The Garden Thread - November, 2025

November 1, 2025 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Liz]

Ing Crust 2 c fave cookie crumbs ¼ cup butter (melted) Filling ¼ cup p/butter (Jif is good) 16 oz room temp cr/cheese ¾ c br/sugar, ¼ c Greek yogurt 1 tsp vanilla 2 lge eggs 2 tbl flour Topping 7 oz sweetened condensed milk (½ can) ¾ c dk choc/chips chp Reese's garnish

Method Press combined crumbs/butter into 8" springform bottom. Add filling
ing beaten smooth. Bake. Fridge uncovered 3 hours. Cover/cool overnight to set.

Final: Micro combined sweetened condensed milk, choc/chips 30 sec, then stir. Can heat in 10 sec intervals stirring to melt. Pour sauce over cheesecake; garnish top w/ chp Reese's p/butter cups.

[FamiliarFace]

Very pretty!

[FamiliarFace]

How sad about the newborn calf that didn’t make it. I know nature has its reasons, but it’s still sad.

We are having a bit more snowfall today. And leaf fall! When the temps get above freezing we will have our outdoor work cut out for us, again, but this time with leaf removal!

[Augie]

Everyone had a good time on the hayride. Howard got to go along and from what I was told afterwards he was a very good boy and seemed to enjoy himself. Mrs. Augie and I got most of the mess picked up yesterday. I placed a few of the straw bales around Howard's beach cabana and put the rest away in the barn to stay dry until I need them.

My buddy Nick came by after lunchtime yesterday. We spent about three hours in the woods with chainsaw and loppers cleaning up sprouts/grapevine/bush honeysuckle/wild rose/etc. downrange from the hunting condos. With the shooting lanes cleared all that's left to do to be ready for deer blasting season is to pull out the blunderbusses and make sure they're hitting where they're aimed. Season opens on Saturday. Our freezers are full so anything that Mrs. Augie bags will be donated to someone who needs it. Nick has freezer space so he'll hunt from my spot.

I parked Nanner out in the pasture Saturday afternoon so he wouldn't be in the way of turning around the hayride. Naturally the weather snapped off cold so he wouldn't start yesterday. I'll have to drag the portable generator out there later so I can power up the engine heater and battery charger to get him going and back to the house.

I turned on the power to the horse drinker fountain yesterday after we finished lopping brush. I was pleasantly surprised to find the GFCI breaker hold when the power was applied. It's pretty much normal for something to be wrong so I'm gonna call it a win.

I'm not sure how cold it got here last night but I expect I'll find the tomato and pepper plants folded up when I go out to check them. I'm not really ready to be out of fresh tomatoes, but I'm grateful that they've lasted this long into the season.

[FrozenAssets]

It looks like we are done with our temporary climatic abberation, also known as summer. It is 1 degree here at the homestead and below zero in the bottoms.

The experimental farm at UAF over in Fairbanks reports that this was the longest growing season ever at 127 days.

[MomwithHope]

Just took this of Baby Peach. I did manage to feed it last month.

[Paul R.]

Cool! (Pun sort of intended!)

I’m hoping I kept my plants labels “straight”. For that tomato plant with lots of flowers, it’s history is: Seed > starter flat > seedling pot (deep 4” pot - made from 2L soda bottle) > 8” pot > in ground > 10+” deep pot (yesterday, w/ fresh “6 month” potting soil.) This particular tomato plant is supposed to be a Cherry Falls - my idea being to try overwintering a variety that typically grows well in “cooler” Spring weather, produces early, and the fruit is on the tangy-sweet side. Hopefully some of that taste will be retained indoors. I’ll keep the plant wound around its “cage” and likely will need to prune it back a few times.

I also brought in a late-started-outdoors Better Boy tomato plant that has a few flowers on it.

I wish I had more room to experiment with tomato plants, but, I also brought in 2x 5’ tall Ichiban eggplants that still have a couple small fruits starting on each; a couple “no name” eggplants (produce black, goose egg size fruits); a few flowers that were still blooming including zinnias and 2x Cannas, the catnip I’d started, as it never flowered / went to seed — gotta keep the cats out of it; and impatiens (still in their Menards hanging pots and blooming well — I’m hoping they won’t get too spindly in more modest lighting as I’m running out of space and bright lighting!

That all adds to my wife’s tropical plants we had out in big pots for the summer. Her maylunggay (moringa) lose all their leave & hibernate like most deciduous trees - we cut them back a few days ago to ~ 3 ft. tall, for sprouting regrowth in late spring, so at least light is not a problem for those. The pots are big though - even semi-dry (the plant is drought resistant) they weigh almost 50 lbs. Our maylunggay never flower - I need to investigate, as growth from seed would be easier!!

The lemongrass (6x 8” or 10” pots) also go the cut back and sort of hibernate routine too, but the calamansi is another 50 lb. pot, and it needs light and warmth, as do a couple ornamentals. I suppose we shouldn’t run out of oxygen...

[Paul R.]

For me, it’s the walnut and hickory nut (and husks) removal too!

We sharply dropped temperatures outside yesterday, to 28 deg. F early this morning - enough to kill almost all the veggie plants & flowers I couldn’t bring in. (Ran out of time and space.) Tonight will be colder here: down to 22 deg., so that will finish off any that have a hint of life left.

It’s been windy too: Brrrr!! These temperatures (day and night) are about 20 deg. F below normal for us, the 2nd week in November. I’ll have to turn on the heat in the 2 chicken houses tonight.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I know! It pretty much depends upon which one I find first. ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“I’m not really ready to be out of fresh tomatoes, but I’m grateful that they’ve lasted this long into the season.”

My outside tomatoes are dead and gone, but I have ONE ‘Cherokee Purple’ still ripening on the counter in the kitchen. I had the last two paste-types in my salad with supper last night. They tasted wonderful! Kinda saving the Cherokee for one last BLT before we hang it up for the year.

So glad Howard was a Good Boy on the Hay Ride! He’s living his Best Life Ever. EVER! Thanks to you & Mrs. Augie. :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“...the longest growing season ever at 127 days.”

You take what you can get, I’ll bet! :)

My entire ‘growing season’ SUCKED from start to finish and I had 6 MONTHS to work with!

127 days? I shall NEVER complain again. (Yeah, RIGHT, LOL!)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I was going to message you! ‘Miss Peach’ (Baby Peach’s Mom) is TOTALLY budded out. Every single tip has a bud on it!

I noticed when I did the watering yesterday. I turned her that day, too.

Simply amazing how these plants react to the changing light conditions this time of year! I used to have to move my Thanksgiving Cactus around the house to get her to bloom. Miss Peach is SO HAPPY in her south-facing window, year-round.

That low sunshine this time of year just trips her trigger, LOL!

[FamiliarFace]

I can’t keep up with the walnuts and hickory nuts around here! I think I’ve given up, and yet, I know I’ll be out there using my rolling gadget to collect them.

Today everything outside is done, finished, kaput. I’ve been working indoors today, doing cleaning I haven’t done in too long a time. Lots of stuff is going in the trash. There’s another section of stuff that I have to make a decision on whether or not to keep, and then the for sure keeping.

I have to admit, I’m a hoarder. Not the kind you see on those awful shows, but I have so much more than I need to have. So this is a flushing out of sorts. I’ve been working in my bedroom and bathroom today. Almost ready to call it a day, but I think I have a little more in me before saying that’s good enough for the day.

[FamiliarFace]

She’s so cute!