Hello Beca,

Sounds like you've been very busy in the yard. Me too. When it cools down but before it gets really cold it just feels like time to garden and here in Las Vegas it's the best time to plant and transplant all but the most heat loving plants. My husband says my plants should come on wheels since I move them an average of three times until I find the 'right' spot.

I haven't been a real industrius winter vegetable gardener but I have grown Broccoli Raab, lettuce, mixed greens, and onions. The Broccoli Raab is a little bitter but cooked in olive oil with garlic and lemon at the end it's a bit like Chard. I also plant peas in the fall and they grow but don't actually bear peas until spring. I figure it just gives them a head start and I love fresh sugar peas. The lettuce does really well in the winter, too bad salads just don't sound as good then as in the summer.

We just planted some eucalyptus trees that I grew in pots from seed this year in the back of our property. Then we had to build a fence to protect them from the horses. I figure they wouldn't like them but by the time they figured it out our small little trees would be history.

Happy Gardening, Maria (Oh and I bet you don't get to kick back and enjoy like you think you will there is always something to be done)

Hi Maria

I had to laugh when I read about your plants needing wheels...I am the same way. It gets hard though when the drip system gets put in place ;) Then I have to work around that too-hahaha. I have to plant peas too!! I love sugar peas-totally forgot about them. I will plant them along the sides of the vege bed so they will have something to climb up. You're right-there's always something to do. I was out yesterday picking up the cut vines and weeds out in the front yard too...just hate that part. I would love a garden maid LOL. I could do "most" of the work and they would do the cleanup behind me. (Dream on Beca....)

I started the fall chores this weekend. I got all the tender plants hauled inside for the winter. I got some of the frost-killed plants pulled out of their pots and those pots dumped all over the garden.

This weekend I have to repair the inevitable raccoon damage to my pond (well, it's time to do the fall cleanup anyways, so no added work), pull the tender plants inside for storage (cannas), service the pump and filter, and generally tidy things up. I also have to plant my pansies in the winter-to-spring containers, pull the dahlias and cannas and take them inside for storage, redo my "cold frames" with the seedling pots, pot up the seedlings that grew sufficiently (I grow perennials from seed, and many grow slowly) and rake the leaves off the lawn.

When I get done with all that, it's time to upend the compost bins, sieve the compost and distribute the "good stuff" all over the flower beds. The rest gets put back into the bins to continue composting.

And last of all, it's time to top-dress my Japanese Maples and fig tree with more potting soil, a bit of organic slow-release fertilizer and a fresh cover of bark chips.

Most years I also have a lot of bulbs to plant, but I felt too ill this summer to even consider ordering any (for me, that's VERY ILL, even if I didn't realize it). I did buy a few bulbs locally, and they are all in the ground. There's always next year--like I NEED to plant 1000-plus bulbs every year?

Lisa

Maria,

Now I'll have to plant a few lettuce and snow pea plants at my parents house in Vegas. I really like Raab broccoli, too. Winter vegetables are so great. They now also have orange colored caulflower at the store. With the Di Chiogga (Red and white cored) beets, golden carrots and beets, red cabbage, and purple artichokes, it makes for a great winter vegetable array of color. Have you ever tried Gai-Lan? It's a stalky vegetable in the Broccoli family. It's fairly easy to grow. It's good stir fried in Sesame oil. With some chicken, onion, garlic, and thickened with starch, it's healthy and yummy. Serve it with rice and you've got a meal.

Good luck with your Eucalyptus trees. I just finished reading about that tree on some Australian plant websites. I didn't realize there were so many varieties of that plant. They're really beautiful, but they have some unique characteristics you probably already know about. For those who don't, I learned about allelochemicals they produce so that few plants can grow around its base. It's a type of competitive advantage - but what an un-neighborly thing to do! And they are "self-pruning". During heavy winds, like during our Santa Anas, the heavy branches fall automatically. You never know when it's going to happen, it just does. You just don't want to be under the tree at that time. I think several houses and cars get ruined every winter here in So. CAL. Oh, and my brother wants to retire in Auburn, sort of between Sacramento and Reno and buy some land and have some horses. He's a surfing and skateboarding freak, but his kids love horses.

Beca, it's weird how people think earthworms are gross. I know people who brag about number of earthworms per handful the same way fishermen brag about the size of their fish. A woman also told me she LOVED organically grown lettuce. So I hand her some just picked romaine with a few bugs and worms inside (I hadn't rinsed it). She told me she couldn't eat it and gave it to her next door neighbor.

Maria - Japanese maple trees are really beautiful. And I love figs, not the plant, but the fruit off the tree. It's great you have both.