get some white Pentas. The ones I have seem to be thriving.

Dendrobiums keep blooming and blooming and blooming. Two of my Phaelonopsis also have flower spikes. We're coming up on blooming season so I have to stop fertilizing.

[LilyBLily]

That hibiscus is gorgeous.

I just covered my iris bed with netting to keep the leaves off. We'll see if that works at all. Probably won't, but I've had the netting for years and years. Might as well try it.

[notthatamanda]

My rhododendrons are covered in buds thanks to the 75 degree weather a week ago, but tonight we might get some snow.

[idontknowyet]

My 3 of my potatoes started sprouting from the ground. I planted 9 more seedlings today. There are dozens of baby tomatoes  and hundreds of flowers. Though quite a few were blown off by eta the other day. I saw my first two pea pods. The arent anywhere near ready to pick. About 60 of my spinach plants should be ready for their first harvest soon.

I'm sooo tempted to try putting onions in, but i dont have bed space alloted for that this year.

[Vijaya]

what a beauty, jan. thank you.

[Simon Haynes]

I'm staying up all night (got up at 9pm), and my plan is to go out around dawn and tend to the garden for a bit. Desperately need the sunshine!

[idontknowyet]

I was able to harvest my first set of spinach. 1lb!!! Cant wait to keep getitng more.

Most of my tomato flowers are falling off since eta came through, not sure why, but i do have a few tomatoes on them growing.

My potatoes have finally sprouted and they seem to be doubling in size every single day!!

Transplanted kale and broc seem to be going through a hard shock. They are taking about a month to root then they start growing like crazy!!!!

My plants are dense and massive, but i've only found 3 pea pods on them :(

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Turned over my compost heap and I now have an abundance of tiny papaya trees, tomatoes, butternut, an avocado and some fk's. Will leave them as is, but I'm expecting the monkeys to get the biggest harvest if the plants grow to maturity 

[notthatamanda]

Do the monkeys have any natural predators? Here we have an owl with a bobbing head and reflective eyes mounted in the garden to scare the critters.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Do the monkeys have any natural predators? Here we have an owl with a bobbing head and reflective eyes mounted in the garden to scare the critters.

Humans seem to be their only enemies in urban areas  . They've been known to attack dogs and don't appear to be unduly afraid of them. We've tried putting a rubber snake to scare them away, but they are too wily for that. Not afraid of humans either. One day I was sitting on my veranda having breakfast. I had a plate of toast in my hand when a monkey appeared and slowly approached me. I wanted to see what it would do and it jumped onto the chair next to me and actually reached across to the plate of toast I was holding. I snatched the toast away just in time. The dog was mute with shock  . You have to make a proper job of caging in your vegetables to keep them properly monkey proof. I don't mind them taking a few things, but they take bites out of unripe fruit and veg and it's then wasted. We've built on what was their land so we shouldn't complain. And some people actually feed them so they become used to getting food from bins etc and we have to tie the lids down. During the lockdown we had to put out our bins so some of the residents could collect them. We had to have people on monkey duty to stop the monkeys ripping open the bags. One lady took a chair to sit on while waiting for the rubbish bags to be collected  . Pouring a bit of Jeynes fluid on the bags seems to put them off. 

[LilyBLily]

I'm about to go outside and plant the rest of my spring bulbs. The cool weather a couple of nights ago finished off my tomatoes, which was just as well because a rotting underground stump suddenly created a big hole and I needed the dirt from the pots to level it up. I discovered the hole by putting my foot onto what I thought was solid ground. Nope. Luckily, I only went down about a foot even though the hole goes farther. It's always an adventure around here. 

[notthatamanda]

My indoor coleus up and kicked the bucket for some reason. I pulled a handleful of green stems out of it and am going to try to resurrect it.

[LilyBLily]

It took me until today to finish with the bulbs. The problems were (1) rocks everywhere and (2) I ran out of purchased dirt and the nearest store wouldn't sell any online even for curbside pickup. It doesn't seem like a good moment to risk more human contact, so I stayed home and wandered our property looking for anything that resembled dirt. I settled for several odd spots that will probably kill the bulbs after the first year of bloom. Possibly before. But they are finally done.

[Simon Haynes]

Heading into our Summer here - 100+ degrees F some days of the week for about 3-4 months straight. Lethal on just about everything green and growing!

Despite that, I have tomato seedlings, rocket, corn, bok choi and lettuce seedlings on the go. I'm 90% there with the (dead) winter weeds, and I'm not exaggerating when I say I have a pile of dried rocket bushes taller than I am (and I'm 6'3").  I let all the rocket go to seed and it's sprouted across most of the back garden...

[Jeff Tanyard]

Heading into our Summer here - 100+ degrees F some days of the week for about 3-4 months straight. Lethal on just about everything green and growing!

It's currently 38 degrees F here and cloudy.  There's blue stuff on the Doppler radar.   

[notthatamanda]

We're having crazy wind, rain and power outages. But it's 20 degrees warmer in Massachusetts than in Georgia apparently.  (58 F)

[Maggie Ann]

We're going down to 48F tonight and 44F tomorrow night. It's 15 degrees lower than normal. All my orchids have flower spikes (except the teenagers and younguns) and some of them have multiple spikes. They may not be strong enough yet to survive these low temps.

[notthatamanda]

The rhododendrons budded up again here. Next week will be in the 20s at night so I'm not expecting them to bloom.

[LilyBLily]

Nothing in my garden is confused enough to bloom as we're finally sliding into more winter-like temperatures, 20s at night, 40s in the daytime instead of 50s. A harsh wind blew in late this afternoon to effect the change.

However, I note that various daffodils and other spring bulbs are already poking up here and there. The ones I just planted will bloom late this year and extend the season. Then next year (if they live) they'll be in sync with the season. New bulbs always seem to bloom late.   

[idontknowyet]

We're getting our first couple of cold nights of the season. I covered my tomatoes hopefully they last. Never ever ever have i had this many baby tomatoes on a plant. If they make it i can't even imagine how many pounds of tomatoes ill get from the 12 plants.

My spinach is doing amazing getting 1lb about ever 2-4 days. I can't wait for my kale to start going like crazy! Some of my broc is getting big but no heads forming.

My lettuce is trying to pretend to grow but basically it is a sad sad sight.

[Vijaya]

Simon, I'm envying your summer--it's getting cold here in SC. Every time it dips into the 40s my husband starts talking about FL. But I love living in Charleston, our friends, our church.

[Simon Haynes]

Funnily enough, 3 days ago we had the coldest November morning for 124 years. (It was still very mild, let's be honest. Probably a warm summer day for some parts of the world...)

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I was excitedly watching the growth of my agapanthus wondering just how high it would get - and then the wind came and snapped it off   

It was 1.55 metres. (61 inches). 

[LilyBLily]

Beautiful. I think I've seen far shorter versions in Florida.