Garlic Cleaning Day !!

This year was a splendid garlic growing year. What starts out looking like this:

 

Ends up like this. After about an hour of cleaning this is what you are left with. Forty clean beautiful garlics. Look out family, here they come.

 

 

These are the seed garlic for next year. These are about 3" across. Aren't they perfect.

Cranberry Cotoneaster is now Mature

 

The Cranberry Cotoneaster berries have fully grown and are nice a red now. It has taken years to grow from seed, so this is a real treat. This type of Cotoneaster seems like a very slow growing variety compared to the common type. You can read more about how this treasure came to be.

 

A trip through the crawl space. Treasure number one - Brass Sconces.

So, the other day, my sister Jessica and I were on a mission. We were looking to see if some of her missing treasures were in my crawl space. We couldn't find them. Yet. I did however find a few things that I've wanted to dig out for ages...but it is daunting down there. I shall post pictures as I clean and put out each of the little treasures.

 

These are adorable 14" brass sconces that I used to use all the time. It made dinners very special with the candle light.

Here they are, all washed up and drying.

And here they are hung on the wall. I love a cosy house. This is a good start. Wait until you see the table we brought up.

 

And all lit up. Don't you just love it!! It has been at least two decades since I've had these lit. I love candles. I always light them and let them burn for about twenty minutes when I put out fresh candles. I like the way they look with a bit of wax burned off and with a black wick.

Greenhouse is making great progress. Part 3.

Look, the greenhouse addition has glass and is almost done. There is a strip of metal needed to join the two sections where they meet externally. Then a cross bracing piece must be added near the roof where the framing still exists on the inside where the two greenhouses meet. They have to come out, so the greenhouse needs extra support there.

 

I have started cleaning the old white paint off of three of the glass panes. The whole greenhouse was painted at one point to keep the sun from beating on the orchids. It was a thin layer of paint, but now the very last of it is coming off. I have tennis elbow so it was not an easy job. The other two are behind the guava, so I will need to get the plant out first. I can't do it at that angle.

 

 

The ground is very solid right now, but I would like to see how full of roots the soil is. I don't know whether or not the citrus can go in the ground in there. The suspense is killing me.

 

Honey harvest, rustic style. Thank you Honey Bees.

 

It is honey harvest day. This makes it look quick and easy. Between the squeezing of the bags to wring out every drop of honey and constantly washing honey off hands and, well everywhere, it took all afternoon.

 

 

This is our patented broom handle / Mason Cash bowls / cheese cloth and wood blocks method. This will be our last year doing it this way. While doing the grunt work, we came up with a new method. Not really expensive and MUCH easier. I will share next year.

 

 

The finished product. Isn't it beautiful.

 

I've been growing orchids for about forty years

I love orchids. I love orchids a lot. I have been growing them for about forty years. Back then, when I first started growing them, I lived in an apartment on the 21st floor of a building at 8th and 8th in downtown Calgary. It had a massive amount of Windows on the south and west side of the building. I had so many house plants it was crazy. If I recall correctly, there were 65. Then I added orchids. They were not nearly as easy to find as they are now. Every florist, grocery store and Costco has them. So much easier. I had to order mine from a company in Florida called Jones and Scully. This is an orchid that a friend had, that had finished flowering and she asked if I wanted it....ummmmm yeah!!! That was two years ago. I got a few flowers last year but this year...well look for yourself. This is an Oncidium, variety unknown.

 

 

I know you can't see very much of that gorgeous china cabinet the orchid is on, but I love it so very much. My great-grandmother had it made in 1906. I was lucky enough to be gifted this incredible piece that I had admired for years. The original bill of sale is at my parents house. I need to find it.

 

 

 

I will post more pictures of orchids as they bloom.

Removing wood chips from the new greenhouse addition

 

I keep standing at this angle and looking at just how big the greenhouse is now and what I am going to be able to do with it. In the spring it got very crowded with the huge citrus trees in there and all the seeding and bedding plants. I feel like Christmas Day came very early for me this year. I am blessed and thankful.

 

 

The area where the greenhouse addition {6 X 8'} is going was part of the Back to Eden garden, so very thick with wood chips. I am a bit surprised by the size of the pile of chips I raked up. It doesn't look like it in this picture but it is about 3 feet across and 1.5 feet tall. I had to leave it for now as the sun has set and it became too dark to work.

 

It will make the area much easier to finish the greenhouse assembly. Then I am going to see if the citrus trees can be planted there. It is only about 12 feet or so from the trunk of the willow tree.....you see the problem. I don't have to spell it out for you, do I. {smiley face} If the willow roots aren't too crazy and I can actually get them planted, I will top dress them with the thickest, most luscious layer of manure they could ask for.

 

Wood chips have been moved to the raspberry bed. This is so much nicer.