1 Content

2 Bradford Pears are blooming here.

Only on the NE side that got the brunt of Florence's wind.

Weird.

3 Gardening this week will be cutting up debris from Michael. 12 or so big trees across the driveway in some rather imaginative piles. Just like pick-up sticks.

No damage to buildings or equpment, though, so I'm lucky.

4 Bradford Pears are blooming here.

Only on the NE side that got the brunt of Florence's wind.

Weird.
Posted by: Golfman

I saw the same thing a few weeks after Hurricane Camille.

5 Moose!
Love moose.
Especially right next to the potatoes.

6 Golfman at October 13, 2018 01:00 PM

The Bradford Pears bloomed around here in the fall last year. Because of the dry, dry summer. So did some apples.

7 The Kokanee are fantastic. It is totally worth it to spend the time off each year with friends to harvest those tasty morsels of pink muscle.

8 Hank Curmudgeon's four clues to the Milkweed Bug:

Straight antennae, pointed face, triangular section behind the head, bright red color.

9 We got the killing frost this week in Minneapolis, after a false alarm two weeks ago. So it's time to pick all of the green tomatoes and make green tomato salsa, which we use for cooking. It makes great pulled salsa pork.

Also, dig the sweet potatoes, carrots, and beets. We were busy this week, making 32 half-pints of strawberry, strawberry rhubarb, and rhubarb strawberry jam (the latter has 1/3 as much strawberries). The son-in-law was able to make 8 quarts of vegan tomato soup, and a bit of salsa was done as well.

It was a good garden year, although the chocolate cherry tomato yield was low.

10 Cut down the sunflowers and pulled weeds this week. My English Ivy threatens to cover everything. I wanted ground cover not ground, tree, house and bush cover. I've been hacking at it for awhile but it is tenacious.

11 Gordon at October 13, 2018 01:16 PM

Thanks for the update. I haven't noted Chocolate Cherry as being a high yielding tomato. Like it in the fall when the nights were cold. Good luck with your remaining harvest.

12 Turned the compost pile yesterday. OK, I saw the chickens out scratching in it.

13 Tonypete at October 13, 2018 01:19 PM

Bonus around here is that ivy harbors snail-eating roof rats.

14 Looks like Atomic Playgirl has some beautiful Dahlias in addition to veggies.

15 That English ivy! It will cling on the beaches, it will cling on the landing fields, it will cling on the hills and the streets. It will never surrender....

16 Those crystal clear waters are awesome ... one of the nice things about the western waters. Add some pretty fish to the pic and it is even more spectacular.

That monarch is perfect as well ... I saw a lot of them here this year, had a lot of milkweed plants. But I never caught such a sharp picture, with such a perfect butterfly. Nice.

17 KT, the chocolate cherry has been a huge producer for us. But this year, we didn't use horse barn sweepings, because of the contamination with Grazon.

I'm thinking of setting up some plastic barrels I have with the horse barn sweepings mixed with straw, and growing peas in them to see if they mature properly. If they do, the barrel contents can be safely added to the beds.

18 Cleaned out most of dead plants in garden, still have a couple of peppers clinging on to life. Leaves are starting to come down so need to clean out compost bin of last year's, pile on plasticity sit another year before getting used.

19 Skip, does saving your compost for an extra year yield better results?

20 Those lily pads look like petri dishes. And the fish look like their hovering in thin air. Cool.

21 Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.

22 I think it breaks down even more to a black fine material, been doing this for years so have enough to not need this year's. Still have a little from 3 years ago but will put that in with last and use that plastic.
I sift it before using with a piece of masonry wire fastened between 2 boards,it gets rocks and sticks out as well as banana stickers. Egg shells get further ground up in this process.

23 It's finally raining here. I can retire the hose for a while and the new shrubs will be okay...providing the damn deer leave them alone.

I think I'll enlarge that last picture to full screen and just sit and stare at it for the rest of the day.

24 I see ducks and geese all the time. So often in fact, that if my town allowed me to shoot them, I'd become a proficient marksman. #@!*^$ (The geese are a thousand times worse than the ducks.)

Hubby is finally going to dump the dirt out of my last remaining earth-filled earth box today. After that, it is nuthin' but raking leaves and watching the lawn develop snow mold.

25 Like skip, only the peppers were left this week. Chance of freeze Monday, so we pulled everything.
Now, once the wet abates, I'll till it all in. We used 15 bales of straw on about 3200 square feet. All compost now.
We don't turn most the garden plants under, cause of disease, and whatnot.
Have to rebuild some fence cause of letting gourds grow on it, so will probably take the opportunity to bring in some composted wood chips with the Bobcat.
Love the pics of the west!
We had 10" inches of rain the last week. Soggy.

26 I place my wire over my garden cart, shovel on a scoop and using heavy gloves hand rake it until it falls through tossing out what doesn't.

27 Very pretty. And speaking of very pretty, I'm gonna put my sweety on the motorcycle and go ride the back roads up on the peak between Cheyenne and Laramie.

28 Cleaning off garden in N Indiana is a works-in-progress. Missed a frost last nite, down to 37, so everything still left is edible. Harvested last of okra and green beans, some lemon grass, chili peppers and greenish-tomatoes for a Filipino chicken tinola which demands a mid-afternoon nap after the consumption thereof.

29 We got rain and thunderstorms last night in So Cal. Everything is green and not dusty anymore! I am still getting peppers but everything else is done. Time to plant the carrots and chard.

30 And speaking of very pretty, I'm gonna put my sweety on the motorcycle and go ride the back roads up on the peak between Cheyenne and Laramie.
Posted by: Hawkpilot at October 13, 2018 01:59 PM (KCxuz)

Enjoy national motorcycle ride day! It's nice here, I'll be heading out to pick up stuff for soup. I may get very lost on the way back and find myself 20 miles out of the way.

31 Planting hardneck garlic today in zone 6B Indiana.

32 I've heard that tree leaves make excellent soil amendment because the trees pull minerals from deep down and those nutrients end up in the leaves.

33 Hogmartin, does your mom know you comment here?

34 We planted a fall crop of leaf lettuce, Simpson Elite which has become our favorite. In less than 2 days it started to show sprouting and has continued to come right along. We have hopes for autumn salads in a few weeks.

The seeds had been stored in a sealed bag in the fridge. I don't know if that enhanced their sprouting speed or if they just wanted to avoid going back in the chill until next spring.

35 Hogmartin, does your mom know you comment here?
Posted by: Emmie at October 13, 2018 02:20 PM (4HMW

I'm fairly sure she does. I send her reminders about the garden thread.

36 I don't know if it will come to anything usable, but we are getting new growth of dill in one of the boxes. Small as they are touching them leaves a wonderful scent on your fingers. We actually have a lot of dried dill from the summer but even a little fresh and put on eggs is a treat.

37 Can't remember who it was, but someone told me a few weeks ago to use the Plant Tone on my Green Giants to get some extra growth before the winter. Thanks. It worked. They are still growing out.

38 Small as they are touching them leaves a wonderful scent on your fingers. We actually have a lot of dried dill from the summer but even a little fresh and put on eggs is a treat.
Posted by: JTB at October 13, 2018 02:28 PM (V+03K)

Fresh dill is an essential ingredient in chicken stock. I wonder how little you could get away with? I usually use a whole bunch, but that's just because that's the smallest amount you can buy at a store.

39 Late to the thread, dammit. I've got to stop letting life get in the way of the weekend threads.

40 Fuckig deer ate about 800 hostas

41 38 ... Hogmartin, I hadn't thought of using dill in chicken stock. I'll have to try it. Even the dried version should work well. When I start baking again (as the days get cooler) I should incorporate dill into the bread dough.


Don't know if it just me or getting older or both but I find my liking for dill and some other herbs is increasing. It's convenient that it grows so well in our area.

42 Since we won't be using the in-ground garden area for at least a season or two, we are thinking about putting in plants that will attract bees and butterflies. Flowers, shrubs or whatever as long as they don't need maintaining, just watering as required.

43 Hogmartin, I hadn't thought of using dill in chicken stock. I'll have to try it. Even the dried version should work well.
Posted by: JTB at October 13, 2018 02:42 PM (V+03K)

"Essential ingredient" might have been a stretch, but it's in the chicken stock recipe we use for matzo ball soup. Passover ticks a lot of the same "spring, rebirth" boxes as Easter, so some dill in the stock gives it a fresh note without going overboard.

44 A few weeks or more ago I noticed a few monarch's cruising around the yard. Watched it land up in a dead birch and what I thought were leaves were hundreds of butterflies. Been here 32 years and never noticed them before.

45 One of the things I want to check out this winter is finding a winter squash that will grow well in our area. Don't need a ton of them but a few would be nice. Years ago there was a squash called kuta. Some sort of hybrid. When young it was like a summer squash. Left to grow it became a winter squash style and both versions were delish! Sadly, for some reason it was discontinued. Bummer.

46 BUT yer NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE!!!! ^^^^

Deer ate 800 Hostages...that be one big ass DEER.
Good for Bambi...now here is Brandi on stage #1....

47 We have an indoor Grow Box by a south-facing window, with a couple of LED grow light panels above. There just wasn't enough natural light here in the winter. This is our herb box, and is dominated by a sage bush, but also has basil, thyme, parsley and rosemary. The basil will grow right up to the LED panel and put a leaf under each LED, the greedy thing.

I shall have to put some dill in. I had a dill plant in it but I think it got unwatered for a while, and the dill died.

48 The thing about the herb box is that it makes virtue of necessity. When visiting friends who cook, we bring a baggie with cuttings and a damp paper towel. They are very appreciative that we care enough to share our little herb bounty.

In truth we have to keep the thing cut back as all of the herbs grow like crazy.

49 First frost here in N IL last night. Still have onions and fall peas and beans growing under cover in the Vegtrug.
Did see a monarch this summer, first time in several yrs.

50 44. How magical to chance upon hundreds of monarch butterflies in one's own yard!

51 41. in morning thread noted a recipe from Paula Deen's magazine. This month features Southern style bread, one of which is Cheddar Dill Beer Bread. Looks super easy, uses 1 tbsp. chopped fresh dill.

52 Great pics, as usual. fun to look at.

Not much going on at Che Blake these days.

Things are winding down and the season to trim is almost upon me.

53 Does anyone have experience with the galvanized metal raised beds?

54 From Idaho's Treasure Valley (Boise area): Husband and I just got back from 3 nights at Bruneau Dunes. We'd been there about 4 times before, but their observatory always had some problem - usually cloudy skies, or, once, a power outage. This time we finally had clear skies - and this was the last weekend they had it open; tomorrow they'll start disassembling and storing the telescope for winter. What was better than seeing a fuzzy Andromeda Galaxy through their big telescope, was the amateur astronomers who set up telescopes in the courtyard! We got to see Saturn!, and M11 (the Wild Duck Cluster), and a blue/white star pair. And that's not mentioning seeing THE MILKY WAY with your bare eyes, which is completely amazing when you've lived under city lights your whole life! We were lucky that we had only a first crescent moon, which set not long after dark.

Looks like winter is about to arrive - we already had cucumber and most cantaloupe vines wither. But freeze is predicted for Monday night, so tomorrow will be spent stripping everything!

We had over an inch of rain on Tuesday, and all the plants seem dead or close to it, so husband turned off our irrigation system. We still don't know when neighborhood shut-down will be.

This past Monday, I turned some of the compost. I had to chop of parts of the tomato plants growing out of the next bin back - when I get to that bin, it will be a riot to try to get all the roots out...

I've already harvested, chopped, and frozen some of our bell peppers. And we already harvested, seeded and cored some weirdly-shaped poblanos for use in casseroles. Today we grabbed the last 9 radishes in one row - it looks doubtful that the other row will mature. And I've been salvaging what I could out of the final cantaloupes - there are 3 big ones left out there, on that vine by the compost, but...

Tomorrow is definitely time to strip *everything*. Pick raspberries - cut down the green bush beans - grab the last cantaloupes - strip the Romas (I checked this afternoon, and the plants are dead) - strip the Nyagous tomatoes and send them to my friend's chickens, or the compost - the Big Boy plant is still *mostly* OK but I should take a lot of its fruits off it anyway - dig up the small green onions - cut down and strip the pepperoncini plant - strip the bell peppers - strip the poblanos - husband didn't mention the jalapeno, but I suppose we'll strip that as well... then I will spend lots and lots of my time this week, processing all this!! (Husband's job is to strip the red raspberries and the various hot peppers.)

We keep taste-testing apples each week. We think we'll prioritize applesauce, since the crop looks small, and that's what we want most.

Right, gingeroni asked last week about my chiles rellenos recipes:

Our original recipe comes from all recipes.com, and is called Real Chiles Rellenos. The author is listed as "Fat-Dog-Lane", so you can tell you have the same recipe I have. (tildes instead of dashes) This one is NOT a last-minute dinner. The only way we can do it that way is, we pre-made some of last year's tomato sauce into the sauce from this recipe, and canned it up. Then we prepared the chiles, stuffed them, and froze them. So now when we want to eat them, we thaw them *just* enough to get the tinfoil off (use lots of flour when wrapping before freezing!) but not enough that they start falling apart - heat the sauce - make the batter - and fry them up. I love it with sour cream.

The most recent one I tried, is for using up all the weirdly-shaped peppers, or the ones that are too small to bother stuffing. I typed in "Better Homes and Gardens Chiles Rellenos Casserole", and it was the first result I got - the first line should mention "a gold star for authenticity", so you can tell you have the same recipe I have. This was tasty enough, but maybe it could use some of our spicy/vinegary relleno sauce too.

I haven't yet tried the recipe Chili Relleno Casserole from Bobbi's Kozy Kitchen - in the story, she mentions starting with a Better Homes and Gardens recipe, but changing it. I'll try that one next (because I have to do *something* with the leftover Cotija cheese!).

Gordon Scott mentioned last week, a recipe involving chicken, chiles, and cheese. Husband did print out a recipe for Chicken Poblano Casserole from MyRecipes, which might get tried at some later time.

55 Better late than never.
Outstanding and visually stunning thread this week.

56 Our original recipe comes from all recipes.com, and is called Real Chiles Rellenos.
Thank you!