garden

[orin stepanek]

It was looking bleak for any pumpkins this season but then---

baby pumpkin.JPG

[geckzilla]

A wild pumpkin appears!

I love pumpkin vines. I will never forget the one year a pumpkin vine sprouted in my backyard in a spot where I had cleaned out a jack-o-lantern the previous year. It was a curious vine with giant leaves and we didn't know what it could be until... ta-da. PUMPKINS!

[orin stepanek]

A wild pumpkin appears!

I love pumpkin vines. I will never forget the one year a pumpkin vine sprouted in my backyard in a spot where I had cleaned out a jack-o-lantern the previous year. It was a curious vine with giant leaves and we didn't know what it could be until... ta-da. PUMPKINS!

Seems like owlice had a similar experience.

I love pumpkins! And pumpkin "stuff," too: pumpkin bread and pumpkin cookies and pumpkin ice cream and pumpkin pie, and so on.

We don't carve our Halloween pumpkins; we draw on them instead, and then leave them out front to gently fall apart/be munched on/become one with the earth.

A few years ago, I found a couple of volunteer pumpkin vines growing in front of my house. One was in the bushes off to one side; the vine grew up, over, and into a yew, dotting it with creamy pale orange blossoms. These blossoms were a lovely contrast to the deep green of the yew.

The other vine was in the wasteland that is supposed to be a front garden, a patch of soil between the sidewalk and the house which is entirely under the soffit; protection from the rain makes the patch more suitable perhaps to prickly pear than to pumpkin. But no matter! This vine grew along the house, then wound its way around the corner and headed for the side door (but didn't quite reach it).

One morning as I left for work, I was astonished to see a pumpkin! I always looked at the vine when I walked along the front sidewalk, so I cannot account for never having see this pumpkin until that morning, but I hadn't: it was as though someone had simply placed a fully-formed pumpkin on the splash block. About a week later, I saw another pumpkin! It had not been there a week before -- I swear it just materialized!

Neighbors talked to me about the pumpkins; they were watching them grow, checking them out as they walked by, the one on the splash block being particularly noticeable from the street. One of these pumpkins became one of our Halloween pumpkins that year; the other rotted from beneath, so eventually enriched the soil rather than be harvested. Even into the next year, I would get comments and questions about the pumpkins.

I've had the occasional volunteer vines both before and since, but that was the only year I got pumpkins out of them.

[Beyond]

Hey orin, maybe you'd better check your garden. You might find a $cash$ crop, like this guy did.http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/man-finds-150-000-garden-225554517.html

[orin stepanek]

Hey orin, maybe you'd better check your garden. You might find a $cash$ crop, like this guy did.http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/man-finds-150-000-garden-225554517.html

Pretty cool Beyond! I'd like to know where I could get some of those seeds! I'd plant them early in the spring. Hey; what would you do it you found that much green!
Instead one of my cucumber vines started to wither as if it got sprayed with weed killer. I had to pull it up; so it wouldn't spread to the others. My pumpkin is growing nicely so far but It seems to be the only one. Oh well they got almost 2 months yet.

[Beyond]

Orin, if i had THAT much green, i could hire someone to make me a BIG garden and take care of it Until then, there's always Stop & Shop. No bugs.

[orin stepanek]

Garden is pretty much done this season! I'm still nurturing that one pumpkin; and am still getting straggler tomatoes and a few muskmelons. My cucumber vines shriveled up and dried but I had a lot of cucumbers before that happened. almost looks like they had a a sudden case of weed-b-gone. I still got 3 in the fridge. I froze about 10 quarts of tomatoes; so that should keep me through the winter on those days I crave a hot bowl of Chile.

[orin stepanek]

I discovered that I have one cucumber vine that is still healthy and it has several young cukes on it. It's been cold lately and I fear a frost may be coming; so I hope the veggies still on the vines develop in time to harvest. My melons are not yet ripe either.

[Orca]

Orin, as the garden season winds down, what do you do with your remaining plant materials? Compost them? Or chew them back up into the soil right there in the garden? At first glance it seems that if I do the latter the soil in my garden box will retain some of its nutrients..

The wrap-up on my garden box experiment: both "standard" and cherry tomatoes are a go next year. As are zucchini and cucumber. The bell peppers won't make the cut. I got one red and one green bell pepper for the whole year and used up 1/3 of the box to do it. They were great peppers, no doubt; both tasty and attractive. However the return on those pepper plants was just too small. An extra tomato plant or two will provide much more benefit.

[orin stepanek]

Orin, as the garden season winds down, what do you do with your remaining plant materials? Compost them? Or chew them back up into the soil right there in the garden? At first glance it seems that if I do the latter the soil in my garden box will retain some of its nutrients..

The wrap-up on my garden box experiment: both "standard" and cherry tomatoes are a go next year. As are zucchini and cucumber. The bell peppers won't make the cut. I got one red and one green bell pepper for the whole year and used up 1/3 of the box to do it. They were great peppers, no doubt; both tasty and attractive. However the return on those pepper plants was just too small. An extra tomato plant or two will provide much more benefit.

I put the lawn mower on mulch and pretty much chew everything up and leave on the the ground. even my leaves stay chewed up on the ground. I sometimes have to mulch over the lawn 3 or 4 times to turn them in a fine dust. My neighbor took out the hedge between our lots that was a leaf trap so that helps.
I am still leaving my cherry tomatoes on the vine. My bell peppers turned out to be Anaheim peppers (they were mislabeled at the store;) and one is still producing. We're expecting a frost in a couple of days so I will pick the remaining tomatoes green and let them ripen indoors. My basil did well. Oh, and I have about 4 cantaloupes on the vine that I don't believe will ripen in time to pick before cold weather hits, My watermelon never happened so next year will be cucumbers and tomatoes for sure and basil. I got only one ripe pumpkin this year. There are still 2 small green ones on the vine. The early heat wave we had this year pretty much took care of them; so they are iffy for next year!

[orin stepanek]

We got our first freeze! I pulled up remaining plants in the garden and placed unripened fruit on patio table and covered them up; hopefully so they could ripen. Time to prepare for the winter.

[starstruck]

autumn cyclamen 400.jpg

Small, but perfectly formed . . autumn Cyclamen


cheerful little splashes of late colour for the borders; they peep their delicate heads out of the leaf litter around this time of year, every year!




Last cut of the lawn for this season at the weekend; the mower now put away until next spring. It's the one weekly task in the garden that I don't miss doing over the winter months, mowing grass!

[orin stepanek]

Last cut of the lawn for this season at the weekend; the mower now put away until next spring. It's the one weekly task in the garden that I don't miss doing over the winter months, mowing grass!

I envy you! I'll keep the mower til I'm done mulching the leaves, and they aren't all down yet. the mulched leaves go on my garden. Hopefully I'll be done before the snow flies. I'd hate to be doing leaves in the spring.

[orin stepanek]

I'm still getting to pop a cherry tomato now and then as they are ripening indoors a little bit at a time.

garden 001.jpg

[starstruck]

the last tomato.jpg

Orin, here's one that I didn't get to in time. It kept growing, but not quite the way I intended!


Still, I have had a bumper crop this year, so I'm more than happy.


But time to clear out the greenhouse I think!

[Ann]

Nice to see your delightful cyclamens, starstuck. I missed them before. And Orin, your cherry tomatoes look lovely! Mmmmmm!!!

But tell me, starstruck, what is that thing that has been completely taken over by mold (or whatever you'd call it)? Is it a strawberry?

Ann

[starstruck!]

Ann, it was the very last tomato . . one I'd missed when I harvested the last of them. It needs a haircut!
. . the others looked more like Orin's, fotunately

(not bad though, still eating home grown toamtoes in November!!)

[orin stepanek]

Ann, it was the very last tomato . . one I'd missed when I harvested the last of them. It needs a haircut!
. . the others looked more like Orin's, fotunately

(not bad though, still eating home grown tomatoes in November!!)

I think there will be a few left in December; they are ripening fairly slow.

[geckzilla]

That's some impressive fungus.

[TNT]

Almost the sane thing happened to my cucumber last summer, but it was early. It wasn't time to harvest it yet, but a few bugs had crawled into it and ended up growing mold. That was my only successful cucumber, too, albeit it was my first time growing vegetables.

[starstruck]

aster.jpg

Down to the very last bit of colour in the garden here in Yorkshire



these are my last flowers of 2011 . . .






and I thought, "How apt for Asterisk*", for they are . . .

. . . Aster !

[orin stepanek]

aster.jpg

Down to the very last bit of colour in the garden here in Yorkshire



these are my last flowers of 2011 . . .






and I thought, "How apt for Asterisk*", for they are . . .

. . . Aster !

Nice catch starstruck! I have some petunias that are still green; none are blooming!

[starstruck]

new seasons growth already 400.jpg

Mid January and signs of the coming spring are really beginning to show . . . looks like the daffodils might be early this year!

Orin, please don't take any notice of the old leaves these daffs are growing through, I deliberately leave them as a mulch to keep the ground warm . . it definitely works!

The fattening buds are on a flowering currant bush . . when the first bees are out and about again, they love them!

buds fattening 400.jpg

[orin stepanek]

My Daffodils are doing the same thing! I noticed them starting to poke through the ground in late December already! I worry that a March wet snowstorm may bend a lot of them down! The leaves are OK! I don't clean the thatch out till a nice day in the Spring. Most of my leaves got blown away from the windy weather we are having.

daffs.jpg

[starstruck]

The willow trees over the stream by the house are bedecked with gorgeous silky cream catkins, like miniature furry rabbits feet; such a welcome sight, heralding the onset of a new spring!