Every time I think "That's it! No more from the veg" something else comes along. This morning I made 4 pints of Green Tomato Salsa, which I absolutely love. This afternoon I dug up a bucket of lovely big Yukon Gold potatoes and about 10 short fat carrots for the stew I'm making for supper. I also picked a handful of not-quite-green tomatoes to set for indoor ripening and cut 10 more butternut squash from their vines. I'll put those in the greenhouse to ripen and sweeten. AND unbelievably, there are still a handful of green beans on the vines so I'll have to get those in this evening. AND I forgot about my patch of red beets that need to be lifted; my pickled beets are legendary 
AND I still need to lift the sweet potatoes, although I am not sanguine about them. They got off to a slow start, were badly nibbled by the only groundhog incursion I had this year, and just did not seem to grow as rampantly as they usually do. I'll be surprised if I get anything at all. I'm just hoping to get enough for Thanksgiving supper.
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We had over an inch of rain Friday night/all day Saturday, so today (Sunday) is perfect for lifting, moving, dividing, planting. I got 10 more Chinese Forget Me Nots lifted from the Pond Circle paths and moved into the "empty border" to the south (I also expanded that border considerably. I swept the line of the border out in a big curve to meet up with the back of one of the Pond Circle beds. Looks much better; now I need to work to keep that Oval garden area cut down; it's not lawn, but I don't want it getting so ragged with blackberries and weeds, etc.
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Speaking of that empty Oval...it's not a huge area but it is a blank space between the Woodland Garden and the Long South Border. I saw an idea I'd like to adapt to give that spot a focal point. Instead of a tall columnar clipped topiary, the garden I saw used a tall column made of fence wire and trained ivy up it. The effect was really nice and it requires very little in the way of pruning. So I want to create an "Iv(or)y Tower." I was puzzling over how to anchor it so it wouldn't just topple over in the first passing breeze. At first I was thinking of driving in fence posts (ugh...all those heavy tree roots!). Then *angels sing in background* I had a great idea: Garbage Can! I will set up a black/brown garbage can, put rocks in the bottom to weight it, fill it with dirt/compost, then wrap the fence wire around the garbage can and up as high as I want it (I'm thinking at least 7 feet; I want it to be imposing). Then I'll plant ivy around the base and also in the garbage can so that the ivy covers the fence wire a little more quickly. I've got plenty of different varieties of ivy to use and loads of woven wire fencing that I'd like to find a good use for. As for the garbage can, I think I'll use one of our old ones for this project and replace it with a new one (the old one is getting pretty shabby).
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Brought in a couple loads of mulch, stockpiled them along the South Long Border for use later. Also spent a good couple of hours in the veg; I emptied out the grow bags and spread the compost in the South Long Border where I'm planting the Chinese Forget Me Nots to improve the (very light, very sandy) soil down there. Also got a lot of tomato and squash vines removed from the veg: lots more to go, but it's coming along!
Discussions:
| Thread Title | Last Reply | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| Garbage Can Pot by slowcala | Oct 17, 2023 3:25 PM | 3 |
| Where do you find the energy by microb | Oct 16, 2023 6:45 AM | 1 |
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