The Coffee Table is Filling Up

The catalogs are arriving daily and today's sun has me pumped for spring and summer gardening. I recently subscribed to the Organic Gardening magazine and have thoroughly enjoyed each issue. It is a great deal at $9.97 a year.

Not Much New

Not much new here in the garden. After I pulled all the summer garden I spread some mulch and decided to only plant some radishes. I've spent quite a bit of time, as I bet many of you did, trying to save perennials from the frost. I succeeded with the perennials but did lose all my basil. The trees here have finally turned colors and the birds are eating me out of house and home including the 5 hummingbirds that are still here. I thought I would be able to clean and store the feeders by now but I guess it's going to be a year round thing. The poor porch cat got thumped by another cat but is recovering.

Finally Pulled The Summer Garden

Last sunday I finally found the time and the lack of sickness enough to pull out the tomatoes and the last watermelon plant. I left the peppers as they still seem to be producing well enough and a few bees are still pollinating them. October has been the month that won't end even though it seemed to fly by I did not seem to have free time for anything I wanted to accomplish. Just when it seemed the light was at the end of the tunnel I caught a vicious flu for a day that quickly turned into a sinus/respiratory cold that has hung on for more than 2 weeks now. Hopefully after this next series of storms I'll be able to get something besides radishes in the ground. Then again maybe I'll wait until February when things start growing again.



360 cubic feet of tomatoes heading to the compost pile at the MRF (materials recovery facility)


The last haul of tomatoes.


Peppers are still producing like gangbusters.


My composting operation. I am hoping to get them both refilled before the grass quits growing as I used the contents of both as top dressing for the recently emptied beds.


The little watermelon that couldn't.


Fence beds.

A Sure Sign Of Fall

I spied the sign on my way home today that fall was truly here. I just had to pick one up.

Delicious and a true taste of fall.

October has been a way to busy month for me with the Firefighter's BBQ and all that goes with it, trying to finish stripping, texturing and painting the last redo room in the house, intergrating a new logistic's computer program at work, readying the outside of the house for winter as well as the opening of duck season. I still haven't pulled my tomato plants nor my late corn stalks, which by the way the corn was sweet and wondrous last week after the storm blew them down. I've about a week left on the room and a few winterizing home projects to do still. I'm going to do my final harvest of all summer items on tuesday when it's dry and warm then maybe try to get a few more cool season vegetables in.

Today's Harvest

Here's todays harvest to tease all those that already pulled their tomatoes.

The Last Dog Days of Summer Give Way to Fall

Finally the last days of summer are giving way to the cooler temps of fall. The last week of high temperatures was great for those of us hanging on to our summer tomato gardens. Howvere it is time for the temps to cool and fall activities to begin. There's a fall garden to plant, a yard to winterize and hunting equipment to get ready. I still have one more room to redo before the temperatures get to cool to texture and paint. I did enjoy an early season Canada Goose hunt yesterday. It was great to get with friends, enjoy a pitch black boat ride, see the season changing, hear the honks of those big boys and almost have them in hand. The object of the hunt was to get a friends young son his first goose and the birds did not get quite close enough for a 10 year old to hit them for sure so no shots were fired. Fall is my favorite season followed by summer. Here's wishing everyone a great fall and a great fall garden.

The New Part Shade Hummingbird Garden Under Construction

Annie's Annuals Fall Planting Sale

Finally gave up on trying to get the last plants I wanted for my part shade Hummingbird garden from local nurseries and headed to Richmond for Annies sale. Driving through the neighborhood by Annie's made me think of the very definition of rough. I would not want to break down there at night. Arrival at Annie's brought a welcome relief and a comic relief as well. Many people were dressed up in costumes including a "Wizard" and a "Clown". There were free goodies to munch on and 2 lucky people won 15 minutes "Supermarket Sweep" prizes. All the four inch plants were 25% off and I brought home my share. I picked up Hummingbird Sage, Red Monkeyflower, Golden Monkey Flower, Golden Currant, Yellow Snapdragon Bush, Hummingbird Mint, and Starfire Pink Cuphea.
The sale continues to the 17th. They have the best assortment of natives I have seen though I have not been to Cornflower Farms in Elk Grove. My plan was to take lots of pictures to post on here but my wife dropped the camera onto the red crushed granite path after taking the lone picture. She wiped the outside of the telefoto lens off and thought it would be fine to turn off. When the lens retracted it broke the retractable lens cap as granite was still present.

Random Flower Pics

The Garden is in High Gear for Tomatoes

This is from last week. This week is even more but I'll get pictures tomorrow. Being in the middle of a room redo again has limited my gardening time.




A little something my wife picked up in Concord.

The King of the Backyard