"SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2019"

[SQWIBB]

Originally Posted by Salsacharley

If you neighbor has poisoned the strip where you want to plant your new tree you should replace the soil. That is outrageous.

I don't want to plant a tree here, I will be putting in pavers.
Here is what she has down.
Every trash day I pick up more of the busted tiles and toss in the trash, the busted tiles went all the way over to the gas lines in the ground.
The day I pull one of these shards out of my tire, shell be getting a knock on the door.
My 86 yr old dad slipped on these getting into his car.

[zendog]

I'm curious about how much you pruned your fruit trees, particularly the peach. Are you worried you pruned off flower buds for next year? Or maybe you're not worried about fruit yet and are just working on the shape.

[SQWIBB]

Originally Posted by zendog

I'm curious about how much you pruned your fruit trees, particularly the peach. Are you worried you pruned off flower buds for next year? Or maybe you're not worried about fruit yet and are just working on the shape.

Yes , shape and size.
I'm trying to keep it small, it should have been cut back in late June.

[zendog]

Originally Posted by SQWIBB

Yes , shape and size.
I'm trying to keep it small, it should have been cut back in late June.

Got it. I usually summer prune mine in mid-June and then at the end of July. Peach trees are weeds and I find pruning twice during the growing season is necessary to keep them reasonable. Then when they go dormant, I make some thinning cuts to remove anything growing in a bad direction or crossing.

I get tons of fruit set with this approach ... and then the squirrels take them all before they're much bigger than a walnut. They are their favorite thing to steal. I hope you have better luck protecting them than I do.

Great pictures and commentary. Very impressive.

[SQWIBB]

Thankyou

[SQWIBB]

October 16th, 2019



We got plenty of rain and my rain barrel is full, so I got enough water to last the rest of the year.
I replanted the Pomegranate that was by the pond next to the pomegranate that's in the hugelkultur bed.
I transplanted the Gogi berry from the front yard trellis next to the one on the back hill by the fence. I'm most likely going to plant Scarlet Runner beans on the front trellis next season



I ordered some Honeyberry plants from Honeyberry USA, I'm going to plant these close about 18" apart. Honey Bee, Aurora Honeyberry and Indigo Gem.


My Marigolds are doing well.

Mums are growing nicely.

Rooting some Sweet Potato vines and Basil.

I was off Wednesday so I tried to cleanup the front a bit. I dug out some more rogue horseradish, mulched some of the front, worked on part of the hell strip, moved some plants around, re-positioned my "address rock" and adjusted the lighting.

It's a tough time of year, because I don't like to mulch over top of anything until the first real hard frost has killed back everything.
It starts to look "unkept", and it's hard finding that balance in the front yards.

The rock is a pee rock for the dogs.

We needed some ambient lighting on the side patio so I put in this lamp Sam had made, it's on a timer and goes on with the landscape lights, it adds just enough light.

October 20th, 2019

Cut and hung the cattle panel. I had to tear out my cantaloupe plant.

October 23rd, 2019

Honeyberry plants came in, I'm guessing that they are supposed to look dead (dormant), lol.

Planted 24" apart in yard compost and perlite.

The first three stakes, from L-R are "Aurora" - "Honey Bee" - "Indigo gem"

The next two stakes are 36" apart for a future Jujube "Li" tree and a "Hardire" Nectarine tree.

The cut back Okra is coming back.

My King Stropharia have started to pop up.

Some mushrooms, Red Welsh Bunching Onion and Thyme for my Cream Of Mushroom Chicken dinner tonight.

The Poblano plant is really doing well. The Poblano's always do good up here on the retaining wall.

I believe that's a Ruby King Bell Plant in the back ground.






I think this is it for this tomato plant, but that's OK, I was hoping to get maters till November and I think these will make it.

These 2 plants are still hanging in there.

My Lettuce bed is moving along S-L-O-W-L-Y!

Pathetic!

I'm guessing the Huckleberry plant is an evergreen.

Nasty, Nasty tasting fruit, reminiscent of battery acid, I'll give it another season to see what happens and maybe try some dry for trail mix, but it looks like this will be replaced.

I never thought I would say this but, I cant wait for the first frost!

[SQWIBB]

Sorry for the late update.

October 27th, 2019

Cleaned the back pond filters and drained the sludge into the hugelkultur beds. Drained and shut down the Koi Pond "Wendy Filter".

Finished winterizing the irrigation lines... Removed the timers, drained, removed the batteries. Opened up the low point to drain the main irrigation line. Rags are taped on all openings to prevent debris entering the drip irrigation. Hoses are wrapped and stored in the garden bench.

Cleaned up the workshop, mainly the garden area.



I still need to winterize the rain barrel.
It rained a lot of the weekend so nothing else got done.


Getting a Maypop every now and then. I let them fall off the vine for harvesting.



I really need to cage and trim my tomatoes better so the neighbors yard don't look like this.

Still eating tomatoes.

Garden Breakfast.


Chopping up this pepper I found another one growing inside, I dubbed it the "Christmas Pepper"

4 eggs in this omelette, this fed 4 people, it was intended for 2, but my oldest daughter came down and said Oooh, whats that?, then my other daughter came down and wanted to try it, anyhow, split 4 ways with a couple pieces of ham was a nice light breakfast.

[SQWIBB]

October 29th, 2019I just ordered a Jeanne Gooseberry - Ribes uva-crispa L from Edible Landscaping, yeah I know, I'm an addict.
The more I thought about the taste of the Goji berry planted on the retaining wall, I decided to replace it with another type of berry. I will probably tear out a fig tree and pot it up for my brother, move the Goji berry to the side and squeeze in the Gooseberry.








November 3rd, 2019


I Finally got my first frost Friday Night and decided to harvest the sweet potatoes Saturday Morning.
I had a few that broke ground and had a pale shade of green, I was worried about Solanine in the potatoes but doing a little research, I found that the potato is in the night shade family and is not the same as a sweet potato that is in the Morning Glory Family. Fun Fact, the Yam is in the Lily Family.
Depending on how these cure and store, I may plant 9-12 slips next season.

replace it with another type of berry. I will probably tear out a fig tree and pot it up for my brother, move the Goji berry to the side and squeeze in the Gooseberry.

November 8th, 2019

The last few days we have gotten hard frosts, 25°F-28°F. The Poblano plant was totally wilted.
I harvested all the peppers and roasted.
Peppers were peeled best I could and I used the trimmings as a broth with some added liquid smoke, garlic and some salt, this was be the brine when canning.
Canned two batches of two pints each, one batch was the larger poblanos roasted and peeled and the other batch was the smaller chopped peppers.
I chopped the smaller ones because peeling them was near impossible.

The last two tomato plants were torn out, I salvaged one tomato. I also got a few Bell peppers and Jimmy Nardello peppers.
Winterized the ponds, put a fluorescent light next to the rosemary and covered with some mulch
My Fig trees are dropping their leaves.
Marigold and mums have died back.


The Kohlrabi and Bok Choy are coming along nicely.

November 19th, 2019

My sweet potatoes are still curing, here are two store bought ones next to my home grown ones, can you tell which is which?

My Gooseberry plant came in on the 13th so I planted that before my trip to Trap Pond.



Laura made some Leek Potato soup from the garden for the trip.

November 22nd, 2019

Finaly got a chance to cut down my Maypop Jungle.

I love the Maypops for pollinators but its a lot of work tearing out. I'm going to try and thin it out a bit more next year and see what happens. Harvested the Maypops for some Maypop Jelly, my dad loves it.

The cover crop is starting to die back forming a nice protective mulch. I chopped the maypop vines up to cover in some bare spots.

My Bok Choy and Kohlrabi seem to be doing ok.

Trimming the grape vine I found a little snack.

My Chokeberry, Gooseberry and Huckleberry plants are looking good.

My cheesy indoor plant setup for my Lemon and Lime Tree.

I'm a little peeved that my lemon tree didn't make it. The dam thing was struggling all summer long. I ordered a replacement from Fast Growing Trees.com, well see what happens.

November 24th, 2019


Wrapped my Sweet potatoes in newspaper and stored them in the garage.
Made some Maypop Jelly. More on that here..

[SQWIBB]

November 27th, 2019

The new Meyer Lemon Bush from Fastgrowingtrees.com came in today so I potted it up and watered in. I'm really impressed with the size and overall health of the bush.
What I don't understand is why the Lemon tree I purchased earlier this year struggled from the day it was planted and the Lime tree did great. Both got the identical potting mix and watering.