A Clean Slate

 Everything in the garden is put away.  Most of the leaves had been taken care of.  Now I just putter about pulling weeds and smoothing soil and try to imagine what it is I've forgotten to do like storing away the wheelbarrows.

I am working on my summary blog of this year's successes and failures and making plans for next year.  The past two seasons since my retirement, I went whole hog with the garden.  I tackled somethings I normally wouldn't try or bother with, like cabbages, sweet potatoes, cantaloupes and parsnips, and pretty much wore myself out.  This was a dry year and involved a lot of watering, but the real overload was the success.  It was all of the food!  I was fooded out.  I just couldn't eat it all and I have stored more than we need.

My knee jerk reaction was to say I was going to cover the entire vegetable garden next year and skip it entirely.  My husband didn't like that idea.  He said he can't imagine me not having a garden.  So instead I've decided to cut it in half.  I will keep the south side in cover crops and just grow half of what I have been growing.  One bed of peas.  One bed of sweet corn.  Pole beans but not bush beans. I will buy cauliflower plants rather than start seeding in March, that sort of thing.  And that will be more than enough.  I spent many years happily gardening in half of this space.  And naturally, I've ordered more dahlia tubers and saved about a billion marigold seeds so I won't run out of things to do.

My compost area has been all tidied up.  I have bins of soil stored and I've hoarded as many shredded leaves as I can hold down without them blowing away.

This entire compost tube is packed full of leaves.  I watered them well and topped it off with the remaining bag from last year's supply.  If I leave a garbage bag of leaves lying about, every critter that likes to raid garbage bags will try to have a look inside.  In the spring I will use up my pile of ready compost, dump these out, and turn them all summer to use next fall.

Indian Summer

 Indian Summer is here.  Friday and Saturday were nice and warm and we reached 75F today.  Blue skies.  No humidity.  Perfection.  We were even able to continue our summer Bloody Marys on the Porch ritual one more week.  It was 50F this morning.  Friends of ours make the world's best Bloody Mary Mix.   If you have a Wegmans in your area, they carry it (and charge less).  It won't be with the other mixes.  They always have a special display for it at our store which moves around a lot.  Sometimes I get fed up searching for it and send someone back tp the stockroom for it.  

I never used to like Bloody Marys at all but my husband got me hooked on it.  I really like them on a warm morning in October!

There were still a few things to be done outside.  I had not cut back everything in this flower bed along the deck.  I wanted to mulch it this fall because there are so many small bulbs planted here that in the late spring the little plants are impossible to mulch around.

If you do cut back perennials, you don't want to cut them back too short.

I have to tease the Ipheion (Star Flower) and Snowdrop leaves up out of the mulch.

We've started on the leaves but more are coming down every minute.  There are so many drifts of nice leaves it is a shame to waste them by mulching them into the woods.  I got out my shredder and filled one of the compost tubes with leaves instead of bagging them. 

The garden shed counter is such a busy place all season scattered with seeds to plant, fertilizer to apply, tools to clean or repair.  Its nice to see it empty for a change.  The only thing left is the last bouquet of the season that I picked last Monday before the dahlias were dug.

I also started digging parsnips.  Now I just need to wait for a cooler day to fire up the oven and roast them.

Warrior Parsnips from Territorial Seed

Great Gobs of Garden Snow

 It is snowing Chunks right now.  I'm done with my fiddling around and I'm sipping tomato soup and getting ready to throw my wet clothes in the wash.  The snow started just as I went out for my walk.  I was already dressed and warmed up so I grabbed an umbrella and headed out.  I usually do three laps to the dead end and back (three miles).  I did one and headed to the workout room to finish with a YouTube workout.  Then I headed to the garden shed to check on things.

Its really kind of pretty.

Especially since it is supposed to be near 70 this weekend.

Problem:  It is 37F in the garden shed (and pretty much everywhere else).  I have not moved my Dahlia tubers into the bulkhead for the winter.  Because in 70F and sunshine, the metal bulkhead can heat up quite a lot.  I'm not ready to move them there yet and I have no desire to bring them in and then take them back out again. So I got out my thermostat controlled heat mat and set it to 50F.  Then I threw some kneelers on the floor for insulation, and wrapped the pad under and over the main tub and set the others on top of the mat.  I topped it off with a tarp over the whole thing.  I'll go check it later and see how that is working and whether or not I need to reposition the sensor so I don't cook them.

Snow in the Forecast

 The temperature has dropped and we've had wind and rain which is stripping the leaves off of the trees.  Tonight it is supposed to get cold enough to turn to wet snow and the next two days will be cold, wet and snowy.  But yesterday the weather was still pretty nice.

The skies are still dramatic, but not crystal blue.  More threatening rain.

The wet bark on the trees only enhances the color contrast.

The Firepit Maple

This Shagbark Hickory (below) was the last to leaf out this spring and was determined to be the last to change for fall.  We have a lot of Hickory trees on the edges of the woods.  This one is our favorite because it is so nicely shaped.  It was left behind as a small sapling when the White Ash trees died and it has flourished despite having everything around it changed.  You can still see a remaining stump at its feet where a large Ash was removed when the Hickory was just a 4 inch trunk. Every other year it is loaded with nuts.  Thankfully not this year.  I am still digging out saplings all over the landscape from last year's squirrel stash.

Shagbark Hickory

Yesterday as I waited for the weather to warm up, I stored the sweet potatoes.  The other day I took the tote out and hosed off all of the dirt.  Then I put it back here on the heat mat to dry.  I removed a hod full of small potatoes and stored them in a basement bin to be used right away.

These big tubers were individually wrapped in newspaper and packed in a box.  I filled this box to the brim and it will go in the coolest back corner of the basement where these have stored well in the past.

I lifted the last ten dahlias and rinsed them off.  They dry very quickly on top of the strawberry cages.  I am now left with a beautiful row of Parsnips right along the cages where the soil was rich and deep.  I will wait for colder weather to begin digging the Parsnips.  I said I would never grow them again because of the cold and the mud I associate with them.  But this was just the perfect spot.  I couldn't resist.

I didn't get to the deck planters yet.  We'll see how they handle the wet snow.  Next weekend will be nice again so I can dump them and store the soil.

Then we will also start dealing with the leaves.  The rain and snow will take a lot more down.  We use gas powered blowers to blow everything out of the landscape to where we can mulch them with the mower.  Much of it goes to nourish the lawn and the rest is driven towards the wooded areas where they break down naturally. Gas Powered Leaf blowers are a real hot topic these days, and they are trying to pass a ban in NY state which would prohibit their use between May 1st and Sept 30th.  Which is fine.  I use my battery blower for small jobs all year 'round.  But sometimes you need to break out the big one.

I've seen on Facebook and some other garden forums that people accuse others of being too lazy to use a leaf rake and I just laugh.  I don't mind using a rake at all.  In fact I've put one to good use all week digging the Horse Chestnut hulls out of the front lawn.  Anyone who prefers to use a rake as an environmentally friendly option is welcome to come and show me the error of my ways.  You can start right here,

Autumn in New York

The weather has been absolutely exquisite this fall.  The days warm up in the 60s with low humidity, and blue skies.  You might get a light breeze.  Working in the sun is shirt sleeve weather.  You can even lounge about comfortably with long sleeves. 

Each day the trees get a little more brilliant.  We are expecting rain tomorrow which will knock leaves off so we are at our color prime right this very moment.

It has been good weather for campfires.

Some of the remaining flowers are coming out in weird shades, affected by the cool temperatures.  This lemon yellow dahlia should be an apple blossom pink.  I'm mostly done storing dahlia tubers.  I have more than three dozen washed, trimmed and packed away and I have eleven plants still to lift but they are blooming nicely and have not been threatened by frost so I'll leave that chore for another mild day.

We have had frost though.  Last week's Monday the 4th we awoke to a heavy frost all over the lawns and buildings.  Still it only lightly tinged the Dahlias and Marigolds.  Sometimes the frost damage isn't immediately apparent.  The next day I noticed that the sweet potato vines had gotten a bit burned.  They say this damage can work down into the tubers and spoil them or reduce their storage life.  So I went ahead and started digging taters.

Yup, they're ready,

They came out of the ground like bunches of bananas.

The sweet potatoes are pretty much done with their hot curing now and will need to be washed off and dried in a cool area, then will be individually wrapped in paper and stored in a box in the basement.  I have been eating one every few days this past week to track their progress.  The first one I tried had only been out of the ground a day and was mildly sweet but needed some help so I dressed it with garlic aioli sauce (also good on regular potatoes) The texture was just to die for. No stringiness. Not at all dry. I softened it in the microwave, then split it, buttered it, wrapped in in foil and put it on the grill with steaks. OMG it was like silk.  I also did some baked potatoes and sweet potatoes in the campfire coals which turned out well.  

Yesterday I made Chowder from my sweet corn, potatoes and carrots plus my own fresh thyme and chives. I did not add the cream yet as I was planning to freeze it. I can finish each portion with cream as I use it. Even without the cream it was heavenly. I’m going to have some for lunch again today. This Recipe plus carrots.  As always, I am wrapping up summer gardening activities well fattened for winter.

Now THAT's a Sweet Potato Harvest

12# showing minus 3#tare = 9# from one 25 gal grow bag

The sweet potatoes last year were so pitiful that I don't think I even mentioned harvesting them.  The grower had trouble producing the slips because of their weather so they were late arriving and were pretty spindly.  Also, I experimented with potting mix.  I didn't want to mess with my container tomatoes, so I used the sweet potatoes as the experiment.  I tried Fox Farm, Espoma and my own compost.  My own compost did OK but the Espoma and Fox Farm fell flat.  These were grown in Miracle Gro Moisture Control Potting Mix plus Espoma Bone Meal and Espoma Potash.

This year the cost was just too high for my meager success rate, so I tried starting my own slips instead.  Win!  The 2020 harvest was pretty good, and believe it or not I still had tubers from that.  If you cure them properly they store for what seems like forever.

Since they are again warning us of a possible early frost tonight I decided to go ahead and start with the grow bags.  I still have 8 plants in the ground on the bank next to the garden.  

After harvesting you have to cure sweet potatoes in 85 degree heat and high humidity to convert the starch to sugar and make them sweeter.  I don't know if it makes a huge difference or not because I haven't done a control group but that's what I do and they taste awesome and keep forever.  In 2020 my method was plastic bags and a south facing window.  Last year I used the cold frame.  This year I am trying a heat mat.  When I was researching how to best start slips I stumbled upon this video about curing them.

It all makes sense to me.  I got the heat mat out and set up in the chicken coop.  These tubers here are from the other grow bag plus three from the one plant in the ground that I dug as a test.  The in the ground ones are looking really good to.  Not quite giant, but certainly respectable.

How a Landscape Changes

 I was just fiddling around in my Blog history and other pictures and found this.  Over the past 19 years, my garden and landscape has changed a lot.  There are some plants that have moved two or three times, and areas continue to be reworked and overhauled.  This is what the natural edge where the lovely Asters are growing used to look like.

As planted 2015

As growing 2022

All of the old pictures in this post are from the 2015 post Extreme Weeding.  The area looked so fresh and tidy.  But at this point, nothing short of a backhoe and a load of fresh soil will change it.  We have both but...

The back of the compost area was also newly conceived t that point.  The light colored Brunnera is now vanished, but the two Hosta are still good and being divided and used.  The round, light edged Hosta in the upper left is in it's second location there and last year I divided and moved it again.  I think I'd like to try more Brunnera.  Obviously not in this spot.

That forlorn little mass of red in the center of all the Myrtle is a Heuchera

A portion of the large, all green Hosta from the Right Plant in the Right Place 
It will be beautiful next year, and the original plant will be better off as well.

The little red Heuchera is thriving in its new home on the corner of the chicken coop.  The chartreuse one is in its second location having been relocated from near the house last year.

May version of the Happy Heuchera
The red one had to be dug up (again) last month to repair the downspout but it didn't mind much.
See what a beautiful color the other one is when its fresh?

I'm always moving things.  Sometimes it takes awhile to find the right conditions and sometimes conditions just change.  But that's the fun of gardening.  You can always change it.