Trees, Leaves, and Mulch

As fall truly begins to settle here in NY there are things that can still be done to your living garden and lawn.  Did you know that you can plant tree's now?  Saplings are best as they already have some roots and planting now or begining of spring is best as they have time before the major weather changes to set their roots.  This past May we ordered some trees from the Arbor Day foundation and planted them with pride.  Unfortunatly some just didn't make it.  Most with in a month had leaves...or some other sign that the stick we planted was trully a tree sapling.  In talking to the guys at Arbor Day turnes out that maybe something was wrong with those and they said they would send new ones come fall.  And so they did.

Here in a bucket of water are the new saplings that were mailed to us. 

So after a day or so of soaking in water it was out to the yard for some diging and planting.  These guys may not look like much now but beleive it or not they are alive.

Here in the middle of the cage is a stick that is a Sargent Crabapple Tree.  No leaves, no buds, nothing but a stick.  This is back in May.

But here just 2 weeks later up close you can see that it is starting to get some leaves. 

Here 5 months after planting the leaves are following suit with all the other trees and changing color and falling off.  The tree didn't get taller but the leaves got to look almost full size. 






It has been a very interesting 5 months watching the trees grow.  None seemed to get any taller but like the Crabapple the ones that lived had leaves.   Different shapes, sizes, and even color. 

Since it is now fall and I have replacement trees to plant....or rather did as they already are planted) to find a place to plant we had to clear away fallen leaves.  Did you know that leaves are natures way to provide mulch and compost for the following spring?

Yup if you were to leave a layer of leaves on the ground anything under will have a few extra days of warmer soil..allowing for roots to set.  But come spring time most if not all will actually be gone.  Disinigrated into the soil providing some natural nutrient rich compost.  Course this doesn't mean that you should just leave the leaves all over the lawn....but in the garden...sure leave some. 

I wouldn't go out of my way to put some their unless you are planting for spring now...but just let nature take it's course.  Have you ever wondered why your gardens always have tons of leaves?  Well I think it is for a reason...to aid the spring and summber plants by providing protection and compost.

Knowing this after we planted our new trees a few days ago we pilled some leaves up around the trunk.  Attempting to give these tender little guys as much help as I can.

Leaves as mulch or just plain mulch is actually a very usefull and smart thing for all kinds of gardens.  Leaves may look bad so most would chose mulch.  But did you know that mulch around your fruit and veggie plants is important?  I didn't.  I do now.  A lot of garden centers will also have colored mulch.  White to help reflect the sunlight back onto the plants.  Black to absorb the heat of the sun for release at night.  Red to aid in the ripening of veggies like Tomatoes.

Now this is not to say that you can't grow veggies with out mulch but it can help with your success.

So help the planet and plant a tree or 2.  Leave some leaves in the garden this year and see if it helps come spring.  Add some color to the garden by way of mulch and see if that helps.  Try something new.

Updates from the Greenhouse

Today was the first snow fall of the season.  Nothing stuck.  It was barely enough to even say it snowed but....infact it did...kinda.

So this year was the first time I have ever tried to grow anything that can be eaten.  Until reacently I had a huge black thumb.  I couldn't keep anything alive unless it was planted outside....and sometimes not even then.  But something changed.  With my Greenhouse I have come to trully enjoy gardening and found out that I do have a bit of a green thumb...it just takes patience. 
Anyways I have been turning on a small heater on the greenhouse floor every night and it seems to keep the over all temp above 40.  Now I was smart and the heater is on the floor....heating up the dirt and so on...as heat rises I put the guage near the top....this way I know that above the plants it is staying over freezing.  So far it seems to have worked.  The damage was already done for the tomato plants but with luck they can hold on long enough to rippen the fruits on the plant.  So here are some visuals of what is now going on.

After some pruning to remove the dead branches and a few tomatoes gone bad this is what Bob looked like.  I tried to cut as much back as I could so that what was left would have a chance.

Here is one of his tomatoes.  Still small but looks good.  Can't wait for them to start turning.....I do hope that they still will.

And like her counter part Bobbet here got a good pruning as well.  She had a lot less to cut off except for the top.  But again I wanted to give the tomatoes on her the best chance they have of maturing

A really cool picture that almost includes all her tomatoes.  Most are indeed still to small like the others but with some luck and a few more not quite so cold days maybe they will finally mature.






The pepper plants on the other hand have needed no trimming.  I belive part of this is due to their location.  They are along the north wall...which is right up against my house....and they are about a foot away from the west wall.  The tomatoes are all along the south wall.  They get the colder windows.  Not sure if this is the reason or not but thats what I think.  The top few leaves on the tallest of the pepper plants have begun to crisp but the peppers themselves still seem to be growing.

I stood on my tippie toes to get this pick from over the peppers.  They weren't supposed to be this close together but somehow they are.  But they don't seem to mind.   The ones that are the tallest seem to be having the most problem with crispyness in the leaves....but other than that all seems to be ok.

Something I have found out that unlike tomatoes peppers don't have a universal shape.  Granted in the store they all pretty much look the same...and most of mine are but how they get that way is not the same.  This guy here is long and skinny...but I have others that are short and fat. 

While my son and I were checking out the plants a few weeks ago this little pepper fell off.  Total length is less than 2".  But it was cool to look at.

Although small they packed quite a punch.  They tasted very good.  These are the first of the peppers that were actually picked.  I could have waited longer but I really wanted to try them.

Here is one of those 2 peppers that were harvested.  You may have to enlarge the picture but if you look close you can see black dots...nope not bugs...the seeds.  Proof that I guess I should have waited longer to harvest.  But something that I learned about peppers is that the seeds are  not mature untill the pepper is ripe.  Now here is the kicker a pepper isn't ripe till it is red...much like a tomato.  So did I harvest too soon?  Well no actually.  To get a Green Pepper I have to harvest before they turn yellow and then red.  Could I have waited another week or so?  Absolutly it would have been bigger. 

This year gardening has been full of surprises.  Things I didn't think would grow did...and some didn't.  Others well lets just say I have learned a lot.  I don't regret anything that I have done as next time I will know better.  I will learn from my mistakes. 

Gardening has be educational in my house.  The kids are learning how things grow...the most basic circle of life.  Shannon was most interested in harvesting the plants and then the seeds.  She now loves salad all because I grew some lettuce and she just had to try....after she helped me harvest and cut it up.  Aiden has learned that not everything can be touched.  Sometimes peppers fall if you touch them.  But he has also seen tiny plants become large ones and then watched them develop.  Infact he was the one that told me a tomato was turning different colors.  Just a simple observation but he knew that it ment something else was going on with the plant.

I will try to update on the garden's as often as things change....hopefully it's another harvest.

Saved from Frost and Not so much

So I was lucky enough to have to forsite to try to bring inside a few of the veggies I have growing before a major frost.  In fact one of my tomato plants was brought in the day before a plant killing frost hit.  And man am I glad I did. 

As I was going thru the Greenhouse Saturday I noticed that my Greenpeppers had some new additions.  And not in the way of fruit.  New seedlings.  Silly pepper plants desided to have babies.  Not sure how that happend but well it did.  So knowing that even though they would be slightly protected with in the greenhouse I wanted to give these little ones a fighting chance and dug them up and potted em up and brought inside.

Yea they look a little weak but I think they will make it.  There is actually 2 peppers on one of them.  And these stems are all 1/2 the size of the Mommas in the greenhouse.

So now here is a look at the tomato plant that I brought in...before I dug him up.  Meet Bob JR

Yup he isn't very big but he has over 15 tomatoes on him.  So I thought he was worth saving.  That and he is completely unprotected out here in the garden.  So here is a look at JR after being dug up potted up and brought inside.

He was cut back a little.  Needed to remove some of the dead leaves but other than that he is looking ok.  Although small he has always looked a little wilted so kinda hard to tell if he is having issues or not.  But will keep an eye on him.

So as I said November 1st was a killing frost for me.  Aparently my greenhouse is great for the summer but unless I find a way to insulate it better not great for freezing temperatures.  On the greehouse floor all the herbs are doing great.  The Green Peppers so far seem to be handling it ok but my tomato plants.....not so much.  Bob and Bobbet being the tallest of the 4 are looking quite crispy.  So to show what the killer frost did to my greenhouse tomatoes meet the rest of the family.  Bob and Bobbet you know, meet the other 2 children Tom and Tomara....brother and sister to Bob JR.

Bob looking crispy at the top but seems to be ok closer to the floor. 

Bobbet my tall beauty is also crispy at the top but down low may be ok.

The biggest problem I have with Mom and Dad here is that they both have at least 6 tomatoes on them but they are near the top.  And only one or two if any are fully grown just waiting to ripen.  Going to leave them and hope for some warm weather or that just the leaves are really the only loss.

Now for the 2 kids in the Greenhouse.  Tom, Tomara, and Bob JR were all sown the same day but planted in different places.  Jr was transplanted first in the outside garden.  Tom and Tomara when transplanted went right to the greenhouse.

This is Tom.  He is about 1/2 the size of Bob JR but stands much straighter.  He does have a few blooms on him though.  And much like Mom and Dad a little crispy at the top.  Poor guy has not produced any fruit yet.  He just got his first blooms last week.

This cuttie here is Tomara.  Again like Tom is much shorter than their brother JR but again stands taller.  She had a few blooms soon after she was transplanted but she wasn't strong enough to hold the weight of a tomato so the blooms were pinched off.  Unfortunatly like Tom she has not produced any fruit.  She has no flowers right now either.  Tomara though seems slightly less effected by the cold than Tom was.  She has less crispyness.  As you can see in the picture the herbs in the pot in front of her are just fine.

With luck they can hold out a little longer and I can find away to insulate so that the greenhouse can at least stay around 40. Not great weather for them but at night they can take it. 

Something else that has been noticed during these past few nights of below freezing weather is that the greenhouse is one or two degrees higher it does drop in temp fast.  But once the sun is up....the temp rises.  And though it may only get to maybe 50 outside during the "heat" of the day where the sun is highest the temps inside still reach over 85.

Until next time....have a good one.  Keep warm.

The end of the Morning Glory/Moonflower Vines

Well November 1st was indeed our first official frost of the year.  I say official in that it pretty much killed my morning glory and moon flower vines. 

Just look:

This was the vine just 8 days prior.  So alive and green and strangly enough still flowering.  Well the Morning Glories were.  The Moon Flowers haven't opened in a while now.

I am so sad to see it go but it did give me lots and lots of flowers....and over 200 seeds so far.  Today the vine looked even worse than the first to pictures so I cut it down.  It was too depressing to look at.  But as there where tons more seed pods still on the vine I saved the ones that were fully developed just waiting to dry.  Should be interesting to see what pods trully did have full seeds and the ones that didn't.  I did how ever find 3 more Moon Flower seed Pods.  Not sure if they were done or not but as the vine was dead...or very close they too were cut off.  I saved the Pods that looked like they may have seeds in them.  But like the Morning Glory pods we will just have to wait and see what we get.