A Lot Done in the Gardens - October 10, 2019 @goldenoakfarm
New Herb garden – Row 2, all mulched
Once the amendment mix for the Small garden was done on Thursday morning, my helper friend and I finished mulching the New Herb garden. He also took out the plants bitten by the heavy frost a week or so ago.
It was a gorgeous day, cool, deep blue sky with a few fluffy white clouds, and the trees seriously thinking about turning.
New Herb garden, Row 1 looking west, all mulched
He mulched the santolina pretty heavy in hopes it will survive another winter.
The butterflyweed in Row 1 has a zillion pods, some of which have burst. I saved a few of the drier ones for a friend of mine. I also finally harvested a bunch of the honesty seeds before my helper friend pulled up the dead plant.
New Herb garden, Row 1 looking east, all mulched
There are enough bales left in the Small garden to mulch the garlic, I think.
With all the rain we got the last few days, I didn’t want to try to work the wet soil. So my helper friend just pulled out the tall stuff and left the digging until it’s drier.
The front pasture and the drainfield seedlings
My intern went to get something out of the garden shed and came hurrying back. “There’s something brown in the flowers!” she said. So I went to see what was brown in the flowers and it was a woodchuck, our bold one who’s been around all season.
He was not the least interested in us as we crept closer to see what he was eating. It turns out it’s one of the weeds I have the most problems with (I don’t know what it is called) so we left him to it. But I guess he was full or was tired of us bothering him and he drifted off to the pasture.
Big garden – goldy mum
I’d been keeping an eye on my huge “goldy” mum. Some of the flowers had opened and they were not my goldy color. I think the rich soil, in addition to making it grow 3X its normal size, also gave more pigment to the flowers. Maybe when it is moved back into the not-so-great flowerbeds, it will go back to my goldy color…
Big garden - nasturtiums
This is an example of how close micro climates can be. It’s oblivious the part of the plant on the right did not get either of the 2 heavy frosts, while on the left, it was hit pretty good. What made the difference?
The McIntosh tree reached out over the unfrosted part, but not the rest. It created a micro climate that protected the nasturtium. Another one, farther east in the garden was hit real hard and is dying.
I put the clothesline back up. I doubt I’ll hang out as it’s near the end of the season, and we still don’t have easy access to this part of the yard.
Some sad news: A historical village I had wanted to go to one last time has closed before I could do it. This article tells some about it.
The candy store
He built the entire village by himself over the decades. It had a general store, a drug store, a candy store, a dress store and a doctor’s office, a blacksmith shop, a toy shop, a barber shop, an eye doctor’s office and the butcher shop. There were 15 buildings containing 22 sites including a steamfitter’s shop, a builder’s shop and a dry-goods store. There was a schoolroom/church with a foot pumped organ that I particularly remember.
It was not unexpected, as he was getting well up there in years. But I sure wished I could have gone just one more time…
We took a trip up to Vermont and over into New Hampshire in the afternoon and the color is getting pretty good. I, of course, had left the camera at home. Peak color should be this weekend, Columbus Day weekend. My husband suggested a leaf peeper ride on Sunday, if he gets the wall up on Saturday.
It's great to see how good you are in growing those plants, It seems you're doing a hard work and having fun at the same time..
Things like the santolina I can't take credit for, as I've no idea why it survived last winter, or why it grew as big as it did! But it is fun seeing them do well...
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Looks great!