Where is everyone

[Cheryl Isaak]

Putting their gardens to bed or waking them up, depending on location.

I'm still working on what will be a multiyear project of redoing my major bed.

Cheryl Southern NH

[Dennis Mayer]

Dennis Mayer from GBay, WI

I have 100 pretty nice, superbly Colorful 5' to 6' tall competition Dahlias in bloom!!! They are the best in 5 years of growing 'em.

Been quietly working on my 300' G gauge Garden RR.. Hope to finish it before Snow??

I check this news group twice a day for 4 years now. I say little here.

[Cheryl Isaak]

Very nice. My mom used to have lots of dahlias, wonder what happened to them?

Can I look you up if I ever make it out that way. I'd love to do a garden layout but am worry about the grades with my particular locale...

Say more please?

Cheryl

[Balvenieman]

Don't envy you the labor but I do know the rewards of rejuvenating the garden beds. For me, the ending of this "season" marks the second full-season's production for a few raised beds that had been fallow since 1998. Well, to answer your question, this one is outside giving the "lawn" its second mowing -- probably its last until April/May except for right in the high traffic areas -- and making the transition from spring/summer to fall/winter veggied garden. Feeling guilty about pulling some really rangy (and not terriby prolific) marigolds because I need the space but still have plenty in containers that remain prolific enough to provide for the flutter-bys: 'Tis the season. Debating whether to remove some Italian eggplants and some California Wonder peppers that were quite productive during the early season but which sort of punked out with the onset of sure-enough Florida summer. Initially, had planned to try to keep them over the winter for an early, early, crop but now sort of think the space could be better-used. Oddly, the container-grown "Black Beauty" eggplants and the container grown California Wonders that overwintered are still producing heavily and I intend to try to get them through a second winter. Debating whether there's time before chilly weather to make a crop of snap-beans. This week, will plant "greens" and begin succession planting "Little Marvel" garden peas. I plant'em every couple of weeks until the end of October. They bear right up until sure-enough freezing temps and start all over again when freezing temps are gone; of course, I tent them overnight when necessary. Boy, there's nothing like a handful of fresh from the vine garden peas with a warmish Samuel Adams on a cool December evening or March morning; ummm... can't wait! Plain old white "Irish" potatoes have become hard-to-find in these parts -- been displaced by the faddish Yukon gold -- so think I'll put in some potatoes. They don't go in until December, though, so there's plenty of time. I've grown them successfully in leaf-filled barrels and in straw-filled trenches. This year, I think I'll try my hand with those so-called "potato boxes" that are built in sections that can be tiered and backfilled as the potato vines grow, although, I can't think they'd be any easier to harvest than from the trenches. I'm going to go ahead and 86 the "red beefsteak" tomatoes and start anew for fall. Ordinarily, I'd have a few canes layered and rooted by now for a vigorous November crop but, this year, I just barely managed to beat back a dose of anthracnose brought in on some cucumbers. Dunno what to do with the infected containers, though; maybe some immune or resistant herbs or even ginger. No more container-grown indeterminate tomatoes for me, anyway.

[Default User]

Yesterday I picked a bunch (~2 dozen) of tomatoes from the neighbor-shocking front-yard garden. Gave some away to the neighbors. Some were overripe and went into a pot of chili I made last night. I gues due heavy rains last weekend, quite a few were "splitters", so I'll have to use them up here.

There are still a number of ripening ones and a goodly number of greenies of various sizes. I'm in zone 6a (St. Louis) so I expect I'll harvesting for a while yet.

Brian

[David Hare-Scott]

Spring has come early so I am cutting asparagus and eagerly waiting for the artichokes. I have trays of small seedlings which need to grow somewhat before I plant them. There is an energetic young man staying with us so he is weeding and manuring the beds in preparation while I check to see if he is doing it right :-) He doesn't have much experience and his English is somewhat fractured but he doesn't seem to mind spending his day shovelling horseshot so he is earning his keep.

Speaking of asparagus I have masses of self-sown seedlings near the current beds and under the shrubs where the little birds poop, so I have started a new bed with them. You can never have too much asparagus.

Some rain would be good to really kick along the pasture, the horses are all praying with me as they are tired of the remnants of last year's stubble and looking for some sweet spring growth. But the days are pleasantly warm and the night pleasantly cool. If life was perfect it would become boring and so revert to imperfect.

David

[Cheryl Isaak]

Yum and double Yum - love asparagus.

It's dry here too - good in some ways, bad in others. My lawn could use a soaking, but the last tomatoes will split if it does. Never got a cuke or a pumpkin. Maybe next year.

Cheryl

[Cheryl Isaak]

I'm at about the end of the season - between the cold nights and the late blight, the tomatoes are slowing down.

Next year will mean a new spot in the garden for them and one more sweet olive plant. DD ate almost the whole harvest.

Cheryl

[Karen]

The neighbors across from me have a front yard veg garden. It looks very nice and tidy. The green beans have made an interesting sculpture that offers shade to their front room.

Congrats to trend-setters of the front yard garden.

Karen

[Higgs Boson]

I'm still around, Cheryl; still picking cherry tomatoes in droves. They did much better than the full-sized ones -- what the squirrels left me, that is. I got to the point of tying paper bags around the ripening ones we I could get a taste.

Tomato volunteers appearing in droves where the cherry tomatoes dropped from the vines. This year I am hardening my heart and thinning EARLY!

One of the neighbors bought a humane trap recently Whether it was he, or who? someibe just pointed out that WE HAVE NOT SEEN ANY SQUIRRELS lately. I doubt if it's Animal Control; they wouldn't even come out for raccoons; they sniff "we don't trap healthy animals". Well, la, de da!

Other than that, I still have corn coming in big-time. This year I staggered plantings so they wouldn't all ripen at once.

Planted lima beans for the first time. They're just flowering; so cute! Also planted carrots, green onions, snap peas, radishes.

Cantaloupes about finished -- again, what the squirrels left me (:

That's it for food.

Decoratively, I've been tackling some hard jobs. Getting rid of those straight reed things (name?) was miserable. They propagate underground; always popping up where not wanted. I worked very hard getting rid of a clump so I could make a path through the landscaping to the back. This involves moving Clivia, which has to be done carefully. DOES YOUR CLIVIA GET SUNBURNED???

Broken slate stepping stones with little Blue Fescue in between. That can handle stepping on, of which there won't be much.

Maybe I'll take a picture when it's all in and post.

Then I have to get a big plant for the front (North), which gets a LOT of Western sun in summer, and less in winter, esp. because of shorter days.

Thanks for listening!

Hypatia

[Default User]

My backyard faces west, and it has two large maple trees, plus the neighbors across the back fence have large trees. It's very shady in the back, which is great for lounging on the deck, but not so much for tomatoes.

The front yard has only a crabapple close to the house, and obviously faces east. I dug up ivy that was growing along the driveway and put in a few tomato and poblano plants where they get sun a very large part of the day. The results have been pretty good, although it got a tad crowded. Might expand next year.

Brian

[Stephen Henning]

Chasing mile-a-minute vine.

[Cheryl Isaak]

Don't you mean running away from it....

By some perverse luck, poison ivy has become a rampant threat around the yard. Since I had one major case a few years back, I have counseled to stay well away.

Must mean I've just given the birds a new food source.

Cheryl

[Billy]

and we just got our first rain in northern California, dang.