Today is the first day of fall for those in the north.
Planting bulbs and peonies here.

I'm FINALLY harvesting tomatoes !! (the green ones are Aunt Ruby's German Green, first time I've grown them and they are great!)

I did plant Aunt Ruby's Green, but the plants were trashed by hail.
I'll have to try for them, again next year.

Caroline, it's always such a bummer to have the garden beaten up by hail -- it's been a long time since I've had that happen, fortunately!

I would definitely recommend giving the Aunt Ruby's tomatoes a try again, I really love them; the flavor is just the right mix of sweet and tart (for my taste), and the color of the flesh is a bright avocado green, really striking contrasted with red and yellow tomato slices. And a nice big beefsteak size. I will certainly be growing it again!

It is less than two weeks away now, June and July seemed to drag on but August flew by quickly.

I have had Aunt Ruby's many, many years; hmmm, may try again next year.

I hereby swear that I am cutting back on the number of tomato plants next year! I have 20 plants this year, 2 that we are basically not picking from (Warrior 5443) because they look beautiful on the outside and have a bunch of hard white tissue inside, a couple that haven't produced all that much, and we are still buried in tomatoes right now. I picked these yesterday, then ran out of bowls...



After roasting 2 half-sheet pans in the oven (for making sauce), I then picked another big bowlful today... and roasted 2 more half-sheet pans of tomatoes. People are starting to run away screaming when we offer to give them tomatoes!

(I know, I know - in a couple of months I'll be wishing I had tomatoes cluttering up the kitchen )

CarolineScott said: Today is the first day of fall for those in the north.
Planting bulbs and peonies here.

We just went from 20 degrees above average to average with temperatures slowly dropping every week.
If I will plant any bulbs and move peonies, I will have get my buttocks in gear.

Hmmm - I seem to have the same bowls full of tomatoes right now as I had last year at this time...

Digging bulbs in and two more peony roots.
Same place every September!

We seem to be creatures of habit, Caroline!

Habits are good so long as it's chocolate.

I am at the Library, at home, as I am finishing the South garden

I dug up the last six or so potato plants and got on average 4 potatoes from each plant with most goose egg size.
Ground was very, very, very , very dry and hard; some chunks of dirt that broke loose were the size two basketballs and did not break up.
It has been dry down here all summer but the last month has been exceptionally dry.

I bagged a dozen or so onions with the biggest the size of a golf ball; burned most of the corn stalks but had enough still upright to make a small corn shock.
Cut five roses for vase and put them on the kitchen table, only time all summer I have cut any; rose plants look OK but now it is time to bag leaves for winter cover.
High today was in the thirties but in days to come some are supposed to be in the sixties; I was amazed how much farther along the changing of the trees was only fifty miles south of the North garden.

Mowed lawn around the garden for the first time in a month and cut down the peonies.
My Hopi Cushaw squash must truly like the dry, dry weather we had as they gave me the best squash yield in years, while up north the Butternut gave me five large fruit but then up there we had a LOT more rain.
Butternut down South was a bad joke and they were planted at the same time as the Hopi Cushaw.

I am going to go home now start , restart, organizing the books and magazines in the house as they have been sitting on the floor, waiting to be organized since the middle of June.
Happy Fall.

My nephew who I ususally see at funerals came up from Madiso , Wisc. for a visit, we were going to go out shooting but the cousin , whose place we were going to shoot at, had to go to the VA.
SO
We just BSd, headed down to my South Garden house, had another Cousin and some friends come and REALLY BSd.

Before this I bagged up a bunch of leaves for the Roses, and windrowed a large amound down South , waiting to be bagged.
I dreaded having to do this, this year, but it has been a very easy task so far as up North all I have to do is go pick up some, other people bagged up.

Was looking at sites that sell onion plants last night because I always look for different varieties and next year have decided, at least at this poing to try varieties from Rich Farm and Garden.
Could change my mind but while I got the WillyDillyDale catalog , as every one know, the grass is always greener on the other side of the hill.

I finished cleaning up the greenhouse today - wish I could keep it looking this neat all the time

Tomorrow DH's older brother and his wife leave to go back home to Florida for the winter; we were able to spend quite a bit of time with them over the course of the summer, but sorry to see them go. Sent a dozen pints of homemade salsa and a nice baggie of cherry tomatoes with them; their Ford Edge is packed full ! Just hoping they have a safe and uneventful trip

Just trying to get the fall bulbs planted.
Waiting for peony roots to come.
Might be out there with my tea kettle to thaw the soil.
I have holes dug and several pails of soil in house.

CarolineScott said: Just trying to get the fall bulbs planted.
Waiting for peony roots to come.
Might be out there with my tea kettle to thaw the soil.
I have holes dug and several pails of soil in house.

From experience, an ice chipper, large one, or large chisel works well; ground is only fronzen down an inch or two and once you break open a six inch spot, you take the ice chipper and slide it under the frozen soil like I have done de-icing a fridge or freezer.

One and one-half days left.

Thoroughly weeded the asparagus today (the stalks were previously cut down); hoping to finish up with weeding the veg garden tomorrow so we can get a good layer of mulch (grass clippings and leaves) put down before winter gets here.

Saw our usual doe with her 2 fawns (who are pretty big now) in the yard this evening, as well as a spikehorn buck - and an orange cat that we've never seen around before. Might have something to do with all the catnip plants that I've been pulling out of the garden; I let a couple of plants grow last year for my Ziggy, and of course they went to seed and turned into a million plants (approximately ... LOL).

Sounds like gardening and growing are winding down there.
And you have wildlife to visit too.
Winter is upon us here tonight after Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! The weather is unusually nice here today, normally Halloween weather is windy, wet, cold, gloomy - but today is sunny and dry, with a predicted high temp of 59°F