Garden Friday

It's Garden Friday and fall is finally here!

Yesterday's temperatures were right around 50 degrees most of the day.

The conditions were ripe for getting a few things done outside.

My workbench is turning out to be so conducive to completing tasks.

With poor germination in the hugelkultur bed,

I decided to start some lettuce seedlings in cell packs.

It was surprising to see how fast they came up!

These will remain uncovered now so that they can drink up the sunshine,

and within a few weeks they should be ready to transplant to the bed.

The varieties sown here are (from left to right),

Freckles, Red Salad Bowl, Green Oakleaf, Loose Leaf Blend,

Vates (Kale), and Buttercrunch. 

The Red Sails lettuce hasn't yet germinated, 

nor have most of the cabbages,

so they will remain under cover until they pop up.

Last week, we showed you how we planted our garlic.

Well, I'm thrilled to say that it is responding well to the cooler temps.

 It is already popping up in the raised beds.

It will continue to grow until about frost time,

and then will go dormant until springtime,

when it will take off like a rocket!

The shallots, planted on the same day,

have thus far not shown themselves.

 We are getting tithonia blossoms in the raised beds,

which adds a welcome touch of color to the garden.

These have become one of my favorite blooms

and are fantastic to cut to bring into the house.

lilies in summer

 A few months back, I told you about my dream job.

Every week, I can't wait to go to work

and spend time with L & R.

What a blessing to work for such generous folks,

knowing that I can be of service and pursue my passion.

With the onset of autumn, 

it was the perfect time to dig up the lilies around the pool.

This was part of the haul,

and all of these were given away to some very fortunate gardeners.

(One of the perks of this job is getting to tool around on Gertrude the Gator.)

Ginger was loaded up so I could distribute them.

Every person who received a stash was so grateful

and communicated how rich they felt being given such a gift.

That's how I feel each week when I pull in to work.

Speaking of which...

By the time Michael came through our area,

he was merely a tropical storm.

Nonetheless, he had no trouble toppling this massive oak tree.

 Thankfully, no one was hurt,

and the tree fell away from the house.

Look at the cavernous hole left by the root ball.

 The driveway is inaccessible,

so the owners are having to take a slight detour to get to the street.

Now the dilemma is finding a tree cutting company 

that is not swamped with work to come and take care of this mammoth tree.

It is perilous work and considering the size of this monster,

it will take considerable time to do the job right.

Another silver lining, 

the lovely blue metal butterfly bench in the front yard was unharmed.

With the weather ushering in cooler temperatures,

it's all I can do to get my indoor chores completed.

Time spent outside is preferable,

and my energy is limitless.

Ha-llow Fall!

What took ya so long?