October 25, 2010

flowers in my October garden

Most summer flowers are gone. A few remain. I was pleased to see honeybees still foraging. I photographed these flowers on Thursday, then pulled the nasturtiums on Saturday and after they were damaged by frost between these dates. Hyssop, borage and dill still look happy.

October 24, 2010

garden accomplishments

Yesterday my son and I worked a couple hours in the garden. We got a lot done: GARLIC: We cleared out the weeds and old vines from the squash bed, flattened the soil and then my son planted 40 cloves of garlic. He also transplanted the garlic volunteers that came up this fall in last year’s bed. I need to figure out how many more cloves to plant. I think maybe 20 or 30 more. Its really nice to be planting cloves I grew – FREE! (I paid a lot…

October 24, 2010

what birds are these?

These are bird photos from Skippy’s and my walk on Friday. A beautiful cool fall day. We walked through the open land on a sunny hill in Belmont. The birds were very active, but I only got photos of a few. I know the bluebirds. There was a group of about 3 or 5 of them. Can anyone help me identify the others? …..click on the “birds” label below to see more of my bird posts…..

October 23, 2010

this weekend’s tasks

Not much garden work left for this weekend. One last bed to clear out.Print and post fall/winter information notice on bulletin board at community gardens.Garlic: Locate new bed, transplant volunteers, figure out how many saved bulbs to plant and plant them. My son wants to help – he wants to earn $$ for some project of his. I love to have his help. I meant to plant garlic a couple weeks ago, but didn’t get it gone. The garlic planting time is pretty flexible. I’m looking forward to this!

October 20, 2010

pumpkins on the doorsteps

When Skippy and I walked around the neighborhood yesterday, I brought my camera and took pictures of the pumpkins. I just love seeing pumpkins on doorsteps. One of the houses we walked by had big bunches of onions drying in the doorway too. All the fruits of the season – and its been a really great season for growing vegetables. I will have to add a photo of my pumpkins on my doorsteps. Soon.

October 20, 2010

grilled vegetables

This is our dinner the night of a harvest. Everything grilled outside: sweet potatoes, white potatoes, beets, carrots and some greens from my perennial (walking) onion. To grill, my husband gets a nice hardwood fire going, then puts vegetable slices on and brushes with olive oil and turns them as they cook. He keeps them far enough from the fire so they can cook for about 20 minutes, but close enough so they brown nicely during this time.

October 18, 2010

fall leaves

Just a few photos of Skippy’s walk in the woods today. The leaves are turning reds and yellows and gradually more sunlight is filtering down through the branches.

October 13, 2010

my community plot

We got a lot of work done on Sunday in my community garden plot. My son helped me, for a fee. We had fun conversation and accomplished a lot. First, we pulled the last of the corn stalks and giant sunflowers. I put the sunflower heads on the fence for the birds to finish. They were mostly empty, but had a few seeds left. We pulled the old basil, eggplant, squash and pepper plants. I picked a nice batch of cayenne peppers to dry for winter. Then we moved the…

October 13, 2010

today’s tomato harvest

I picked a bunch of green tomatoes to ripen inside. I gave half to my mom and this is my half. The plants are still up in the garden and look fine, though the tomatoes aren’t growing much any more. There’s not much light left as the sun has fallen below the neighboring house.

October 11, 2010

cold frame ready for winter

On Saturday, I cleared out the old plants from my cold frame. I removed the cucumber, melon, squash vines, and a few tomatoes plants. Then I pulled off the ripped plastic from the sides of the cold frame. A wind storm a month ago had ripped them. My husband and I cut and stapled on fresh side sheets. I checked on the type of plastic and the sides are 4 mil basic plastic sheeting from Home Depot. Its not very transparent, but reflects the light well. The front panel was…

weeks and counting until my last spring frost

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