It's Cuddle Weather

 We had our first light frost this morning which is almost two weeks early.  Finally the gloom has cleared and we are enjoying brilliant sunny days with highs lower than 70F (21C).

It wasn't a hard frost, just touched the roofs and fences.  The garden thermometer DID say 32F though.  

We are ready for Autumn.  All of the perennials and grasses have been cut back.  Most of the annuals have been pulled.  The vegetable garden is mostly cleaned out.  I do have a nice crop of peas coming.  They can handle some cold weather so we will still be able to harvest what is just filling out now.

I have a Sun Sugar cherry tomato plant going strong.  I snack on these all day and I had been keeping up with the plant until about a week ago when it got ahead of me.

The Pole Beans were still looking beautiful yesterday before I pulled them out.  The beans that were left were pretty tough and mature.  I picked a few that are waiting in the fridge but we got all that we needed from them this year.

And there are the Sweet Potatoes.  They will be harvested next week.

There are still a few pretty flowers here and there.

The Dahlias are just hitting their stride.  Below are the singles.  They are extremely popular with the bees right now.  My main garden chore each day is deadheading Dahlias.  The six (out of fourteen) Bee's Choice singles that I overwintered and planted again this year are growing monster plants and blooming well.    I numbered them and #2504 (which I called Cosmic Red) and #2510 (which I called Lavender Teacup) are out in the landscape beds, five feet tall, and blooming very well. 

This year I grew out a few more "Bee's Choice" seeds from the ball and decorative Dahlias.  Out of the tray I started, I only ended up planting out four transplants due to space constraints.  Out of those only one plant is still thriving.  It is an offspring of Bloomquist Gordan and it is a very bushy plant with many buds on it.  This is the first flower to open.  It is pretty impossible to guess what lighter colored variety it is crossed with.  There are several possibilities.  Maybe one of the other blooms will give a clue.  I really like it.  I'll save it for next year and see if it continues to thrive.  

Offspring of BQ Gordon

BQ Gordon

My Dahlias will take quite a bit of frost before they start to go dormant and need to be stored.  That is the last garden chore of the year.

The Big Apple 2026 Edition

 We have been picking a lot of really nice apples this year from both Northern Spy trees.  I did not bag very many of them so they do have some sooty blotch on them.  They are big, and uniform, and beautiful.  When the tree holds a lot of apples, they average around 12 to 13 ounces.  I have, on occasion, grown a one pound apple. Today we picked about half a bushel and when this one came off the tree I knew I needed to go in and weigh it.

Back in 2018 I grew one that was one pound two ounces.  This one beat it by almost an ounce.  One pound and 2.85 ounces.

Fall Chores ~ Deer Proofing

 We have been doing fall garden clean-up and protecting everything that needs deer protection in the winter.  We put one fence around all of the front shrubs,  There isn't much here that the deer like to eat but they will still taste things.  Last winter the fence sagged between the T-posts and they did jump over several times.  They didn't find anything they wanted but they don't need to be tromping around in there so this year I added some garden stakes in between the T-posts just to stiffen the fence and hopefully they won't see the center as a weakness.

Every year they eat the myrtle ground cover which doesn't really hurt it or bother me but last year they couldn't believe it was all eaten up so they kept excavating in there every night, digging holes and throwing mulch in the lawn.  The only way to stop that is to lay wire fencing down on the ground to stop the digging.  I pinned the corners with earth staples.  

There are several plants that are evergreen through the winter and even if they're not appealing in the summer, when you've been eating nuts and twigs for three months and you come across green leaves peaking out of the snow, it doesn't matter so much if you like the taste.  The Penstemon has gotten big enough that the wire squares I put over them the year before were too small and inadequate so I left them uncovered last year and they were decimated.   It took them longer than usual to start looking nice in the spring so I didn't want a repeat of that.

I cut larger squares of 1" hardware cloth but pinning the corners down to rock and landscape fabric isn't easy so I'm trying a single landscape spike with a washer driven into the center of the plant. 

 The washers I had on hand were a little too small, but use what you have... so I added a square of corrugated cardboard which should hold up enough to keep it pinned down under snow.  If not I can get larger washers.  The spike is in there pretty good and doesn't come out unless you pull straight up.

The deer are starting to try things that they have left alone up to now.  The Supertunias got munched on so those got pulled out.  I can see the tracks in the dewy grass each morning and I see blooms missing here and there, but nothing major.

When I walked past this hot pepper plant today I saw hoofprints in the grass and an empty stem.

Right there.  Empty stem. 

They bit off just one pepper?  Surely they didn't eat a hot pepper...

Oh here it is.  Right here on the ground with tooth marks in it.  

A little too hot was it?

Note to self.  Grow more ornamental hot peppers.

The Tail End of Annuals

A few of my Marigolds were beginning to look pretty rough.  At first I thought it was the cooler nights.  Marigold foliage will start to darken in the fall almost like they are having a frost reaction.  Our nights have been down around 50F (10C) a few times.  This bed is the only one affected.

They look pretty unhappy so out they came.

That freshened every thing up and let the Supertunias shine.

The Marigolds elsewhere are looking very nice.

If any were affected by cold, I would think it would be these along the lawn where they don't have the added benefit of gravel and cement to hold heat at night.

Purple is a great color for fall

The Pink and Red Dahlia bed is looking beautiful

I really like these Profusion Double Hot Cherry Zinnias.  More of those next year!

This year I added several new Dahlia varieties.  

I can't tell the difference between Beets Me...

...and Taboo.

Below is one of my single Dahlias that I started from seed last year and overwintered.

The Bronze Dahlia bed is not blooming well this year.  I've heard that complaint from many Dahlia hobbyists so I'm not alone.  

But there is always something bloomnig.

Mai Tai

This Cafe Au Lait Dahlia is doing very well out in the landscape bed.

That's why it's popular.  Next year I will be planting more extra tubers out and about.

I am really enjoying my Autumn arrangement.

The Black Pearl Peppers are ripening.

Some of the green pumpkins in direct south sun are mellowing to orange.

The Celosia pots are a bright spot.  Next year I plan to put more effort into fresh annuals for late summer.  That will entail seeding in early July, but new pops of color will be worth the effort.

Resetting the Celosia Fire Pit has been a success.

I've been shaking the flowers to drop seeds in the soil for next season.

Laundry Line Details

Now that I've tested the laundry line for awhile I thought I would share how we strung the line and other details.  I've hung a lot of blankets and such out to freshen in the sun.  Below is the first full load of wash that did not go in the dryer at all.  I am quite pleased with my clothesline.  I think that modern appliances are an absolute miracle, but for some things the line does work better.  Bandanas for instance.  When I work in the garden I always have one over my hair and one in my pocket.  The dryer rolls the edges and drying them flat takes 24 hours.  The clothesline is the ticket!  And I never liked throwing my bib overall in the dryer because of all of the hardware on them beating up the dryer.

They do make line tensioners for laundry lines which would be handy if you had a store bought metal laundry pole and individual lines tied off to eye bolts.  My husband thought this method made more sense because you can tighten it any time you want.

  Actually, I think he was still worried about my reaching the line and thought it would be useful to lower the lines and then tighten them back up.  

So we ran one continuous line and installed a cleat on one pole to tie it off.

I left some excess and just coiled it up.

Of course heavy sheets and blankets can still weigh the line down quite a bit so it helps to have a prop pole available.  This summer, at an estate sale down the road, my husband spied four laundry prop poles for a dollar a piece.  Two for us and two for the neighbors.  

I don't remember whose idea it was to snap them to the pole, probably his.  We have a similar set up in our pantry cabinet and the basement to snap brooms and things to the wall.  They are called "terry clips" and you can get them at the hardware store or online.  The neighbor was actually rearranging his prop poles each time he mowed so I gave him some terry clips too.

I've also seen people add a shelf to one pole to set a laundry basket and a hook for a pin bag, but I just carry out an armload or put laundry in a my large enamelware dish pan and fill my pockets with pegs.  I used to have a nice old wicker laundry basket, probably the first thing I ever bought at an estate sale, but they take up a lot of space when they aren't in use and I sold mine years ago.  I may keep my eyes open for another one.

Beautiful Broccoli

 This is the most beautiful broccoli I have ever grown.  That is probably because it just kept on producing so I picked it small and tight so as not to be overwhelmed by broccoli!

I finally pulled the plants and this is going in the freezer.

That was a whole lot O' Tomato

It has been a long time since I had to process tomatoes.  This is mainly thanks to my Amish friend Elsie's tomato plant.  That thing just produces it's head off.  I start a tray of them for Elsie each spring from seeds she saves.  She used to ask for 48 plants and now she asks for 15.  I can see why.  I've been planting this variety for a few years now and saving some seeds to add to hers to maintain some diversity in the strain and apparently we've bred a monster producer.  Also the plant grows eight feet tall!

I prepared about half of what I had and it just fit in my six quart cooker.  I cooked them down for about four hours, periodically removing liquid.  They cooked down to two quarts which I bagged and put in the freezer.

But I still had enough for another batch... 

Before supper I got those peeled and into the cooker.  They just fit.  I reduced them to two quarts also.  

So these would have produced 12 quarts if I had just gone ahead and water bath canned the quartered tomatoes.  I will use one quart of these per one pound of ground beef when I make my chili this fall.