Cleaning Up and Preparing for Winter

I've been so busy working in the garden that I've not journaled any of it.

Yesterday I created a large, raised garlic bed.  I planted 30 Legacy and 30 or so Siberian garlic cloves.  Covered the whole things with straw. And now will forget until spring.

I've cleaned out some of the beds, but still need to finish them.

I need to buy more landscaping fabric and finish the paths with cedar chips.

I have planted 100 giant crocus bulbs all over the yard.  Rachel and I planted hyacinths, Daffodils, and Jonquils (a freebie from Vesey's) in the cut flower bed.

I still need to plant the fancy daffodils.  I have ten large bulbs that need to get in the ground.

I want to create a bed for grapes and a bed for blueberries.  To do this, I need to pull up the bricks, do something with the strawberries, build the raised red .... and buy dirt. Some of this will have to wait for spring since it is hard to find dirt now.

I need to add some compost to the butterfly bed and the iris bed.

The herb beds needs to be cleaned out.

I also want to put in raised beds along the back of the garden along the fence.

The gutters need to be cleaned out and covered.

I have saved seeds from:

• the shasta daisy
• both types of marigolds
• the petunia Rachel gave me for mother's day this year
• gladiolas (thousands)
• lilies from the front bed
• morning glories

I still need to harvest the moon flower seeds.  There is a huge pod I've been letting dry a bit on the vine that needs to be cut off.

Late summer

Rachel helped me process tomatoes from the garden.

Picking tomatoes in the rather overgrown garden.

The Edelweiss bloomed!

The succulents are doing nicely.

The rain basin looks very nice now.

 The Hidccote Lavendar looks amazing.

Rachel picked apples from one of the trees and asked me to make pies.

And we ate watermelon from the garden for dessert!

Well, serves me right.

We've had such cool weather this summer that I took a lot of time (including one 16 day stint) at the cottage.  I left my garden to it's own devices for long periods.

When I returned this Monday night after being gone five days, I was stunned at the amount of produce to be harvested.  I picked 310 cherry tomatoes and 22.5 lbs of tomatoes for sauce.  Also an additional 7-8 large tomatoes for the BLTs we had for dinner and the bruschetta David is going to make.  Here is an example of what I came home to:

The morning glories have finally started blooming.  The front one is taking over the porch.

These are all glads and zinnias from the "cut flower" bed.

Geese

I cannot believe the geese are already migrating.  This summer is just too weird temperature-wise.  My plants think summer is over and are starting to wind down.

I've seen two flocks of geese in the last two days.

I'm not sure I'll get a fall crop this year.

Photos of Flower Beds

Black Calla Lilly 

Pink and White Calla Lilly

Glorious Glads

New Lily...just keeps blooming.

White Glad....starts light pink.

Magnolia tree has fungus....picked up stuff to treat it with.

Joe Pye going a bit crazy

Butterfly bush

I think these are "Hello Yellow".

New Walkway

The ground cover that is taking over everying.

These are the largest morning glory leaves I've ever seen.

Things I learned and Things I will Alter for Next Year.

1. Tomato plants take up a lot of space and need to have something like lettuce planted between them, not another tomato plant or vine.

2. We need a lot more peas.  I think I will construct a teepee or shelter out of bamboo and plant the peas in the containers around it.  Then Rachel can play in it.

3. Lettuce in gutters is the only way to plant lettuce.

4. Raspberries need some support and direction. Otherwise, they go everywhere.

5. Same with my blackberry plants.

6. Growing melons on a trellis really works!

7. Carrots are just hard to grow.  I got a few this year, but not many.  Next year, they go in a bed without tomatoes and such so they have lots of sun and room.  I CAN grow carrots.

8. We like cabbage more than I realized.  So, more cabbage plants...staggered a bit.

9. I need to start my own seeds if I want staggered crops.

10. I am going to put in a raised bed for the raspberries...and maybe the blackberries....along the fence.

11. I am going to put in one more bed at the south end of the garden. I suspect it will be for flowers.  I might make it "L" shaped.

12. The calla lilies in the butterfly garden need more space.

Lilies, Glads and Butterfly

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail! (male)