Color in the middle pasture starting
Chaos Friday arrived and I had my general helper here and my helper friend. My general helper and I headed to the garden shed and my helper friend to the Small garden.
It was the last of the beautiful days, temps would drop over the weekend.
Most everything you see here in the garden shed was pulled out and, after the cold frame covers were put into the back, returned to their places.
The covers belong in the back corner most of the year and to get them there, most everything in front comes out. This cleans up the garden shed so one can walk in it again.
My helper friend started filling sleds with stuff from the Small garden. Top: some squash I have no idea where it came from, acorn squash, pumpkins, white pumpkins, and zucchini. Bottom: more of the mystery squash, orange and Sugar Baby watermelons.
When we finished in the shed we headed to the Small garden to clean it out. Many of the plants had died back and a possible frost was forecast for Saturday night. And on top of that, the white oak tree had suddenly started dropping leaves and acorns really quickly.
So when my helper friend finished collecting all the butternut squash and the tote of gourds, he started pulling up vines.
My helper and I started at the other end and started collecting the leaves and acorns and pulling up grass and weeds. I don’t leave the acorns because white oak acorns sprout immediately and can have a 12” taproot by spring. No fun pulling hundreds of those out. There are so many oak leaves I take them out due to the tannin acid content in them. I work hard to have a 6.4 pH in the garden and this is one way I achieve that.
While she and I were doing the cleanout, my helper friend went and took the hoop house down once he’d finished the vines. You can see the plastic on the clothesline by the shed.
He looked for some ginger, but didn’t find any. I will have to dig around and see if any survived.
Before he had gone to do the hoophouse, he’d pulled all the weeds out of the daylilies and iris in the Small garden. I hope the contractor gets the siding on the end of the shed before it gets too cold. I need to make a new garden for these plants in early spring and get them transplanted out of here. I can’t do that if the siding isn’t up.
One of the pumpkins made it to the front porch to ripen.
My general helper and I worked on after noontime to get the tarps out and onto the mulch to catch the acorns and leaves. I will take them up in early December and drag their contents over the bank. Then hopefully we will clean them with the pressure washer (if it’s been repaired), hang them to dry and then put them away.
Mid afternoon my son went out and weeded all the walkways in the New Herb garden and made marks so he would know where he has to put more mulch down. He said he’d be doing that on Saturday.
I was super exhausted by the time we finished. It was to be a mid 40’sF night so I lit the stove in the office only. The 2” x 6” framing/insulation sure makes a big difference in the addition. I didn’t need heat on that side. I was in bed by 8PM.
Saturday my window lady is coming at 8AM and we will be washing the 7 double hung windows in the office and putting in the storm windows. We need to do a few more windows to reach our quota for the day. I only get her for 4 hrs for 3 days and I have 43 windows to do. Some I can do myself as they are small, and I will be working on those through the week. She will be back on Friday and we will do the upstairs windows.
On Saturday I should go out to look for the ginger, dig up a rosemary plant and bring it in, and I must get all that squash under cover as the forecast for Saturday night is now for 35F and that’s too close for comfort. The squash are all still in the sleds by the back porch.