2015 Garden Journal

We are green family which buys a potted tree in the late fall to bring in for a week before Christmas and decorate it and plant it on Christmas Day. We also dig the hole also before the ground freezes. This is how we landscape our yard. we have been very successful, lost 3 out 12 trees. The first tree we did this is close to 30 ft. tall.

Did my search on the seed catalogues and did my picks . They are predicting warm weather all week so the snow could be gone by next weekend. I hope it goes it has been a long winter.

I raked part of the back yard and put the clear plastic over the garden so to warm up the garden sooner for planting cold weather crops.The Giant Sequoias look like the got some wind and sun burn over the winter.

Raked up more of the leaves from back yard and put them all into the garden to mulch with lawn mower and then replaced plastic to keep heating up the soil. This is so easy to mulch leaves more people need to do this even for a small flower garden .

The seeds that I ordered arrived and I went out to the local nursery to get Purple Pansies a tradition we do because it is one of my wife's favorite flowers to plant as soon as they arrive . Also picked up cold weather veggie starts spinach, cabbage, broccoli,cauliflower, lettuce, kale and onions. I planted the spinach in pots which are high so rabbits will have hard time to reach and also planted the Pansies in planters in the front and back yard.

I rototilled the gardens and planted all the cold weather veggies cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, kalirabi, three types of onions, and five different types of lettuce, Also planted four types of potatoes. The seeds I planted include turnip, radish, rutabaga, parsnips and beets. I planted all the lettuce varieties and Kale in tubs so the rabbits have to jump up to eat them. Also planted sunflower seeds, mammoth seed head varieties. The buds on the fruit trees are just starting to swell , the later the better, less likely the buds to bloom with hard frost. The flowers near the house and cactus are showing some life.

The Apricot trees are the first to bloom and mason bees where there helping. The radish and turnips are up already it has been cool and predicted to stay cool.All the lettuces and spinach is doing well and no sign of rabbits jumping up in the tubs to have lunch. Also put to together a raised bed courtesy of my neighbor putting out big beams of wood from an old tree house. I will use the liner that I replaced in the pond because the holes in the liner that is good for the raised bed and a another way to recycle .Daffodils are blooming by the house and raspberries are starting to grow. Also strawberries are coming up.

The radish,turnips,rutabaga,and onions are doing well. The fruit trees are all in bloom except apple, looks like another year to wait on apples.All the lettuces are doing well.The Damson plum tree is dying some disease. So the cherry trees I ordered will replace the plum. I also ordered a combo apple tree with five types on it just for fun. I also got three nut trees for free for a minimum order , two pecan and one hickory ..I have planted the beans, peppers, tomatoes plants and corn in the garden after rototilling and also in the raised bed. The rock garden has come to life and also planted 4 celery plants there because it is the most consistent place for water requirements.Also the seeds of tomatoes I saved last year are popping up and doing well. I have made area by the garden for raspberries and transplanted all the starts that the birds planted and the runners from the original plants..It has been a wet spring good so far. I will put chicken wire over the corn and bean seeds so the squirrel won't get them also got some corn starts at Ace they did OK last time. The fun of gardening is to try new things and surprise of what does well .I planted the variety squash and pumpkin and put plastic over it so the squirrels can't eat them. The evergreens are showing signs of lie and the tree we planted don Christmas Day is forming cones so it is unfazed by it's adventure.

The corn and beans are up and the tomatoes plants I got at the nursery are doing well. The tomatoes plants I planted from seed are doing well We are eating spinach lettuce and onions, the planting of spinach and lettuce in pots worked well no rabbits eating them. We have little apricots on both trees. All the fruit trees had blooms except apple. All the cold weather plants are all doing well No sigh of the squash or pumpkin yet. The evergreens are coming to life. It looks like we will have a good year for fruit. The rock garden is coming into bloom starting with irises. The daffodils are almost done . The tomatoes plants I planted from seed are doing well. Started to put up the tomatoes sticks , the nursery tomatoes plants are doing well .Beets are finally up .Raspberries have come to life. The strawberry plants are growing now.The raised bed seems to be doing really well. The roses have come to life, the peony is back.

The garden is doing well and we are using lettuces ,onions, radish and spinach. A Variety of pumpkins and squash are up and some cucumber so the ground is warming up. The chipmunks and squirrel got about fifty percent of the pumpkin,squash,corn and sunflower seeds but most of these seeds are saved seeds. The tomatoes seeds I planted are big enough to transplant so over the next week I will plant at least 100 tomatoes starts all around the yard and if I get two tomatoes on each plant I will have gotten 200 free tomatoes for free just by saving the seeds. These saved seeds will pay for all the seeds I bought this year. There is lettuce coming up all over the yard from just dispersing the seed last fall. One of the easiest to collect and have come the following year. The apricot trees have fruit on them the size of big marbles .We have peaches ,cherries, plums, pears and crabapples the size of marbles. We also have gooseberries. The raspberries are flowering now.The evergreens are really growing well because of the consistent moisture. A Blue Heron had fed it's young with our goldfish in our pond last week so we put in about 30- 2 inch goldfish back in the pond. The Christmas Tree we planted last Christmas is doing well and is producing cones.We lost one our Sequoias and hope to replace it. The spring flowers are hitting their stride and free and easy just sprinkle collected seeds in the fall. The rock-rain garden in the front yard is doing well a few blooming but most are summer flowers.and will flower a little later. It has been a good Spring for growth of the garden and will post of video to give an idea what good conditions produce by June 1st.

A warm day after downpour last night about 83. The garden is doing well with this regular rain except the corn it needs a string of hot days also some the tomatoes plants planted last need some heat. The tomatoes plants along the house already have tomatoes on them . The tomatoes in the raised bed are not far behind and the tomatoes I first planted in the garden are doing OK but the rest need some more heat to get them going . I have about 100 tomatoes plants planted all over the yard and about 24 more to plant . The vast majority of the plants are from seed saved last year and one type a tomatoes with higher lycopene I saw in Trader Joe's during the winter. I saved the seeds and planted them also this spring so it will be fun to see what we get this year. The fruit trees are loving this wet spring. So far we have growing Peaches, pears cherries, apricots, goose berries, raspberries, crabapples, plums and blackberries. The Butterfly garden is doing great too, Joe Pye weed, Two types of Milkweed and a fancy purple sticker plant that butterflies like. The rock garden is doing well , The peony is blooming , last nite it was a pond for awhile but by July it will become a dry stream bed again and all the summer flowers will be bloom like Purple Cone Flower and Black Eyed Susan. We put in more goldfish "about 30 -2 inchers" in the pond after a Blue Heron ate our Pan Sized Goldfish , it is O K, baby Blue Herons need a good meal. The evergreens are doing great too this wet spring is great for them. We have a salad almost everyday and the radish and dicons are doing great yet because of the cool wet spring. We had some broccoli. There are some good sized kalirabi and the onions are growing well and the potatoes are doing the best I have ever grown. The pumpkin and squash are like the corn waiting for hot summer days. The watermelon seeds never came up, too cool or the chip monk ate them like most of the squash seeds. The new trees I planted about 60% so far. The Christmas Tree is doing Excellent.

With the summer being more like spring we still have lettuce growing well without bolting . All the cold weather crops are still doing real well we have been eating radish, onions, turnips, dicons, broccoli and some peas. The fruit side the blue jays have eaten most of the cherry's but we got a bag of raspberries at the start of the raspberry season so far. Our peach trees are doing well a good crop . We have a few apricots on our two new producing trees. We have bartlett and keifer pears. Looks like an average year for them. The plum tree has a bumper crop this year. Looks like we have some goose berries, still green, we have the Finnish version which turns purple when ripe. The crabapples are doing well. The black berries are just coming back from the winter 2 years ago.We have walnuts hopefully more than the squirrels can hide. The warm weather crops are just barely growing like corn just made knee high at 4 th of July. The squash are barely starting to vine. The tomatoes plants are struggling in the garden , doing good in the raised bed as are beans, and doing great by the house. Away's good to spread out your tomatoes, to take advantage of micro climates. The cabbage are doing excellent and the cauliflower, brussel sprouts and kaiirabi are also loving this cool weather . The potatoes are doing excellent. The garlic horseradish and onions are doing well and not wilting yet do to hot weather. The fifty year old rose bush is back and doing great. The rock garden "rain garden " is still the rain garden and the purple cone flower and black eyed susan's are still growing and haven't started to bloom . The cool wet weather is putting the plant into making massive plants and soon as summer shows up they will start blooming. The evergreens love this weather they are minimum a foot of growth on them . The Sunflowers seem to grow no matter what weather. I don' t plant them the just come up each year from the Goldfinches being picky on what seeds they eat. The beets and carrots have just got going . When I was young, a neighbor gardener taught me to plant for cool and hot summer and the plants will take over the space on what type of summer you get and don't only put all the energy for hot summer or cool summer risking complete failure. With a normal summer you will get everything in smaller amounts. The butterfly garden is doing well Milkweed and Joe Pye Weed just amazing. The pond has goldfish and apparently Blue Herons are not attracted to 2 inch goldfish.

We had another inch and half downfall of rain yesterday and big winds which knocked down the corn that was standing alone but the corn with sunflowers was still standing just five feet away from each other. Another tip when growing corn in your garden or urban farm. We had more raspberries to pick . The plums are starting to ripen, great right off the tree. We harvested our purple kolarabl just below tennis ball size. They are great raw like rutabagas or cooked and mashed with potatoes. We have beans (Rattlesnake) they are great flavored bean We still have lettuce and still waiting for summer, It is still raining in July not known for it's rain quantify. The garlic will be harvested as soon as it dries out in the ground but the onions are still growing which they usually die back by this time. I don't actively water the garden doing the summer only to save the tomatoes if needed, but that isn't often. Most of the time it seems to rain just in time to keep the garden going. I do not actively water the fruit trees accept the first two years after planting. Four of fruit trees get runoff from the pond which is replenished from the house down spouts that are sent to the pond under ground. Two more our fruit trees get the runoff of garage downspouts. Two of our fruit trees get rain from our dry stream bed that starts in the back yard and goes through to the front yard to form our rain garden and in summer our rock garden. Our quarter acre slowly slopes from back yard to front yard in which our dry stream bed follows down. The rain garden is still a rain garden and the Purple cone flowers are just starting to flower , they are still putting their energy in plant growth, big plants. Most of the few apricots have been taken by the squirrels . Also spotted one apple on the apple tree so maybe next year a complete bloom. We have green tomatoes but until it gets hot they are pretty much in slow gear. The corn is the same not much going on. The good news is peaches are doing great also plums and pears. Looks we may have enough walnuts that we get some not only the squirrels they just hitting the begging nut production time of their early life. The Butterfly garden is doing great Milkweed and Joe Pye Weed almost 4 ft tall. All the evergreens are loving the rain . I have some of the squash vines growing but until we get summer they just languish. We are harvesting radish and turnips and love the weather.

The heat has finally come, Summer is here finally here. This last week we harvested some beans , broccoli, cauliflower, dicon radish, tomatoes, onions and garlic. We are digging up enough garlic for the year and drying it out . We still have plenty in the ground to grow enough to supply next years harvest. Also dug up the onions that had died back , some nice size onions this year. We also had some peaches off the peach tree with on it they are all ready full size and eating size because the tree had few peaches to grow. The trees with large numbers of peaches are still smaller. The saturn peach tree has ripe peaches and we picked most of them and have eaten them , they are a smaller peach .We had some raspberries but next they should be better. We harvested 3 bags of goose berries , enough to 4 or 5 gooseberry peach pies. The peaches should be ready in about two weeks.With the rain we got tonite that should give a good boost in size and ripening. The plums have been ripening and we have been eating them off the tree and picking the extra each day and putting them in the frig to take out later once all the plums been picked. I am writing this in the dark because we had a power outage when a line of thunder storms went through. It is 10: 30 at night and all is quiet. The solar lights in the yard make a great statement. My local cactus by the house is doing quite well now. The tomatoes plants grown from seed are just getting started to show some growth with summer arriving 2 months late. Dug up some potatoes that the plants died back . We have some blue, red, and fingerlings for next sundays dinner. We still have some lettuce yet but most went to seed which I will save and sprinkle next year in the garden for more free lettuce , it's fun to see what you get and your salad has more variety. The Walnuts are getting close hopefully we will have enough to eat before the squirrels get to them all , admittedly they have expanded their horizons to the saturn peaches too , that's why we picked most of the saturn peaches. .The rock garden has gone into full bloom with the heat. The butterfly garden is almost in bloom with the Milkweed and Joe Pye Weed. We have Monarchs finding the garden. The peppers and corn are just dismal and raccoons have been eating the little corn cob. We did harvest a nice cabbage , love coleslaw. We have at least one apple on the apple tree I planted 12 years ago and it is still all green so I am guessing Green Delicious or Granny Smith , its been so long I would have to look it up. Apparently it had a few blossoms on it which where not seen and we have crab apples so it was easy to pollinate , so one apple for sure, ha ha. The star this week is the plums and just the right amount , enough to eat fresh for 2 to 3 weeks pull out of fridge a plate full to eat , and you can eat till the peaches are ripening in mass. We still have canned plums from 3 years ago and we eat doing the winter. That year we had massive amounts of plums.

We canned our first Tomatoes 2 1/2 quarts . The peaches to be canned are on one tree, the mass producer, is about to be ready to be picked and canned. We are picking and eating as they get closer to canning them.We still have plumes in the frig and take a bowl out when we finish off the last bowl. The potatoes we dug up are excellent. The fresh tomatoes are coming but not very fast.We picked three heads of cauliflower and they were great We also picked a cabbage and had coleslaw. The pears are getting bigger. The one pumpkin which is one of those big ones is the size of a basketball. The lettuce has finally went to seed but I will have free seed for next year.We had a little broccoli from the secondary growth some nice size rutabagas growing. dug some more onions and garlic and dried them in the sun.The beans are still producing and they are a very good bean . Saved some of the dried out beans and peas I found and set them out above refrigerator to dry so I can plant them next year.The Crabapple tree has produced allot of fruit ,I love to eat them right off the tree. The single produced apple on my 12 year old apple tree is still green so most likely a green delicious tree , been so long can't remember what kind it is , it is in my invoice .The Rock Garden and Butterfly Garden are doing Really Good. We have got rain in July and now Aug so the garden has not been stressed too often. The evergreens have done really well with rain every other week this summer.

We have canned 3 more pints of tomatoes and 7 1/2 quarts of peaches. We have fresh peaches everyday now since they started ripening on this tree. We pulled the rest off the tree and put the perfect eating peaches in the frig with the plums we still have . My wife is looking for a good plum recipe to use the ones we have left. Anything in pie are strudel is great. The pumpkin is still growing so we will have one home grown for Halloween. We have one more peach tree with allot of peaches and one with a few to ripen yet. It has been dry so the beans have stopped and tomatoes on the vines are ripening. We picked another cabbage for cabbage rolls. Did some tree trimming. The rock garden and butterfly garden are starting to show a little bit of winding down . We have pods on our milkweed so I can collect them and plant more. The pear trees are slowly growing their pears. The squirrels have managed to disperse the walnuts we had ,maybe next year a crop big enough to have too many. The joe pye weed is just impressive by the goldfish pond. Time to dig up some more potatoes the vines are dying back , just in time for cabbage rolls.

Hot day and weekend last of summer is hear we have one peach tree left that is getting ready, still hard peaches. Picked a big bowl of green beans, tomatoes, onions and a cabbage for cabbage rolls . The pear tree is full of pears, they won't be ready until late Oct. The pumpkin is still growing well and we have three small ones starting to grow. A few peppers are appearing as summer never really got going. The cabbages and brussel sprouts are doing well .The one apple on the tree was a granny smith so we are happy. It was easier to taste it as to look it up when I planted it 12 years ago. My wife and I are eating fresh peaches and plums from the frig as we wait for the next bunch of peaches to can. My wife has made peach plum torts , cobbler and upside down cake, the cake is the best. The rock garden is still really blooming but showing its fading more. The butterfly garden is almost done ,the milkweed pods are formed and ready to split. The evergreens had a good year cool and wet. The crabapple tree is doing well ,love to snack on the the crabapples all fall. We pulled up some beets, dug up some more onions and canned 3 pints of pickled beets , nothing like my wife's picked beets.

The pear tree is dropping some of it's pears to grow rest bigger so we canned these as they are good pears and the big crop is after a couple of frosts as they make the pears sweeter. We also canned some more beets as my wife's recipe for picked beets is the best. Dug up some more potatoes, picked some more beans and picked a couple of peppers . There are tomatoes enough to eat but nothing extra to can. We picked half of the kale and my wife made lasagna it was great. The cabbages are still doing well as are the brussel sprouts and broccoli. We still have plums and peaches in the frig, nothing like a home grown fruit.to have to eat. The pumpkins are still growing but not as apparent. The crabapple tree is full of fruit love to just eat a couple a day. The Swamp Milkweed has popped it's pods and I collected the seeds that haven't been blown away. The butterfly garden was very good this year and will get better over time. The blackberry bushes are back to a good size bush so we should have berries next year. The raspberries that had produced more plants by bending over and sending out roots at the tips I transplanted to the side of the garage where most of the reg. raspberries are. They are doing well on their new place and next year we should have more raspberries.The birds have planted raspberries in the yard and they are big enough to transplant with the other raspberries plants and I will give some of them to my dentist . It always good to pass on your good fortune and birds planting raspberries is always good as purchasing them can by expensive.Once you purchase your initial raspberries you should never have to buy more as vegetative is a way to have the raspberries you started with either by in ground sending out new plants or by the plant bending over or you bending over the plant and it starts roots at the point where the top hits the ground. But raspberries planted by birds can get you some great variety seem to be very hardy plants.The rest of the grapes were picked and made into juice.

Picked some more beans We have a couple more peppers forming but the summer never really was here to grow tomatoes and peppers in real big numbers for canning. This is why you can the extra because of years like this . We do have tomatoes and peppers from last year to use over the winter..We have dug up most of the rest of the potatoes and onions. The sections of garden where corn ,onions, radish turnips and potatoes is being tilled up so as the leaves off the trees fall I can raked them up and shred them with the lawn mower and then till them in the garden. The pumpkins are still growing and one looks like a bumpy one. The tomatoes by the house are ones still growing because it gets hot enough during the day, we have a dark blue house.The cold weather veggies, cabbage, broccoli and brussel sprouts are doing great. The rutabaga has produced some nice globes sticking out of the ground. The Kiefer pear tree has a lot of pears on it and they getting big , a good crop this year. The beets are still growing and will grow till a hard freeze. Picked a reg size cucumber and some smaller ones . Not a great year for them either. Considering how much fruit we got this year, it has been a good year because fruit is so much more to purchase than veggies. The rock /rain garden is winding down but the purple flower my wife planted ( she doesn't remember the name) a couple years ago by seed is still coming up and blooming in Sept. The Milk weed in the butterfly garden has pods but have not popped open yet. The crabapple tree is full of apples, love to eat them . The ones the tree is dropping to let the others get bigger I collect to use in starting to set up the decorations for Halloween we always have fun. Used the corn stalks that I pulled out when they never got big enough to produce corn but good enough for Halloween decor. I collect the crabapples in a whicker basket and set it next to corn stalks and pumpkins for a fall Halloween display. The lettuce I let go to seed in the containers is about be ready so put the pots in the rototilled part of the garden so the seeds will be dispersed and come up in the garden next year . The parsnips I didn't dig up last year and started growing this year went to seed and I dispersed the seeds in an area of the rotiotilled garden and many will grow next year.

It is fall and two of the pumpkin vines have died back and we started our Halloween display in the front yard with these pumpkins and some more variety that where acquired at County Bumpkins. We canned some more pears that have fallen from the tree but until we have a couple of frosts the pears will not be the sweetest. We had some more potatoes and some broccoli but small secondary florets.We still have peaches in the frig yet, about 8 of them and a bowl of plums. Cabbages, Beans, Kale and Brussel sprouts are still growing. A few Tomatoes still by the house where it still heats up. Love the Crabapple tree eat a few everyday and pick up the fallen and put in a wicker basket, part of the Halloween Display. Next weekend we will put up the plastic lighted pumpkins to ad to the fun of Halloween. Leaves are not falling in big quantities yet. The goldfish are pretty big since we bought them at feeder size.

Picked two pumpkins for the Halloween display and also hung up the plastic pumpkins on the cedar trees. Dug up the potatoes under the pumpkin vines. The cold weather veggies still doing well' . Been dispersing seeds from the flowers that have produced seeds. The pears are still growing and till we get a frost they will continue. The frost will make them sweeter. Will can some more pears that have fallen down but vast majority is still on the tree. The milkweed pods on the reg milkweed are still not popping open. The tomatoes against the house are still growing. We still get a few tomatoes to ripen a week. Dispersed the greens seeds I collected on the rotor tilled area of the garden and discovered radish growing that had gone to seed. in July. That's a good sign with the greens seeds I dispersed and the dormant seed radish turnip etc. good chance of a good spring sprouting. Crabapples are almost done I collected the ones that fall and use for Halloween display. I have peppers, a few, maybe enough to can a pint, well worth it, a few peppers go along way. I will pick them the day before a frost and can them. The cold weather veggies are still growing that includes cabbage, beets, brussel sprouts, rutabaga, broccoli, one kalirabi and a few potatoes and parsnips. The leaves are still pretty much still on the trees.

Our first frost/freeze and the tomato plants by the house are still alive, so this gives you an idea how much the house gives off enough to keep the plants shielded for this time. We picked enough pears to can 6 quarts and the few peppers produced, half pint pickled in beet juice and vinegar. Next weekend we will pick more pears and can some more . They get sweeter with each frost/freeze, until they drop off with the leaves. Picked the last two pumpkins, small just right size for the house decor until they become pumpkin pie. The cold weather veggies were not effected by the frost. Picked enough broccoli for a serving as they produce smaller and smaller florets as we pick them. Some of the tomato seeds I saved in pill bottles where I let them marinate to let the seeds become viable, I planted them in the raised bed (frost killed beans and tomato plants) so in the spring when I build the glass box ( from old storm doors) around the raised bed to create a little greenhouse the tomato seeds will be easy to sprout. We picked the beans from the dead bean plants and a few green tomatoes from dead tomato plants from the raised bed. The pepper plants survived and there are few small peppers on them and warm weather is making a come back for a week so we may get a few more peppers, always good for pizza. In the main garden 3 potato plants that have been protected been growing made it too so those won't be dug up until we harvest the red cabbage that is growing well right next to them. The veggie I always forget about is the celery in the rain/rock garden (only place in the yard where there is enough moisture to keep them going) and the three plants will produce enough celery for Thanksgiving day. So, for Thanksgiving we will have cabbage, celery, brussel sprouts, rutabagas, beets. broccoli, pears, kalirabi, potatoes, crabapples, peppers (raised bed) and tomatoes (by the house) growing yet.. The milk weed pods in our Butterfly garden are splitting open and I collected the swamp milkweed seeds that are ready to fly but the regular milkweed they have split but not enough to set them flying, maybe a few more days with the warm weather this week. The purple flowers of the rain /rock garden are only flower left. Most of the leaves are still on the trees yet. The goldfish are getting bigger in our pond and we will bring them in soon (pond is not deep enough, most years freezes completely).Also our two lemon trees will come in about mid November.

Warm weekend, warm to cold to wet, so little is done just waiting for the pears to get another frost to sweeten them up more. The leaves are still pretty much still on the trees. We got some rain mid week and the cold weather veggies still doing good . There is one pansy blooming in the base of the bird bath , so that shows how cool the summer was, most times the July heat just dries them up. I collected some more Milkweed seeds that just popped open, luckily there was no wind to scatter them. There a few more pods to wait for. My wife made burritos with our fresh tomatoes, peppers and onions.The Rock/Rain garden still has this purple perennial blooming.The squirrels starting to eat their way in to the pumpkins that we haven"t carved yet It my take them a while these pumpkins have a thick structure.The crabapples are just about done a few left. It is supposed to get cold by midweek so the leaves falling will give that Halloween feel. The tomato plants still OK by the house and pepper plants in the raised bed. My wife made a tomato sauce for our Italian sausage sandwiches using our canned tomatoes and our onions and peppers, just so much better with home grown tomatoes.

We did a soup with the root veggees that we had in the frig now that is colder which included turnip, broccoli, kalirabi, cabbage, onion , garlic and parsnips. Turned out great. Halloween was the normal for us raining , leaves coming down and cold . The only thing missing was the fog. The week was above normal so the garden is still doing good and the tomatoes by the house still alive and we had a couple more ripe tomatoes for burritos. We composted the leaves in the garden that fell on Halloween with composting lawn mower. They break down over winter with confetti size leaves. The rose bush is still growing and green yet . With only one night of below freezing the yard is still alive . Also picked the rest of the pears as leaves are turning on it .

We canned the pears and got another 4 quarts of pears. It was cold all week so the soup we made was perfect all week so we made some more soup with cabbage, broccoli, kalirabi, onions, garlic, parsnips and the half the beans I collected dried for next year planting beans. I collect allot more beans just in case not all are filled with good seeds. Did some more mulching of leaves into the garden. Got cold last nite but the tomatoes by the house still alive, pulled a couple more ripe tomatoes. The cold weather veggies are still doing well. The two broccoli plants and one kalirabbi plant that did nothing all summer are doing great. The front yard I just mulch the leaves right into the lawn, great food for the lawn. Had burritos with our tomatoes, onions and peppers.

The leaves are just about all down and I raked them up and cleaned the gutters and put them in the garden 14 wheel barrels full and took our mulching lawn mower and shredded them which when done is really not all that much, about quarter inch over the whole garden. I shredded leaves by the driveway on the driveway and sweeped them up, a wheel barrow full as shreds., put them on the raised bed. The week has been mild and we still have cabbage , broccoli , brussel sprouts, beets, kale, kalirabi and rutabagas growing. The tomatoes plants by the house still hanging on , no new tomatoes but the ones on the plants are still growing. Pulled up some more beets and canned 3 half pints of pickled beets. The wife is making spaghetti and pumpkin pie this week with our pumpkins, onions, garlic, and tomatoes. Mowed down most of the rock garden with the mulching lawn mower except the purple cone flower so I can collect the seed and spread them around to see if we can get some more by driveway strip of growing area. This week will try to catch all the goldfish to bring them in . Last year we had to break ice to get them out because it got cold fast.

We are now under 10 plus inches of snow . It started friday night and ended saturday afternoon. I did pick the three green cabbage and dug up the three celery and put them in water and they don;t know they have been dug up. Fresh celery for the stuffing. Brought in the few green tomatoes. The snow will melt mostly by Thanksgiving when it goes back to the fifties for a few days. The cold veggies should be OK because they are under the snow when it got down to 13 degrees Sat. night. The lemon trees should be OK, they where by the house I usually bring them in Dec. We caught most of the goldfish and put them in the tanks downstairs. There is about five left in the pond. So for Thanksgiving we will have homegrown potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, kalirabi, onions,celery,rutabagas,beets pumpkins, peppers and tomatoes. Going to make some more veggie soup for the week. My Wife made 4 pumpkin pies, half will be gone by Thanksgiving.

We had a good Thanksgiving, the snow was gone by Thanksgiving and the rain showed up. The garden is no worse for the snow. I picked two red cabbage and dug up the blue potatoes that were growing next to the cabbage. Picked one of the broccoli,a rutabaga a few rouge parsnips and onions and a few beets. The brussel sprouts, one broccoli, 4 cabbages, some beets and rutabagas still growing. I mowed and mulched the rock/rain garden. Mulched some more leaves in the garden.

The weather is great for December 40's and 50's all week this coming week. The mailbox is full of Seed Catalogues this last week . Good reading for the off season. The cold weather veggies will stay in the ground for another week. Made some more soup from the veggies I still have, great for this winter days. We put up the Christmas Lights and Decorations and are streaming them live on our web site. There is a couple of Goldfish in the pond but hard to catch. Cleaned up all the potted tomatoes plants by the house that finally died with the snow storm.

It has been a warm week so we just let the cold weather vegees stay in the the ground , natural frig. Made some more soup and had some coleslaw. The Christmas Lights look great as we are streaming them at nite. Next week will be warm the first three days, so Thursday I will bring in the remaining vegees cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli, rutabaga and kale.We will have potatoes, broccoli, cabbage, kale, turnips, rutabaga, brussel sprouts, and best pumpkin (pie) for Christmas Dinner.

We decided that one of our own home grown trees a Red Cedar was perfect for our Christmas Tree to Bring in to decorate and then plant . It needed to be moved where it started to grow and it will be part of our line of our trees on our south border. It will not get too high to block the sun but will help cool the driveway during the summer. It is still warmer than normal so the veggies stay in the garden till we eat some for Christmas dinner. The pansy is going strong yet we will do a video after christmas because it is still so warm for December.

It was a good Christmas and dinner was great Ham with our potatoes and turnips , our co slaw, dressing with our onions celery and garlic. Our Broccoli and Brussel Sprouts. Finally pumpkin pie with our pumpkins. We also planted the Christmas Tree just in time, Winter shows up Tomorrow.