Posted on 10/04/2013 5:36:16 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch
Those leaves look an awful lot like something I’ve seen growing on my land that I dismissed as a weed. Hmm, I might have to take a closer look.
Just got back from my grandfather’s old farm. He died last year, and his widow (my step-grand-mother) wasn’t up to dealing with everything at the time, so she moved to Texas for a while to be near her family. This week she came back to collect stuff and get the house ready for the new owners. Most of the farm is now owned by my aunts and uncles, but the house and 2 acres were hers. It’s always interesting with that side of the family whenever it comes to dividing things up. There’s no fighting, no greed, just “Here’s a _(fill in the blank)_, anybody want it or should I just toss it on the Goodwill pile?”
Which is how I ended up with a new BB gun today :)
Anyway, I took my nephew out for a wander, and collected some catnip and mallow seeds, along with some amaranth seedheads from a wild amaranth that was completely red. I liked how it looked, what can I say?
Nephew and I also picked up a pillowcase full of hickory nuts. This tree is known to produce very thin-shelled nuts, even if they are a little small. Since it’s part of the land that got sold, I’m hoping to plant some of these and have those nuts growing on my land soon.
I’m coming to the conclusion that I’m allergic to the indoors. I’ve been getting headaches all week long, and today was no exception, but as long as I was either outside or near an open window, the headache was barely noticable. Clearly my gardening time is a medical necessity :p
This year’s conditions have been perfect. We planted three Kiwis, two females and a male) 5 or 6 years ago. The varieties are Anna, Andre and Natasha. We have been pleasantly surprised with their hardiness at merely making it through one winter after another. This is the first year that fruit has appeared and it is bountiful to boot.
Snow is nearly all gone, (did I ever mention that I hate mud?) and the bent to the ground trees are straightening back up. Most of the pumpkins are still more than half buried in snow, as are the carrots & leeks.
The two largest Brussels sprouts got laid over, but not broken, by the combined wind & snow, but should be fine.
I THINK this finally did in the potato vines once and for all, but I won’t bet the rent on it; these have more lives than a cat.
Found and disposed of a packrat inside the rabbit pellet bin yesterday; it had forced the lid open to get in, then couldn’t get back out. Not sure which of was more surprised.
When I came back down from feeding & watering critters today, I had to bribe a flock of turkeys with scratch grain, well away from the house, to get them out of yard. They were scratching up the flower beds, and breaking some of the taller plants. Yes, I have turkey tags, and counting down....
Yesterday, it was seven deer chomping on my 5 YO plum tree, as well was trying to get remaining apples out of the apple trees. 30 days to deer season....
That poor plum has had loose cows mangle the chicken wire fence around it to chew on it; a large pine blew down on top of it; now the deer are attacking it. It has a strong will to live, as it keeps on growing. It flowered this year, and should fruit next year.
Today, I took my baggie of cherry seeds out of the fridge drawer to see if any had sprouted yet: not a single seed out of the 20+ in it were there: they had all totally composted themselves. :-(
The new hose and sprayer is on so no more getting drenched from a cheap contraption of hose/sprayer that came apart. That freed up the deck to have only plants in hard containers. Those were arranged on the right side of the deck, and the iron dining table is on that side. That freed up a good sized space on the left and center to have iron chairs and a side iron table. One can sit and survey the entire garden/deck area. Instead of a mess, it looks like there was a plan.
Tomorrow we go to Lowes and get stakes for the tomatoes and a few more containers and I'll get a large bag of potting soil mix since he can carry it.
We will clean out the outside storage room, toss what isn't necessary and have room then to store items on the lower deck under the roof. That lower deck is a conglomerated mess.
I am thankful for cool weather. It is wonderful. My slave labor son is super. He may be an award winning director of documentary film, but he is just my kid when he is here.
Glad he was able to help.
/johnny
WEEKLY GARDEN THREAD VOLUME 40 October 4, 2013
Pinging the list:
FYI to anyone who has not yet read my post on Friday. I was out of town at a conference, and was not able to post the thread. Last year I was at the same conference and was able to post, so I assumed that I would be able to do so.
However, they gave me a room in one of their adjacent properties, so I was not able to do so. Fortunately, JRandomFreeper took the initiative and started the thread.
My apologies to all, and thanks again to JR.
I am finally home and feeling very tired, with lots of stuff just begging to be done. No rest for the weary! I do have a tomato that ripened on the vine while I was gone-unbelievable-I was sure the squirrels would go crazy while I was gone, but I think my dog probably barked enough to scare them off-that’s all I can think of.
Several of the tomatoes have begun to flower, so I might actually be able to chop off a few branches and get some roots going and keep the flowers too for some off season growth in front of the patio door.
Hope you all had a great weekend. God Bless.
That picture reminds me of my year in Vermillion S. Dakota. It snowed 21 inches in October-lst snowfall of the year. It didn’t disappear till June of the next year.
All you who live in Northern Climates have my sympathy, and admiration-I just don’t think I could live there year round for very long.
So glad he’s there to help you out. It all sounds very nice. How long will he be staying?
That was good luck finding out about the sweet potatoes. You’ve had some good successes this year, and we have all learned some stuff along with you.
He is indeed a whizbang.LOL
Oh my goodnes. Whatever are you going to do when they are grown?
You’ve got lots of good plans there.
How wonderful to have him there! Thanks for the report, Marcella!
Welcome Home GE... Mama bear was bad enough the past 2 years but now there are 3 more hungry stomachs to feed and they are feeding nearly 24 hours a day!
Thanks for the welcome. I truly don’t know what you are going to do with that many bears around. At some point Mama bear might even have some more.
We rarely have anything that ferocious here-let alone a whole family- we’ve had one or two wander through some of the adjacent towns, in the last 40 years, but none really hangin’ out like this.
Discovered a large red/orange caterpillar munching on the leaves of a nearby butterfly bush. Took it’s picture, googled caterpillars with those colors and discovered it would become a tiger moth. Mums blooming nicely.
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