Preying Mantis. 10.29.22

 I found this little creature while working on the garden bed.  This makes me happy, knowing that my garden has a rich web of life, feeding me, the plants, the creatures, and the soil. 

Preparing Next Year's Tomato Bed. Marigold Treatment. 10.29.22

 This raised bed had the following succession.  Last year, onions.  This year, garlic, then bush beans.  I planted a row of French Marigolds at the end, which grew vigorously.

Marigolds contain a substance that is toxic to some harmful herbivorous soil creatures.  So, I thpughtbit might be useful to treat the soil with a marigold "green manure".

First, I cut off all of the beans and weeds.

I removed those.  I thought about mixing them with the soil, but it seemed like more effort than I could handle.  So the bean tops and weeds went to the compost heap.  Then I roughly chopped the marigold plants, and spread them over the soil.

Then I used the shovel to turn over the soil, mixing in the marigold choppings.

This bed was the only one not to get a treatment of biochar last winter.  Supposedly, biochar will help keep the soil healthy and  nutritious.  So I spread the remaining biochar onto the soil.

I also found a bag of chicken bone / woodstove ashes, in the garden shed.  So I spread those too.

Then I used the hand tiller to roughly mix it all together.

Now it's ready for the rain, and settling in, and the next couple of weeks of coffee grounds.  Then I'll cover with a layer of leaves, and it can rest until May.

Apple Graft Results. 10.27.22

 These are grafts I did in March or April.  

Mutsu on Geneva 222 rootstock.  I had left the rootstock dry out last year, and it still survived.  Whatever I had grafted on it did not.  So this Spring, I repotted it, cut off the top, and grafted it with Mutsu scion.  The graft union is kind of ugly, both because I didn't use a fresh razor blade to make the cuts, and because the scion and rootstock sizes were very mismatched.  Doesn't matter.  In a few years, it will be difficult to locate the graft union, as the trunk enlarges and they meld together.  I might replant this one into a container bed this winter.

 

Freedom Apple, on Redlove Odysso espalier. Odysso might be a dud. Still no ripe apples to taste. I decided to make the top two tiers into Freedom, a disease resistant old variety. Again, ugly graft and this was a cleft graft because I couldn't get a good whip and tongue.  Plus a size mismatch, again.  Didn't matter.    It healed great, and growth was phenomenal.

This will need some winter work, to make the tiers horizontal.  That is not a big deal.

Finally, Blue Pearmain on Redlove  Era.  Same graft issues, took great and the graft union healed completely over. I think this one actually was a whip and tongue, which makes a cleaner and faster healing graft union.

I guess I need to make some decisions about the Redlove trees.  I may overgraft some of the lower tiers with something more productive.

Covering Peach Tree To Prevent Peach Leaf Curl Disease. 10.27.22

 I finally got the genetic dwarf peach trees covered. 

I don't know if I did it on time.  Covering to prevent rain from getting into the buds, prevents peach leaf curl disease.  I has already rained a few inches.  However, one year I dug up a peach tree and pitted it this late, and kept it sheltered.  It did fine.  I also wrapped the branches in garbage bags one year in Novembet.  I think that worked too.  I'm not sure.

Overwintering Hot Pepper Plants. Method #2.

 I don't know if this will work.  These didn't ripen all of their peppers, so I wanted to move them into the sunroom to finish ripening.  It's similar to the other method, but less pruning.

This is a nice Thai pepper plant.  I dug it up and hosed off the roots.  No pruning, this time,

Then I potted it in good potting soil and watered it in.

Then I let it drain.  Previously, I gave the same treatment to some Tabasco pepper plants, a Serrano pepper plant, and another Thai pepper plant.  Here the are in the Sunroom.

Now I'll treat them like houseplants.  I don't know if they will survive, or not.  The Tabasco and Serrano were already sad looking.  I don't think their soil was good.

Overwintering Hot Pepper Plants. 10.27.22

 Hor pepper plants can be overwintered.  Last year, I overwintered a Jalmundo (jumbo Jalapeño) plant.  To  do that, dig up the plant.  This one is a Cayenne pepper that has been harvested.

Now hose off all of the soil.  That removes insects and other harmful creatures.

Now prune the roots and top to a more compact shape.  The top pruning can be pretty radical.  I pruned to about 1/2" above nice looking nodes.  Each node can produce several branches when it starts growing again.

Now plant the pruned hot pepper plant in a clean container with good quality potting soil.   Water it in.  Let it drain.  Now store in bright,  cool, frost-free room.

Here it is with two friends, a Jalapeño and a Banana pepper plant.  Also a dendrobium orchid.

These will be allowed to dry out, with only slight moistening until late winter.  Now they are in the garage.  I will move them to a cool room, before it's too cold.

Another Frog. 10.27.22

These little frogs are all over the place.  Frogs eat insects.  So I'm happy they are here.

Cosmos. 10.20.22

 The cosmos finally bloomed.  It's nice having such perky flowers, this time of year.

Planting Garlic. 10.20.22

 Each year, I set aside enough if the garlic harvest to plant the crop for the following year.  Each bulb usually has six to ten cloves, which makes a row in my garden.  This year, I planted four rows of Music garlic (hardneck) and four rows of Lorz (softneck)  garlic.  Supposedly, softneck will keep longer although last year the hardneck Music kept nearly a year.

Music.  These have huge cloves.

Lorz.  Cloves are nice size but not gigantic, and there are more of them.

This is how deep I plant them, about 3 or 4 inches deep.

All planted.

Wildfire Warnings. 10.17.22

 I'm temporarily away from the homestead due to wildfire warnings.  We are a few miles from the evacuation zones, but it is smoky.  I'm a couple of miles northeast of Battle Ground, which is in the Northeast corner of the map.  The map is from the county website.

I always keep a Go-Bag although the contents are a bit old now.  Last night I spent an hour chasing one of the hens, who didn't want to go back to the hen house.

Over the years, we removed flammable shrubs and trees from areas adjacent to the house.  The mulch next to the house is lava rock gravel.  The big propane tank is gone.  The neighbors' towering Leyland cypress are the main risk.   Right now it's wait and see.

Completed Star Quilt. 10.17.22

 Yesterday I finished the star quilt.  It's very warm and white heavy.  I'm not sure when I started it.  I think June, last year.

Some of the individual star blocks up close.

The backing is also made from thrifted cotton men's shirts.

Im happy with the result.  It's better up close than in photos.  I think my next quilt will be full of bright colors, as a contrast to the muted colors I've been using lately.

The original pattern was published in a UK quilting magazine, Today's Quilter and was designed bt Lynne Goldsworthy.

Tree Frog. 10.15.22

 I see a lot of these around here.

Apple Harvest from Miniature Trees. 10.15.22

 These are from trees on super dwarfing rootstocks, or short columnar trees, or espaliers.  For many, this is their fist year bearing, so I don't expect much.  I'm surprised some are so large.

From top to bottom, these are Jonagold, Cosmic Crisp, Honeycrisp, Golden Treat  The small ones in the container above, are Redlove Calypso.

More Flower Seed Saving. 10.15.22

 The first flower seeds that I saved were damp.  Then I may have left them too long in the sunroom to dry, where the temperature surpassed 100 F.  So I saved more today.  Today was dry so they did not need additional drying.  Just put the flower heads into paper bags, and staple the top,  They will be in the cool, dry pantry until I clean them up during the winter.  I collected Rudbeckia that had petal markings, French Marigold, Yellow Four O'Clock, Fuchsia pink Four O'Clock, French Marigold, Blood Flower (Tropical Milkweed), African Marigold, Pink (but not white) Cleome.  

Planting Daffodils and Hyacinths. 10.15.22

 I bought a few bags of bulbs to plant in the meditation garden / border.

All but one packet of daffodils are planted now.  They will be nice in the Spring.  In this location, it doesn't matter if I let the leaves remain after blooming.  It is meant to look a little wild.  So, they have a good chance to multiply and bloom in years to come.

Finished Hot Pepper Sauce. 10.15.22

 Here is the finished hot pepper sauce.  I used the food processor the peppers, after decanting about 2/3 of the brine.  This hot sauce is very hot, with a generous garlic flavor and hot pepper flavor.  It's basically, Sambal Oelek.

I saved the decanted brine, to use as a starter if enough additional peppers ripen.  Alternatively, it could be returned to the sauerkraut to impart hot pepper flavor.   Here is how the liquid looked before decanting, on top of the glass weight.

Here is how the fermentation looks.  The gas bubbles are carbon dioxide, produced by the beneficial lactic acid bacteria.  There was a fair amount of overflow, brine forced out of the nipples due to gas production.