The indoor garden is in full swing. A few more pots to go and I will have pictures, I am having trouble getting lemon thyme to propagate. I was successful with mint, oregano, basil (it flowered and I’ll need a new one) and lemon verbena. I guess four out of five isn’t bad.
Lot of dill coming up with seeds I saved. I actually gave away a bunch of seedlings to friends.
Moving a couple outdoor pots this week to be against my building. They’ll get better sun and be against the bricks. Las Year my sage didn’t really die and I had several things live to December.
My Swiss Chard is producing enough for twice weekly I cup harvest.
And, yes Diana, we are getting pretty leaves too, on my walk Thisbe is a lovely maple tree. It’s close enough to a street lamp that it’s almost illuminated. In the predawn mist It’s so beautiful.
Our RV is closed up for the winter and we are back home.
Barb is going through the pantry out on the side deck. It is heated and has a small A/C for the summer.
I am extending the roof over the deck extension from my shop deck. It will provide protected space for the second pallet of wood pellets. We took delivery of them, two weeks ago.
I learned a hard lesson. The shop deck is about 6” lower than the extension and getting the one ton pallet down and stored nearly killed me! As soon as the first pallet is empty, I will add a raised platform where the pallet is stored so that future pallets can be easily moved into position with the pallet jack.
More fall work for the garden. Next week, I am going to get a bucket load of compost from the transfer station and amend our raised beds.
Lotsa work to do.
No veggie news from here today.
We plan to make a big tub of Thai chicken noodle soup today for lunch.
Left over chicken in the freezer, soba noodles, plenty of Thai spices...
The pepper plants I moved indoors lost all their blossoms (stems and all), so I was sure all was lost. No viable south or southwest-facing windows, so I left them in the east picture window, which gets wonderful sun.
The plants are, however, getting LOTS of baby leaves, and I’m taking that as a sign of possible survival through to the spring. We’ll see. But I really am hopeful. :-)
The tarragon has unfortunately died, but it was sort of a weak plant when I bought it, so I’ll make sure to go to the nursery early next spring, instead of waiting till the last minute.
Got my garlic all finished.
All tucked in nice and cozy with a good layer of straw.
Again, it went from this (Aug. 8)
To this:
Which means many tasty sweet tomatoes a week, thanks be to God.
Well, it was 82 here 2 days ago! Last night 35 degrees. Now Tomatoes and peppers are in a concrete mixing trough in my garage. Most of the plants in my garden only exists in my compost containers! (Leeks and kale live!)
Sigh. I need to go out and see where to plant my garlic.
Now I notice white flowered daisies have replaced it and they are growing as planted but also growing wild and in areas no one would plant a shrub. Like between boulders in an ocean breakwater.
Away from the ocean you don't see many daisies, or rosa rugosa. I guess it is always a long term battle for a weed species to takeover and thrive.
Weeds will fight for survival right in the middle of another plant.
Around my house the bittersweeet vine is taking over. Some vines are growing up over 30 feet onto deciduous trees. I mention deciduous, because in the spring the vines come to life earlier than the trees, and get a head start in growing , using the tree as a trellis.-Tom
There are 4- 12” rows of garlic and 1 row of Shallots. The wire covers are to thwart the skunks and raccoons digging
The collards and kale are knee-high and lush, but this cold weather will be the end of the tomatoes for this year.
We finished Mrs. Augie's new deer hunting condo yesterday. My bones are aching today, but the sausage and jerky and pastrami that come later will pay back the effort.
Well, now I’ve done it. I’d been trying to obtain some Buckeye chickens (chicks or adults) locally, as they are reputed to be good mousers. Our cat is lazy - what can I say? I even tried getting some French Black Marans (eggs first, then chicks, or adults) as they have a slight rep as “mousers” too, but our hen left the eggs and the rest all fell through. I finally “gave up” for now, and, still being short on hens to roos’, picked up 6 ISA Brown pullets when our local Rural King had them for $0.99 ea. The ISA’s are doing well @ about 3 months age, now, and are really great birds: Friendly (almost TOO friendly, sometimes), well behaved, even a bit more “trainable” than some other breeds, it seems, not TOO adventurous, and are reputed to be great layers. Plus, one of our hens who was sitting forever finally hatched out what appears to be a 3/4 bantam mix — it’ll get cooked if a ‘roo, but that’s ok. All this would have been a lot easier if my daughter was not so adamant that we not harvest one of the two older roosters, and the 3rd younger roo’ I want to keep for breeding — so, with 3 adult roos’ now, we needed more hens to keep the less agile hens from getting too “used” by the roosters. This is pushing how many chickens I want to have, and, is more than my wife wants to take care of when I’m away taking care of my Mom.
So, son of a gun, what do I spot @ Rural King 3 days ago: They had Buckeye chicks (pullets) again, only 6 left, which is their minimum qty. to purchase. I stewed for a few minutes and then jumped...
I ended up setting up an extra large tote with a brooder lamp and “all the amenities” for the Buckeye chicks in my shop, since the “regular” chicks’ coop is fully occupied by the ISA’s and the other hen & chick. I’d really like to wait another month B4 trying to integrate the ISA’s into the other coops. Wifey doesn’t know, yet. So far, all 6 Buckeye chicks seem to be doing well. The plan is to harvest a few of the older hens eventually, as their production has really fallen off. We’ll miss the occasional green or blue eggs from the Easter Eggers, tho’, if they go to the pot. Possibly I can sell off or give away a couple birds, but, I doubt anyone would want a mostly spent hen, and it’d be foolish to get rid of young, productive layers or soon to be layers, when their eventual number should be just about right for the ‘roos.
The question is, will wifey let me live long enough to see the results?