Morning all! Garden is completely done now, seeds drying in brown bags, soon to be plucked and put on paper plates for cleaning and putting in envelopes. I like to use #10 envelopes cut in half, plenty of room to write and then close up with some tape. Tomato seeds get left on the paper towels they dried on. I cut away the excess and pull away the 2nd ply. Works great every year. Soon I will be finalizing at least in my mind what I will do different next year. Garden resolutions! I think at the top of the list is no more experimenting with plants that don’t work out. After 35 years of gardening here we know what works and what doesn’t. This year I tried a baby bell squash which was a nothingburger. They were a nice size but not enough flesh inside to make it worthwhile. Plus the one plant got huge and took up a lot of room. Leaves here in west Michigan just starting to turn - barely. Hummingbirds gone for 5 days now. Took down the feeder and put up the suet cage. The first red breasted nuthatch showed up. We have the regular white breasted ones all year long. Thanks again to Diana for keeping things going.
If it would EVER stop raining (rain again, today!) that would really help!
I sacrificed one Butternut Squash yesterday to see how far along the were, but they’re not quite ripe, yet. Beau says I have a TON of pie pumpkins in the lower garden - happy about that!
Picked another basket of green peppers yesterday - bonus!
Beau got some fresh wood down on the porch/kitchen roof, but he’s leaving to CO for Elk Season next week, so that’s about a far as that’s going to go. My painter is coming to do some more painting between rain showers this weekend, but again, it’s not going to be done - she’ll be a ‘Half-Painted Lady’ until next spring. :(
Lettuces are going strong in the greenhouse, and I planted Arugula and Spinach in there, too. I dug some potatoes yesterday and miracle of miracles they weren’t rotted, even with 4” of additional rain last week.
I am fighting off a cold (Thanks, Beau! NOT!) which cannot happen because I have three different appointments for Dad at the doctor next week.
Other than that, it’ll soon me time to process squash and pumpkins. Glad I cleaned out the freezers, for sure!
I bought a space heater for my greenhouse. The heirloom tomatoes and pepper plants are lovoling it and are blooming all over again.
I had to hand pollinate a bunch of plants last week....hope this works.
P.s....I am in the Seattle area. Nights are upper 40s lower 50s. Days are lower to mid 60s with an occasional 70 if we have a cloudy night the prior evening.