Potting up and other fall activities

Taking advantage of some nice weather to do some outdoor work today. I dug up some herbs for moving inside – rosemary, thyme, and a little parsley. The angel wing begonia has become extravagantly showy in its pot during the summer. It may decline once moved inside. I can’t believe it became so happy outdoors this summer. This plant originally came from Patrick Smith.

Rosemary, thyme, parsley and angel wing begonia

I planted some lemon balm in the hole left by one of the rosemary plants. This came from Roberta, in trade for some comfrey and rudbeckia laciniata I gave her. It doesn’t look like much now, but I’m hoping it will fill in.

Planted lemon balm from Roberta

Horseradish stalks dried and saved from 2020 were put back to soak in the cement mixing trough. I’m not looking forward to scraping them, but I want the fiber enough that I’ve saved them for a whole year waiting for the right time to process them. I think the time has come.

Dried horseradish ribs rehydrating in preparation for scraping

Finally, another crafty project – braiding onions. I’ve never done this before, mostly because I don’t preserve stems on my onions and I don’t grow soft-neck garlic. But I reserved a few with stems this year so I could give it a try. Start with three at the base and add in the center and at the sides as you braid the stems upwards. Pretty easy, but I didn’t do a good job and my braid broke. It held together long enough for a photo though.

Onion braid

Squash harvest

I pulled up most of the squash vines even though we haven’t had a killing frost yet. Or any frost. The mild weather makes me uneasy as it brings global warming home to my yard and garden.

I think I’ve had more squash in past years. This year we got a lot of rain. I wonder if that made a difference. Four pumpkins (New England Pie) from the Community Garden, and two from home (Winter Luxury, I think). There are several more pumpkins in the home garden that have not turned orange yet. What are they waiting for?

Some nice buttercup, very substantial. And a few Red Kuri, so bright and shapely. The delicata and butternut harvests were definitely sparse. Not that I’m wishing for tons of squash like I had cucumbers. But the productivity of the garden plants is something to ponder.

Most of the winter squash