Virginia Creeper cuttings. Thank you Mom.

 

I love Virginia Creeper. For me, it is the bright red in the fall. It is the brightest red autumn vine we have here on our Island. My mom has some beautiful, red Virginia Creeper at her place. I took a few small cuttings and then my mom arrived the next day with some huge cuttings for me. So they have been trimmed, rooting hormoned, and planted.

 

And this is what the little cuttings look like in the greenhouse.

Tia's first glass {of her first batch} of Kombucha.

 

This is my cousin Tia's first glass of Kombucha, out of the first batch she's ever made. She is incredibly talented isn't she!! She is a natural food girl who makes almost everything from scratch.

We have a Citrus House!!!!

 

How cute is this!? Tree planted, fed, pruned and watered.

 

Today is a red letter day. I am so happy. After dreaming of my citrus trees being planted in the soil inside a greenhouse, the first tree is planted...in the soil...in the greenhouse. Thank you Allan and Noel. I drew the circle where the hole had to be dug and they did the rest. {tennis elbow} I put Gaia Green under the root ball and they snugged manure and soil around it. It is still in clay though, so I will work at adding to the organic matter content.

 

The Meyer Lemon Tree with our hole measuring stick.

The hole partially dug. It took a shovel and a pry bar.

Meyer Lemon planted and being watered.

A different angle. Before it was pruned so it looks a bit lopsided.

Beamer the Garden Cat is always near by.

Transplanting Christmas cactuses.

I am very limited what I can do because of tennis elbow, so I do little jobs. Today I decided to transplant my little Christmas Cactuses and one succulent into my English terracotta pots. They just look so much cuter. So this is before...

 

 

And this is after:

 

 

Early Pink Lady. The most beautiful apple ever!!

 

Early Pink Lady!!! Is this the most beautiful apple you have ever seen!! It is as delicious as it is beautiful. It was gone within a minute of this photo being taken.

 

I will definitely be making fruit plates using this apple.

 

And this is what the apple blossoms looked like.

I love the autumn garden. Especially the squash's.

 

I have about a dozen Butternut Squash's this year. This one is about a foot long and looks just perfect. I need to get out my 16 quart stock pot and make a huge batch of Butternut Squash soup. It is so perfect for winter.

 

In this picture you can see the huge zucchini plant, the still developing Lavender Hedge and three of my apple trees. We had an amazing number of apples on the trees I planted last spring. But they were all wormy. Codling Moth is my guess. I will figure out a plan of attack for next spring.

 

This is the Chilean Guava that is still inside the Citrus House. I will be moving it out, but I will let the fruit ripen first.

Amanda's blueberry walk has been overtaken. Time for action.

Look at this poor row of blueberry plants. You can hardly see them because of the HUGE Tulameen Raspberry patch. The blueberry plants have dropped most of their leaves and have substantial dieback.

 

 

We decided today to take the very worst one and move it. We chose our new location and here is the first one in its new home. The dieback has been removed and the plant pruned back. We seriously hacked at the poor root ball. I think we got all of the raspberry roots out of the blueberry roots, but we shall see. Here you go little plant. Good luck.

 

Greenhouse addition...earth levelled and manure moved in

The new addition/citrus house is looking amazing. The ground was very uneven in there after the foundation install. We have had a very dry summer so the soil/clay is packed very hard. I took an afternoon and raked it out level. Then moved in two nice big wheelbarrows of manure. I levelled it and then made a path to the door. Now I just need to see if we can get the citrus trees into the ground or will the tree roots stop us. If not, they will be moved pots and all into the addition. Isn't the chair hilarious. I always wanted a chair in the greenhouse, so until the citrus goes in, I have a chair. Tiny and plastic.....but it's a chair!!!!

It began innocently enough. Planting some kale and lettuce for winter...

I decided at two o'clock this afternoon to go the greenhouse to plant a tray of kale and lettuce. They will be going in the citrus house to plant under the trees. Normally I would seed directly in the ground, but we would trample the little plants moving the citrus in for winter. I discovered that the whole surface of the bench was cluttered and full, and I needed to make room for the seed tray. I thought to myself, okay, let's organize a bit and get things out of the way at this end so I can get the seeding done. At 7 o'clock I have finally finished up. I was ruthless. I threw out two garbage bags, put about thirty plastic pots in recycle and moved things to the shed, moved things out of the shed. You get the picture.

 

I am so pleased with how much room there is. I hung a little bolt where the hose can hang instead of lying on the floor. All in all, a much more efficient and lovely space to be in.

 

 

The greenhouse is all but done. Now...the planting.

The greenhouse is all finished except for a small aluminum strip to seal the gap between the two greenhouses. Right now it is sealed with hoophouse tape. Today I even finished cleaning the white paint off the last two panes. I still LOVE to look at the length of it. I guess I will have to extend the blueberry walk a little bit. Maybe another two plants. My personal favorite is Dixi!!

 

The orange tape is on that bar to catch our eye so we don't bump our heads. I'll tidy that up, but it will work for now. Allan made that little curb over the sharp edges so we don't trip.

 

 

I am going to put a chair in here so that I can enjoy it whenever I want. Even when it rains and I can't be in the garden outside, I can be in the garden inside. Doesn't it look nicer without the paint. I used nail polish remover to soften it. I am glad there was a breeze in there, or I would have killed millions of brain cells.

 

{You can see the hoophouse tape in the small gap between the greenhouse sections}