Planting More Flower Bulbs. 11.12.22

 These were on sale at Fred Meyer.

I planted the daffodils in the meditation garden.  Who knows how close they are to other buried bulbs.  Does it matter?  About 20% of the daffodil bulbs were dried out and crunchy.  I discarded those.

Tulips are deer and vole favorites.  I planted them in a container that previously held garlic, then cucumber.  Not sure if it is bottomless, but at least it's sheltered from deer.  I mixed the soil with some container soil mix that I'm not certain is the best.  Hope by mixing with native soil, any problems are resolved.   I gave them some organic bulb fertilizer. 

The plan fir next year, is in Maybor June I will plant therapeutic marigolds over the tulips.  The marigolds can bloom and warm the soul, and the foliage and roots can be used for preventive nematocide treatment.

I planted about 1/4 of the crocus bulbs in the garden border.  Probably plant another 1/4 in the border and the rest in the meditation garden.

Daffodils and crocuses seem to survive well here.  Tulips need more TLC.  They are worth it.

Don't Do This. 11.12.22

 The other day, I moved this board to a different area of the garden to use as edging.  I didn't noticecthe nails.  If I saw them, I would have removed them.

The wound is less painful now.  No sign of infection so far.  Thankful for antibiotics and tetanus shots.

The nails are all removed now.  Inspection did not find more.  The blood is cleaned up.

zthe

The Collecting Of The Tree Leaves. 11.7.22

 This morning, while walking Rufus in town, I encountered some homeowners raking their leaves.  I offered to help, in return for the leaves.  I quickly filled the pickup bed.

The areas that I left covered with last year's leaves did great.  No weeds at all, and only sporadic watering. The leaf mulch lasted until now, but is now thinning quite a bit.  My goal is to keep those areas maintenance free next year too.

The truckload of leaves made a good start.  It's more work than I should be doing, but only once a year.

Some of these areas were too shady fir the perennials I had there, so I removed those to transplant to a sunnier spot.

It needs just a little tidying up, but basically this area is done until this time next year.  I'm really pleased this much is done now.

Fig Tree Starts. 11.7.22

 On Nov 29 last year, I removed this offshoot from my original Hardy Chicago fig tree.

It didn't have much root.  Barely any. 

Still, I wanted a new tree to replace one that was killed by voles, so I planted it, gave it some water, and kept it mulched.  Here is that tree today.

I'm pretty impressed with the resilience of fig trees. This one has the potential to produce a small number of figs next year. Today I renewed the leaf mulch around it.  This tree is settled in for the sinter.

I had also cut a few cuttings, dormant wood about a foot long and half inch diameter. I stuck them into the ground in what was to become a tomato raised bed.  No other care, not even water althpugh the closest emitter was, maybe, 18 inches away.  It did have a cardboard mulch.

Here is one cutting now. I dont think the others grew.

This start could be planted in the ground now, and potentially make some good progress next year.

The Final Potato Harvest. Grow Bag Potatoes. 11.5.22

 I've been procrastinating harvesting the last grow bag.  I think this is Kennebec.  I harvested today.

There were some pluses and minuses here.  On the plus side, none were sprouted, none were chewed up by voles, and they were very easy to harvest.   On harvesting, they were cleaner than in-ground potatoes.

On the minus side, I hoped for a larger crop, and some of these were small.  This was from three plants.

It's possible the soil mix wasn't rich enough.  Nothing else that I grew in this mix was as productive as I hoped, either.  I'm thinking about why, and how to replace it.  One thing I don't see so far is evidence of nematodes or other root destroying creatures.  So far...