Papa Pea mowed them for me one day last week. And, oh my gosh, did that reveal a whole lot of runners and weeds that had been hiding under the big ol' bunch of leaves.
This is a shot of the whole mowed planting. I managed to get the two rows on the left of the picture cleaned up to my satisfaction this afternoon before I got a nasty cramp in the back of my right thigh muscle! Well, maybe it wasn't awful-terrible-bad, but I used it as an excuse to stop for the day.
That leaves me with this last (and worst) row to finish up yet before the job is done.
I have to show you the gladioli planted from corms that my friend Karen in Wisconsin sent me last fall. Is this double stalk of pinks gorgeous or what?
And this is the first white one to open. There are more of both colors to come.
Thought it wasn't going to happen this year, but some of my cherry tomatoes are finally ripening. I've always staked these up in a wire cage before, but this year let them crawl on the ground as the seed catalog suggests. They are so late I don't know whether to blame our wonky weather this gardening season . . . or the fact that maybe they don't like to crawl and would rather be staked.
This is my biggest pie pumpkin growing on the arbor trellis. It's gigantic compared to others I've grown (about the size of a volleyball, I'd say) and like the others on the trellis, doesn't seem to be requiring any support to keep from ripping off the vine. (Yeah, I'm surprised at that, too, Glenda.) Not showing much orange color yet, is it?
Lastly, this is one of the mangels I'm growing as experimental supplemental feed for our poultry this winter. And this isn't even a big one. Can you believe some of them can grow to be 15-20 pounds?
19 comments:
Your beautiful glads reminded me of my Dad. Every year he bought a grab bag of bulbs at the local nursery. He enjoyed the surprise when they bloomed, for he never knew what colors were in the bag. The one I loved best was orange and purple. :)
I love glads and that is a beautiful color. Our Grandmother (us kids) planted way over a hundred bulbs every year. One year she had brown ones.
I need to see if we can grow mangels here. We spend way too much on organic grain.
Hi Mama Pea :)) The gladioli is gorgeous! My flowers are taking their time blooming. The Morning Glories are still just climbing vines at this point. I was really hoping to have my Moon Garden up and running by July! Maybe I'll start some flowers indoors next spring to get the process going a bit quicker. Congrats on the cherry tomatoes! Ooh, that's a lot of work for the strawberries, but I know how much you and Papa Pea love those! I guess it's worth it, but take care of your back and leg!!!
Hi, Vicki! That's the amazing thing about gladioli . . . they can be so many wonderful colors.
Now that I've found your blog, I'll be following you and your new adventure(s) as soon as the garden harvest is over and my routine gets back to a more normal pace.
Myrna - Over a hundred bulbs every year? Good thing your grandma had you kids as slave labor!
Kristina - That's the same with us regarding having to buy (rather than being able to grow) our organic grain. (Although we're working on that.) We fed the poultry cooked potatoes last year and they loved them.
Rain - All my flowers were late bloomers this year. I didn't think my Morning Glories were ever going to climb up their trellis. Even now they have few blossoms on them compared to "normal" years.
No problem with aches and pains. I'm lucky in that even when I do over-do (six or seven times a week!), my body recovers quickly. Don't feel any problems this morning.
I had to make hammocks for my pumpkins. I used old pillow cases. My husband came in and asked me why I had diapered the pumpkins.
Those Gladioli are beautiful! You were my inspiration to grow flowers in my garden - and thank goodness. They are the only things showing color this year... How are you going to 'serve' your mangels to your lucky flock?
Just what is a mangle? It sort of looks like a beet.
Nice garden lady. I love the glads so lacy and colorful! Good for you for taking a cramp break. As for myself I just returned from my trusty chiropractor and a session to start putting right what went wrong. Maybe if I used the Mama Pea excuse er reason and slowed down with the first owie I wouldn't be seeing him again in a week lol.
Every week at my fiber night I bug my bud Pam who also works at a local nursery "when are the fall plants coming?" And every Wednesday she puts on her patient face and says "not until mid September it is too hot still". So I need to be patient that is tough!
SmartAlex - Good one from your husband! I had planned on using old cut up panty hose (yes, I still have some) as "hammocks" to hold up mine, but it doesn't seem to be needed.
Susan - Papa Pea thinks he'll try hanging a mangel in the chicken house and see if they'll peck on it in a raw state. I think we'll have to chunk them up and parboil them (on the wood stove in the garage) overnight and feed them out nice and warm in the morning. Wouldn't you like a warm breakfast on a cold winter morn? We'll do the same with turnips and any potatoes with bad spots in them.
Heidi - You're right, a mangel is of the same spcies as the red beet and sugar beet. It's called a mangel beet, field beet or fodder beet. they've been used for livestock feed since the 1800s chiefly for cattle. But supposedly when grain rations have been short, they've been successfully fed to most any livestock.
I recently read that they can be used when small for human food, but most of the time you see them referred to as for livestock only.
Goatldi - I'm usually like you (stubborn?) and just keep working 'til a job is done, but I was pooped when that leg cramp hit so threw in the trowel (as Susan would say) for the day.
Funny you should mention the fall plants. I drove by a local greenhouse operation just yesterday looking to see if they had any of their big pots of mums in yet. Nope.
My first thought was what the heck is a mangle but I could not get over those glads!!! They are lovely! Now back to the mangels....I have never heard of or seen one ever! So neat!
Fall mums are here now...do we get fall weather earlier than you? I thought we would have been on the same weather pattern?
MrsDM - Yes, we should be on about the same weather pattern. Summer is definitely over for us and there's a feeling of fall in the air. Temp isn't getting much higher than 60F now and we've had what seem like days and days of intermittent rain showers and not much sun. Leaves are turning and starting to fall. Personally, I love this time of year. (Could do with a little more sun though.) ;o)
It sort of looks like a beet.
หนังออนไลน์
Post a Comment