Monday, September 24, 2018

Fall preps

Happy Equinox!

My favorite time of the year has begun.  The light is so lovely on our morning walks.



Busy times.  Still canning/bottling from the veg plot.  The courgettes/zucchinni are on their last and the pumpkin harvest this year looks miserable, perhaps 2 or 3.  The roses are doing their fall flush and the dahlias are still flowering, but shorter.  Ripping out the old annual flowers, bringing in manure and prepping new beds. Trying a little seed saving.



We bought in the firewood and stacked it in V´s latest structure.  Such a good feeling having it on hand.



I´ve been seeding hardy annuals, and the biannual starts that germinated.  I really need a course in seed starting, my germination percentage is miserable.  The ranunculus, iris and tulip order is on the way.  Not so many tulips as the ones I´ve planted around come up about 3 inches and then disappear forever.  Perhaps not enough chilling.



Still need to start the sweet peas for next spring. Garlic and grelos (beet greens) will be a project for October.


Hope your fall harvests are spectacular!



6 comments:

  1. Hi, Coco!

    Gee, I almost missed this post. Everything looks so tidy there as you head into fall. The roses are still gorgeous and you have a wonderful (and wonderfully neat) supply of firewood. It has been mostly raining here for 2 1/2 months - that hasn't happened before in our 29 years here - and the garden is a sodden mess, except for, oddly, the peppers, and the butternut squash. I think that the weather may be changing today and the rain heading out. I hope so; I am sun-starved.

    Pam

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  2. I am envious of the way in which you have stacked your wood.....ours is stacked in one long row beside the house and is covered by a plastic tarp, and the rest has been thrown haphazardly into the old pig/chicken hut.

    I also became despondent about the success rate of my seeds, but I have just planted out four trays of winter veg seeds and have had at least 80% success rate, which is so much better than what I have had in the past.
    We have not made our own compost yet, something we really need to do, but I scooped up some dry soil from the sheep pen which is made of up sheep moo, some bits of cow poo, and anything else which makes up dirt. Sieved that mix, then added some commercial seedling compost. Kept them indoors at first, but decided to leave them out all the time in my arbre in the courtyard, but covering them up at night. So far most of them have come up although are starting to bolt because of not having enough light, so am putting them out tomorrow in the raised beds, and there they will have to take their chance.

    By the way, I am investing in a soil block maker so I can stop using plastic pots to start the seedlings.

    Anyway, wishing you luck with your garden, and saying that I also will be having a go at growing things through the winter!

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  3. Hi Pam,

    I carefully select the pics. Believe me, tidy isn´t a word I would use. Hope you get a dry spell. We need rain, I´m tired of watering and the fire risk is going up.

    Hi Vera,

    V does the stacking. He´s very particular. We´re hoping the roofing panels will keep the wood dry and allow more air circulation than the plastic tarps. Last winter there were beetles, ew.

    I´m beginning to think I have a slug/snail problem on the seedling table. That, and there seems to be some magical temperature at which they all germinate at once.

    Soil blockers are on the list of things to buy when we win the lottery! Along with a poly tunnel. I mangle seedlings trying to get them out of the tray cells.

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  4. Hi Coco,

    The autumn photos are really beautiful. And I too enjoy dry firewood, it is like money in the bank, but better! The roses are really amazing.

    Chris

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  5. Thanks Chris! The angle of the sun on the morning walks is amazing. The roses have done pretty well, though it´s so dry they don´t hang about very long. Enjoy your spring!

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