- Weeded all the main garden paths
- Raked the yard and mowed the leaves for mulch
- Pulled all the dead plants and weeds from the veggie beds
- Emptied the rain barrels for winter storage
- Weeded some of the main garden for planting
- Weeded the whole front bed for planting
- Planted all but one of the 99cent plants I got from Home Depot
- Laid out a new raised bed (to be finished later this week, hopefully)
- Planted about half of the remaining spring bulbs
- Harvested the rest of the beets, black-eyed peas, the shallots and the carrots
I was really surprised to see the carrots. I grow them in small pots because I have a nematode problem in my vegetable garden. Usually they never make a nice root. I was pulling them up to store the pots for the winter and there they were, chunky little carrots :) Not enough to make pickled carrots like I would like, but great for snacking. Garden fresh carrots are the best!
Speaking of canning, here is a picture of some of my harvest preservation efforts so far. I have canned lots of applesauce, tomato sauce, salsa, pickled beets, strawberry jam, grape jam, zucchini dill pickles, and zucchini sweet pickles. I have also dried mullein, black eye peas, apple wedges and made apple chips. Then there is all the vegetables I froze. A couple of days ago I used some of the broccoli that I froze earlier in the season - it was so GREEN! Even after cooking it!
Here are all the spring bulbs that I needed to get planted. Notice that there are bulbs here that weren't in the picture I took last week? I told you they follow me home!I planted all the species tulips, one bag of the Princess Irenes, the Mr. Fokker anemones, The irises, and the bleeding heart. I still have almost 300 bulbs to plant! I'm going to love it in the spring, but right now - UGH!
UPDATE 10/19/09: It's 1:30pm and I am done planting ALL the bulbs! WHEW! Now I have to tackle the raised bed...
13 comments:
Sylvana,
You are a busy lady! You had a good crop of carrots, hope you enjoy them.
Can't wait to see tose bulbs in bloom. And I buy lots of those too, since the squirrels help themselves to so many. :)
Rosey
Rosey, I just updated this post. I am done planting bulbs! It ended up being a VERY NICE DAY, so I stayed home from work to get things done -- because it is supposed to rain for the next week!
I have a few tactics to keep the squirrels away: 1) plant them deep, 2) cover your tracks, 3) a layer of lava pebbles over them, 4) a layer of chicken wire, 5) cayenne pepper. I use at least one of these every time I plant. Once the planting site is old, the squirrels generally leave it alone. The only time they go after old sites is when the bulbs are close to the surface, which sometimes you can't avoid. In that case it is lava pebbles or chicken wire to the rescue!
Your squirrel deterrent information would have been handy a couple of years ago when I lost tons of species tulips to the rotten rodents! I pretty well gave up after that, but lots of others came up anyway. My all time favorite is 'Ballerina' only because of the scent of tangerines - I'm not a huge fan of orange the colour, but that smell - wow!
Love your 'savage cottage' look!
you did a LOT!
Love that colorful stocked pantry!
Blue Fox, squirrels are rotten - I don't care how cute and fuzzy they are!
Those Ballerina tulips look like lily versions of Princess Irene, my favorite tulip!
Wendy, I was shocked when I realized that I had all the bulbs planted and still had most of the day left.
I love looking at my pantry shelf full of goodies that I grew and made myself. You know, in that picture you can't even see the vast majority of the tomato sauce, salsa and grape jam that I canned.
Your pantry is beautiful! I so love the look of home canned items all lined up and ready to be used. Home canning seriously fits my hoarder personality. Lovely!
Heather, you are woman after my own heart! I am a hoarder and I love to see an organized, inventoried shelf. Sometimes I just go into the pantry now to look at the shelf :P
Wow, you have completed a lot lately. I just love to see your shelf filled with your very own canned food and preserves. Cooking a healthy, delicous meal is just a breeze now.
Autumn Belle, I still have so much more to do, but it is really nice to have the bulbs planted.
I love looking at all that food knowing that I grew it and I canned it.
Slyvana,
Your response to Autumn Belle is just like I feel when I got it all canned and put on my shelves. They all look so nice.
So glad we haven't got any snow yet. That winter seen is just too much for me!
vickie
Vickie, We've now gotten snow a few times this fall. It's coming! Hot Cocoa season!!
You got all this done in one weekend? Holy Cow - you're a rock star! Usted es mas macha indeed! (not sure if I got that right - it's been...oh...about 25 years since I last took a Spanish class - but you get the point. I'm impressed!)
Rebecca, and I was disappointed that I didn't get enough done. Thanks for making me feel better about what I did get done!
Post a Comment