Our brief Fall

Outside of working, here's a summary of our month of October in pics.  Sissy & I like to walk through the woods. It was raining leaves on this breezy day. 10/3

I can see you, can you see me??

One more of the cutie :)  

10/7 View from Scout's Loop hiking path above the Palmer Hayflats.  The Glenn Hwy  is across the flats, along the mountains (Rt-S to Anchorage, L-N to Palmer/Wasilla).

Garden update:

10/22 - no snow yet. Brussel Sprout plants are still growing but no stalks like I've seen in the grocery store. These look like 2 different plants but came from the same seed packet.  Broccoli, Kale, Cabbage & Carrots are also still growing, slowly in the cool temps.

Sprouts found under the right leafy plant (prev pic). Look like little mini cabbages, brussel sprouts I take it. :)

Sprouts found under the left leafy plant, sprouts but not the same brussel sprouts. I wonder what the difference in plants are.

Sissy isn't wanting the baby carrots to go to waste, she's cleaning them up for me

Mmmm, yeah, tasty, but not as sweet as the Scarlet Nantes you usually plant. :)

10/26 - We welcome the sunshine coming through the clouds & trees

11/1 - Melting frost. The temperature has been dropping but still just rain is forecasted.

Misc Garden pics

Sunflowers - very pale yellow & only about 5" across, bushy plant

One row of beans picked!!  8/23/13

Celery, looking good! 9/13/13

Broccoli, flowering & the bees love it. It didn't really form any big heads, 

just tall stalks with sprouts at the top. I waited a tad too long to harvest them.

Neighbor Lore's Lilies - couldn't resist sharing these little pretties!

Quick harvest before the anticipated frost this week. 9/16/13

Cabbage, Zucchini (our one zuc!), Beans, Snap Peas, Cucumber, Thyme

Nasturtiums, before the frost.

We had frost the past 3 nights. :(  Tho I'm enjoying the cooler temps, I'm not looking forward to the fast approaching winter.  It hasn't been a hard frost yet, but it doesn't take much to kill the bean, cuc, tomato & zuc plants.  The cole-crop plants (broccolli, cabbage, Kale, Cauliflower) are still alive but I brought in the remaining cabbages, just in case! Time to pull up the carrots & beets and clean up the garden!

The Garden grows!

Whoo hoo!  Scott got the fence up around the garden before he went away to work his last hitch back in July!  In a month's time the garden has recovered from a moose mauling quite nicely!  It really can grow if the moose aren't trimming everything or yanking things out every few days!!

We've had a record number of days at 70 degrees & over here this past summer.  Now we're into our rainy August and temps have cooled.  The plants are loving it!!  By golly, we are too!  The moose aren't so happy tho, poor moose...No more dessert for you! : ) 

Sugar Snap Peas

Green Bean Flowers

 

Kale

Cabbage

Celery

Aww, guess who else the fence keeps out!

Unknown flowers, planted by birds?

Marigolds to brighten our green garden!

It's been years since we've been able to pick more than a handful of one or two types of veggies in our garden!  These pictures are actually from a few weeks ago. The green beans are developing nicely & the cabbage are quite big now! Time to drag out the preserving information, research recipes and make room in the fridge & freezer!

October summary

Wow, time has flown by! Sorry I haven't taken the time to post! I did take some pics along the way, to help me remember the days past and changing seasons. Instead of one biiiigggg long post, I'll do a monthly summary to catch up on posting pics and such. You'll get the short story format rather than my rambling this way.

Sissy and the fall foliage on the rose bushes edging the garden

The moose have harvested much of the garden for me, leaving weeds and a mess for me to clean up. I did salvage enough beans for a few meals but no blanching and freezing this year. Quite a few zucchini survived (apparently they weren't too keen on them) so I was able to make a few batches of zucchini bread and grate the extra to freeze for baking with throughout the winter, yum! The red potatoes were sparse and small but I was happy to have some this year. By the end of the month, all there was left for the moose were carrot tops. The carrots seemed to be growing rather slow so I was trying to keep them in the ground as long as possible. I did pull a few to give them room to grow and Sissy agreed they are rather tasty. The cold and frost (and laziness on my part) seemed to come suddenly and hard tho it was expected this time of year. The carrots are froze into the ground now. I guess we'll see how they survive the winter.

Sissy has helped to chase more than a few moose out of the garden this season, but one in particular is a little ornery and not at all "frightened" by her or humans enough to run away so we have to watch out for them... We didn't let her out of the house until this guy moved on.

Scott has been wanting to build another greenhouse for me for a few years. He plans to seal it up and heat it so I can grow tomatoes longer and start the seeds earlier and ... oh, the ideas!

Once he got going on it, the building was up within a few days!

But then he headed off to work so the progress on the inside has slowed for now. Brrrrrr, winter is on the way!!

Last Day of August

Fall is on it's way! Summers seem to fly by in Alaska. I don't mind the cooling temps but the long daylight hours spoil me. Driving into the airport at 10pm, in daylight, driving home from the airport at 2am in daylight (just not bright)... Daylight is what I miss the most, as it disappears and we head into winter. Not that winter is dark, just only light for 6-8hrs a day. We are losing (till winter solstice) or gaining light (till summer solstice) every day, whether it's seconds or up to 30 min a day, a constant cycle, that I wish would slow a bit, on the light side...

Anyway, thought I'd share some signs of changing seasons here at the close of August.

Changing colors around our big rock, with blown down branches. I like our big rock.

Sissy does too. She doesn't blend into the scenery quite yet (give it a month).

And these would be a pair of our complimentary colors. Now the 2 different plants stand out clearly.

The Fireweed has gone to seed. It blows around on windy days like dandelion seeds....

A few other signs of Autumn coming, that I've noticed:

• I mowed the lawn today with a sweatshirt on, in the cool evening, as the light faded and I got most of it done on 1 tank of gas (for 2 hrs with a push mower).
• At 9:45pm I could no longer see my mowing rows, what was mowed vs. not mowed so called it a day, or night.
• It's AK State Fair time, thru Labor Day.
• School has started for the local kids.
• The carrots are finally showing some size and the potato plants are slowly dying (almost ready to dig up).
• I'm starting to care less about gardening, weeding, etc. and more about crafting projects I'd like to do or books I'd like to read...

Garden update

Most of the Fireweed is about flowered out, I can't deny fall is on the way! It's still getting up in the low 60s during the day but down into the 40s some evenings. We've had rain almost everyday these past couple of weeks so the lawn is back to it's luscious green self minus the clover and dandelion flowers. It was nice to walk around the wet yard and not be swarmed by mosquitoes! What remains of the garden, thanks to the moose, is still growing nicely. Carrots, potatoes, some beans & zucs, the weeds and a few stray flowers.

Stray pansies add color to the row of carrots.

Some Zucs are surviving the moose, mold, slugs & other critters (not sure what is eating the skin off of them, mice?). I've brought in about 7 so far, pulling them before they get really big otherwise something else might get to them first. Yesterday I shredded enough of them to make a batch of Zuchini Bread and a few 2cup portions to freeze for more baking later. Sorry, no pics : ) The rest is for dinner over these next few weeks, between salads & spaghetti, yumm!

A few things are still growing in the Greenhouse. I have them in Earthboxes which have a water reservoir in the bottom. With it being cool out and not always sunny, I get spoiled, and lazy, not having to water everyday in there but I still forget to fill them at least once a week.

The Cucumbers are still blooming. I've brought in 6 big ones last week. Time to bring out the fresh veggie salads!

Tomatoes are producing, slowly, but no reds yet! Will need to buy some for those salads, for now.

I have a couple of green pepper plants but they are pretty grossly covered with aphids & such. I really need to clean them off... so far they haven't attacked the tomatoes & cucumbers that are on either side of them. 1 pepper is still growing, even starting to turn red. I took a pic but it is gross, to me, so I'll not share it. Makes me feel guilty, just taking pics and not actually caring for my plants... I blame the moose. : )

I almost forget this box. I planted small Broccoli in this Earthbox and "hid" it from the moose - put it right behind the house. We usually let the weeds grow up tall back there, just whacking them once or twice a year, so it was literally hidden for awhile.

Scott's folks are coming in just under 2 weeks! We've started a major cleaning of the guest apartment in preparation. It seems alot of the shop dust from Scott working on his many projects had drifted upstairs somehow. We'll be meeting the folks in Juneau and be there for a few days before they come here so we're trying to get alot done before we go!

Coleus and Potato Blooms

I was introduced to Coleus plants thru the gardening magazines I've been reading for years. I like that they come in so many varigated colors but those that have a bright pink streaks really catch my eye. I grew some in pots from seed a few years ago but in the years since I wasn't successful in growing them. Maybe the seed was getting too old or something, not to mention grower neglect. This spring I resolved to try the old seed one last time before looking for a new pack. Thinking that if they were in my sight on a daily basis I'd be able to rule out grower neglect, I started them inside. I poked some drainage holes in the bottom of a small yogurt container, added potting soil and seeds and put them in the front window with many of our houseplants.

A few weeks later, I was pleasantly suprised that not just one seedling poked up but 5! They happily grew toward that warm sun & heat in the south window, I had to rotate their container almost daily. Soon I had to transplant them each to its own, larger, yogurt container (we sure have alot of them). They've really grown with TLC!

I love these colors!

The dark, almost black, color looks velvety.

Wow, I've never seen a Coleus bloom. Light purple flowers, kinda clashes with the color of the leaves.

I got on the internet to find out more about Coleus. Apparently the plant is like most other outdoor plants & flowers, duh. It produces flowers, goes to seed then dies. Treated as a houseplant, it's recommended to pinch off the flower buds to live longer and to encourage the plant to become more bushy & full. I have 2 that haven't bloomed yet so I'll try this, since I don't want to start more seed to replace these pretty ones anytime soon.

After taking some more pictures of the Coleus I noticed some color (other than green) out the window. Seeing some leaves starting to change color and the potato plants blooming in the garden, I headed out with the camera.

I'm not sure what kind of weed this is, but it looks pretty in red. Thankfully the trees aren't changing this fast, yet.

Our Idita-Red Potato plants look healthy.

These blooms don't clash with their leaves.

Sissy entertained herself as I walked around the yard with the camera.

Taking a break to enjoy the moment, the breeze, the smells, ...what is that?

What are you looking at? Are you still taking pictures?

Well, if she would bring me the ball instead of playing keep away...