You may need Colorado gardeners instead of lil olde me, Barb. But, here is what I've been up to.

We have already lost one full hour of daylight here - just since the Equinox. LINK I have pulled all the plants, living or not, in the Shady Corner of the little veggie garden. The beds were dug out and those plants are now "composting in place." The shady corner will receive no direct sunlight until April.

Steve

We supposedly had the remnants of a hurricane pass through. It dumped 6/100 of an inch of rain. Yes, you read that right.

I planted a large bed with Tuscan kale this past spring, and the plants are enormous - 4 ft tall, similar to 70 small trees in a row, the base of the plants are 2" in diameter. I am torn between just leaving them there for the deer to gnaw down, or cutting them off with tree lopers and mulching something with all the leaves. Daughter was going to plant the garlic today. I don't know if she managed.

Digit, I'll take lil olde you's advice anytime!

David, that sounds impressive. Do you like the Tuscan enough to grow it again?

It seems I've gone and done it. Noaa is now showing a freeze warning for my area tomorrow night. In with the rest of the houseplants and time to pick some toms! I don't know if I'll bother covering anything. I better go check on blankets in case I decide to.

Okay, 'Barb ツ . What I did in the garden today was deal with some plants that won't be composting in place, I'm sorry to say. They are just too large and difficult to uproot right now!

I took the chainsaw to the sunflowers. Yeah, I've counted and still have all 20 digits so that part of it turned out okay.

Twelve inch chunks of sunflowers don't give me much trouble after lying on the ground for 6 months. If they are especially large, they can go in the paths and be walked on until they turn into chips in just a few weeks. I can kick the stumps outta the ground by April. None of it is any trouble at all for the tractor guy ツ.

Steve

This isn’t exactly a “fall” thing, but it had to be
done—today! A couple guys from Public
Service/Xcel showed up today to “check out” my gas meter, something they
apparently do every xx years—and I had a dead tree piled in front of my gas
meter! “Could I move the wood???”

This is what was in front of the gas meter!

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dOgDbed151Vv6aBGthCtiSBSYmmwY9H2l2_c2XnH6Os?feat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/-8IGUwrS9sk5NMSOGly7MCBSYmmwY9H2l2_c2XnH6Os?feat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/vDzKIv8dwRJY-J7MQsLr4iBSYmmwY9H2l2_c2XnH6Os?feat=directlink

And this is what it looked like when it was in front of the gas meter!

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/rTSqdsn9LVuwkTfYGr5YGSBSYmmwY9H2l2_c2XnH6Os?feat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/d6BgpIqZt-7ymZSpba4T1iBSYmmwY9H2l2_c2XnH6Os?feat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ojqBCyLY_De-rR1uLqth8CBSYmmwY9H2l2_c2XnH6Os?feat=directlink

There really IS a gas meter on the side of the house back
there!

After a good three hours of breaking all the little “twigs”
off of the branches and “organizing” what was left, my (empty) dumpster was
about 95% full—and I was pretty beat up and bloody—but when the guys come back
to “check out” my gas meter they can see it—and they can actually get real Up
Close And Personal with it!

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/YIHJh9zMkC4Ukzk7fMMYayBSYmmwY9H2l2_c2XnH6Os?feat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/nbFYB4rO3Ajp3pRsdZdB9SBSYmmwY9H2l2_c2XnH6Os?feat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/5WnAkmPpOnIovE3K4sYm-yBSYmmwY9H2l2_c2XnH6Os?feat=directlink

I’m still all beat up—but not bloody anymore—and I’m
EXHAUSTED, as in falling down DEAD! (I'm OLDE!) When
I called the guy back to tell him the “wood” was moved from in front of the gas
meter—he told me—he was on the golf course!!!
Hmmmmm!

I’m a little further south of Barb and it’s normally a
little bit warmer here, and I’m gonna chance it with the tomatoes tomorrow
nite—unless something dramatically changes in the forecast between now and
then! (But I’m not feeling terribly
inclined to be covering anything this year, so it’s gonna take something dramatic to convince me to change my
mind!) If I make it past then it looks
like we’re in for at least several more days of “summer,” (I was up to 84º
today!) so I’ll just keep my fingers crossed—and probably be up all nite
watching the thermometer tomorrow nite!
Will take most of a day to cut all the foliage off of the tomatoes to cut them off and
bring them in and hang them in the garage—soon, and I hope that doesn’t wind up
being on a COLD and rainy day, but still not quite ready to do it yet! If my tomatoes do freeze, I’ll be back around here crying on some RMG Shoulders!

Sounds like everyone’s starting to Think Winter around here!

Skybird

To be clear, the frost advisory is NOT for the front range. I don't want to be responsible for others scrambling that don't need to!

I'm in a weird spot, an area surrounded on 2 sides by an irrigation canal and the highway on another side and sloping ground. We tend to be 5 or so degrees cooler or hotter than Fort Lupton, the closest town, temp wise. They're predicting 36 degrees tonight, which puts me in the frost range.

Well, I won't be covering anything, i alwaus count any days after October 1 as a bonus, and Ill just let it live as long as it can without life support. On years when we get frost (and snow!) In late September, I definitely try to save what I can, but we are now flirting very close to winter anyways, Im happy with what I've gotten so far. Gluttony is a sin I'm told lol. Shoot, this extra 3 weeks of no frost has made it so I won't even have to lug peppers inside.

I have an easy fall this year, we are looking at houses so I (shouldn't be) useing my current garden next year. Now, if we do happen to find a place sooner than expected that may change as I will be building a brand new (and bigger) garden from scratch. But otherwise I will probably be super busy in February, March, and April doing it so I can at least get warm season veggies next year.

I'll plant the Tuscan kale again - just not 70 plants :) Still waiting for the leaves to fall off the two large ash trees, then blow them out of the rain gutters, mow the whole shebang, clippings and leaves all up, use that to mulch the winter veggie garden. We've rain coming this weekend.

Well, Ch. 4 is predicting 39 for Broomfield tonight Skybird. Guess I'll bring in my little pots of your plants from the swap that haven't been quite ready to plant. All else should be fine.

My tomato plants have been slowly getting scraggly looking, but are still producing fruit - bit small, but still definitely good enough! I've about had enough of canning and freezing, so the rest will probably just be eaten as they ripen. Or I'll be trying out some of those green tomato recipes, digit!

Fall chores? We have several house related ones (both exterior and interior fix it types of things), but garden wise, my To Do List includes planting my swap plants, try sowing some clover as cover crop (says you can do this fall or spring, so if I don't make it now I'll do next spring), cut back a few things (my big russian sage, apple tree and peach tree need some trimming, and misc. shrubs), and a couple of transplants if I have time. Of course, that's not counting when the leaves start really falling in the yard, getting them raked up for the compost as well as mulching the beds.

Always something to do, isn't there?! ;^)

Marj

Misty, if you see this, leave the plants outside! If you start bringing them inside when it's getting cold out at nite, they'll be too tender to plant them in the ground when they root well enough to do it. If they're not used to the cold when you plant them in the ground they're far more likely to die from the cold before they can become re-acclimated than they are now in the pots when they are used to the changing night/day temps. If it were suddenly going down into the single digits or something I might say stick them in an unheated shed or garage, but short of that, leave them outside. Upper 30s is nowhere near cold enough to hurt them. If you're going to be nervous about them, stick them in a somewhat "protected" place, like maybe right against the house or something. Then sleep soundly! They'll be fine!

Skybird

Today, I got the big benches out of the greenhouse. Had help, DD's boyfriend stopped by.

Once that was outta the way, I went over the ground with a spading fork and got some water on it. The plants started in there need to be moved out of their flat. I don't want quite so much sunshine when transplanting into that bed. We are having clear skies with the above normal temperatures but maybe some clouds will be around soon. I know, never satisfied ...

Any protected growing needs to be prepped for the bad weather coming. I hope the poly film makes it through another winter. I don't remember what year the most recent covering went on. There are no tears, yet.

Steve

who also took a clean/green load to the dump

Yesterday, I filled that greenhouse bed with plants.

Well, not completely filled it. I'm not moving the concrete blocks that hold the bench. Last time I did that, it took hours to level them in March!

But ... I'll go ahead and do the skinny little front bed with lettuce. Had too many bok choy and choy sum seedlings! But, I'm NOT gonna cover the front bed with plastic! Those lettuce plants are on their own ...

says Steve

pictures soon ...

It rained quite a bit, the leaves are yellow but still on the two huge ash trees, and the rain gutters are now full of soggy leaves. No frost yet. DD planted half the garlic bed using an electric drill and bulb planter, but then got tired, the other half I'll try to do as soon as it dries up just a little.

I got all but two of my cherry tomatoes cut down today and hung in the garage! We're not expecting frost for at least another week, but the daytime temps are gonna be getting kind of chilly, and it's not a fun job to be freezing my hands off cutting all the leaves off before bringing them in when it's cold, and with the daytime temps in the 60s they're not really gonna do anything anymore, so I figured with the warm day it would be a good day to get it done. But now I'm REALLY mad at the squirrels again--they ate half of my almost-ripe Cherokee Purples, in spite of the fact that after they got the first two I had--quite effectively, I though--fenced off the Cherokees and several other plants by crisscrossing my pea and cuke trellises all around them. They must have climbed over! A really huge Cherokee was laying on the ground half eaten--INSIDE of my fence--when I went out to cut them down today! GRRRRRRRRRRR!!! Cherokee Purple has become one of my favorite tomatoes! And apparently it's the squirrels' favorite too! Am gonna get the last two cherries in tomorrow--before the--hopefully--RAIN starts!

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/CgKv2rwzqMe9lKI76VOklKdtHZHTh5d06Slth8pk5yQ?feat=directlink

Skybird

We dodged the frost, it got to 35. The tomatillos have actually grown a bit this last week. Not splitting the husk yet, but we're getting close. They were green balloons with grape sized fruit in them a few weeks ago.

Gluttony is a sin! How about sloth and bossiness? I have those covered some days, too!

I'm with skybird on the tomatoes. They aren't going to do anything more in these cooler temps. It's time to pull them.

Skybird, sorry about the squirrels! You have made some truly inspired contraptions to beat them. Cherokee Purple is a long time fav of mine as well.

The grasshoppers are what eat my tomatoes. Was it David that said leave the ones they've started on, they'll finish those off before moving to a fresh one? That seems to be true. DD left me her cats for long term storage and one of them loves to eat grasshoppers. He's putting a dent in the remaining hoppers that the birds haven't picked off.

Misty, if you've not already done it, I'd skip pruning the apple and peach till February or March. Tie some stretchy tape to mark the branches that need pruning so you don't have to try to remember which branches to cut. The tree won't have time to encapsulate over the cuts you make now. Broken, crossing or rubbing branches are the exception. You can prune those anytime you spot them. There's that bossiness creeping in again!

Digit, you are a busy man! I do so envy those with greenhouses. Some day, maybe!

Barb

Thanks Skybird and Treebarb - you caught me before I did what I said I was going to do with those plants! :) Great idea, Treebarb, to mark the limbs to prune so I'll remember in the spring!

Yea, those dang squirrels, Skybird! So frustrating to see them get them >:-[

Boy, we got quite a thunderstorm last night! Was really rattling the place. Good amount of rain as well, and suppose to be 80% chance of more tomorrow. But the weekend looks to be nice and clear, so plenty of time to get out and finish some of those chores!

Marj

We're in the midst of several days of drizzle interrupted with thunderstorms, still have leaves on the trees, and rain gutters full of soggy leaves.

The NOAA guys have us getting a bit wetter, Up Idaho/Montana, yikes

I spent more than three hours today cleaning up the leaves in the backyard. Since they're cottonwood leaves, when they get wet they glue themselves together into Cottonwood Leather, and that can kill the stuff underneath it pretty quickly! Since they were wet, they raked off the grass pretty easily--without crumpling up into tiny bits, but then starts the real job since I have to pick them up off of the bark mulch around the perennials by hand, one by one! That takes a while! Didn't get it all quite done, but tomorrow is supposed to be another really nice day--and NO game!--so I'll finish it tomorrow, and then cut down a few of the things that are about ready to go to sleep for the winter. We could be getting a real freeze here later in the week.

And it's only ONE WEEK till we go back to the Dark Days! Standard time starts on the first of November! Methinks winter would be kinda fun--if only there wasn't so much DARK associated with it! I don't think I could ever survive living in Alaska!

But I looked it up, and we only have to wait till March 13 to switch back to MDT again! Gives me something to look forward to!

Anybody else out in the dirt this weekend?

Skybird

I was and will be again tomorrow. I'm still weeding and mulching, probably still have around 3 or 4 yards left to go, and I planted my peonies from Bannister's today.

I buried some compostables - mostly, from digging a few dahlias. Finished the long bed in the shady corner. It will have to be raked smooth after settling through the winter.

There are many more dahlias nearby but I'd like to see them a little further into dormancy before digging. Lot of compostables that come out of a dahlia garden. Digging the beds out in the shady corner turned up just a few identifiable dahlia stems from 2014. Imagine doing something like this in Alaska or Edmonton. I wonder how long something like a sunflower stem would stay in the ground in those locations ...

There may be some rain Monday. Sure do hope so.

Steve

We finally got a frost last night, and yesterday I got a 3 cord load of firewood delivered and dumped in the driveway, Ponderosa pine with enough bark peeling (and stripped off) that I end up with a few cubic yards of bark mulch. Which I need to spread here and there, after we get the wood stacked up somewhere it hopefully dries out and stays dry. The wood got pretty wet in the firewood guys' woodlot and peeling/stacking it was a messy job - there are also a few too many pieces of green wood in the mix for my liking, in years past I just would have stacked up the greenish pieces somewhere out of the way and let it dry another year, but unfortunately I've lost the ability to shift fire wood all over the place, and all the wood I have from previous years set aside because it was too green back then is sopping wet as well. A wet summer followed by El Niño does that. And we may get more rain next week.

Yesterday was a good day to be outside!. The grass got it's last mowing and I spread the winter fertilizer.

We got a frost Friday night, too. I was tired after work, so covered the plants again instead of pulling them. I did finally pull the tomatoes yesterday. I ended up with 30 lbs of mostly green tomatoes. I think that's more than I got all summer!

My back hurts for you, David. That's a big job! Free mulch is good, but that's a hard way to get it. Nothing goes to waste.

Digit, you've been hard at it, too! My potted dahlias are still blooming, although even covered, the leaves froze a bit. I'll be pulling and storing them next week, probably. I hope you do get some rain.

I have volunteer sunflowers everywhere because I have bird feeders. I like and leave most of them, but they look so ratty after they flower. The rain made it easier than normal to pull them, so I got most of them out yesterday and will get the rest today, once it warms up a bit. I may try your chainsaw pruning next year and leave the stubs to pull in spring, good tip!

Skybird, I wish I had a leaf blower to lend you! You'd still have to gather them, but it'd be easier to have them in just a few areas instead of hand picking them individually. The wind here takes care of the leaves for me. Nearly all of them blow up against the fence by the front gate. I have quite a wind tunnel thing happening in my yard that the wind breaks started in 2009 are just beginning to have an impact on. This year I'm going to mow the piles and then spread it around the beds, under the mulch. We haven't had many leaves fall yet, which had me worried after last year's flash freeze, but most are at least turning, so the trees are getting the message that it's time to go to sleep!

I'm glad you got your peonies in, Liz. I'm glad it was boxes and not a pallet! I was thinking this morning that's it's bittersweet how I've benefited this year from Bannister and Timberline closing their doors. I got great deals on things I really wanted, coveted, actually! More than I would have been able to afford normally. Good for me! But now those resources are gone.

I'm grateful for my friends here and the thoughts we share. Fall is my favorite time of the year. Harvest, reflect on what didn't go so well and plant in anticipation of next year's gardening adventure!

The greenhouse beds are now fully planted!

The big veggie garden and extension are ready for the tractor guy. Also hauled off the garden stakes ... they are still in the back of the pickup but, at least, no longer in the garden. I now have no further reason to even visit that garden until Spring.

Now, I have to get back to the little veggie garden! Even if the dahlias cannot be pulled from the nearby dahlia garden, I can get the veggie beds dug out and ready to receive all those dahlia stalks. I like to do a 3-into-1 clean-up. That is, all the frost-killed plants from 3 beds composting in place in 1 bed.

Will put the few dahlia roots I've already got down in basement room now and may take tomorrow off! Weather Service says we may have 1/4+ inch of rain over the next 24 hours!

Steve

Yesterday I got all but two of my perennials planted in my newly expanded garden bed. Here's the bed prior to planting. You see the line of green plants is where the garden used to end.

I got all the flagstone dug down into the grass about a week ago. I laid out the border and put in a layer of cardboard before we got all that rain. Then I added the soil and compost on the last day of rain.

I got all the flagstone and border for free on Craigslist. I am not sure if I love the border, but it's good for now.

The border is just fine for that setting, PopMama!

The neighbor at the big veggie garden has a stack of brick pavers behind his garage. It's been there for years!

They are the "fitted" type of bricks. I don't know what else to call them. They were never made to build a wall. Some landscape designer's idea of attractive paving that he and his wife must have grown tired of. Now, the big stack of them just sit there.

I have more conventional bricks at home. Some are used for pavers. I could offer him some $ and see about replacing my bricks but I sure don't want to pave over so much ground!

No. I do have some flower bed borders that are only cedar fence boards. Those boards were already 15years old when they went in the ground this year. They won't last. I've thought about the wavy pavers as borders ... now, I will think a little more about this idea ツ.

Steve

I really wanted to do the dig-border like this:

[link]

But I guess I'm just too chicken. Maybe in the Spring I will change to that style. My yard is a hodgepodge of border styles. Of course, then again, my yard is a bit of hodgepodge in general. No one would ever call it "landscape design".

There's not much left in the dahlia garden in the way of roots ..! Heavy lifting.

It's a two part operation. I need to find a place for the stalks, which were piled and protecting the roots from frost. Dig out a veggie bed and toss them and the frosted veggie plants in.

I had to harvest the parsnips so that there is room. Good goobly GOOP! The Andover parsnips are over the top in performance! Well actually, they are incredibly long. I decided just to start digging beside them, then pry them out of the ground with a spading fork. And, i thought the dahlias are difficult to lift!

Get the remaining dahlias. Cover the open veggie beds with soil ... tidy dahlia garden and call it a wrap ... oh, but there are all those roots to trim, put in peat moss and carry into the basement! I'm gonna need some sauteed parsnips for strength!

Steve

The dahlia roots are nearly all in their basement home for the winter.

All of the little veggie garden compost in place beds have been covered with the soil that was dug out. Except! I've got a little patch of basil plants to pull. Digging there will give me just enuf room to bury a few more plants from the yard and the 3 pots of petunias and pansies.

Steve

I worked like a dog last weekend getting everything inside. I put my cannas to bed in the garage, moved all my geraniums and some of my succulents to my basement window wells, brought in my three tropical hibiscuses. I'm also attempting to over-winter a black and blue salvia in my basement windows. Not convinced that will work.

Last night, I did make an outdoor tent for a few remaining outdoor container gardens just because I can't seem to let go. They may or may not make it through this storm.

Hey Popmama, I overwintered salvia Black and Blue successfully in the garage, bareroot. If you want to try just knock as much soil out of the roots as you can and wrap the roots loosely in newspaper. Put it all in a plastic bag (just the typical Walmart thing) and place it somewhere you won't accidentally throw it away (oops, did that 3rd year I overwintered). Check it a couple of times during the winter to make sure it doesn't dry out completely and you're done until planting it out in spring.

Thanks Liz. I did read some others who had success with that same method. I'm going to try to over-winter it in my basement window. We'll see what happens. I'll let you all know in the Spring!

I'll be replacing mine next spring, can't believe I accidentally threw the bag away. Maybe overwintering in a pot would've been a better idea! I have windows in my garage, maybe I'll add a shelf just below one for pots next winter. I'll be watching for your results, Popmama!

I finally got the last perennial I still had in a pot into the ground today! What a day! It was 67º here today and I was hot with long pants and a short sleeve blouse--that's the Colorado sun for ya! Supposed to be blowing snow in a couple more hours! Typical Colorado!

I still need to replant some crocus bulbs I dug up a couple months ago when I discovered they were "working their way to the surface!" I thought it was just a few when I discovered the problem and was planning to replant those few deeper the same day, but when I started digging up "those few" I discovered that ALL of them were just an inch below the surface so I just dug them all up and stuck them in the fridge to keep them till the soil cools enough. The next couple days should get the soil "cool enough!"

Next job is to keep carrying all the bags of leaves I get from my neighbor into the back yard! Brought 24 bags over to the veggie garden area yesterday--my wintertime vermicomposting project when I get the bags on top of the soil and they insulate it enough for the worms to be happily chomping away all winter!

Won't be long and this thread will need to switch over to "Winter (garden) Chores!'

Skybird