Awful quiet, what's everyone working on (OT or not)?

[Kelby]

It's been pretty quiet around here lately, things are winding down for most of us it seems. What's everyone working on or planning on?

I will be relocating my black raspberries as soon as I get a chance, too crowded where it's at. I'm also thinking about cutting down the size of my vegetable garden and putting in some raised beds, we'll see if that happens before things freeze up.

[Hershell]

I hear the crickets myself. I'm covering the rest of the fig house and plan on starting the sides when I get back home in a couple weeks. I also plan on starting another trivia Monday if there's anyone around that's interested.

[Kelby]

*chirp chirp*

[growcrazie]

I have been working on winterizing the nursery, putting a rocket mass heater in the greenhouse and cutting firewood. I also have several hardy pomegranates and am clearing a place to plant them in the spring.

[jmaler]

I am a few miles north of San Antonio TX and have been rained indoors all day today. I have been planting fig trees in ground and will get back to that soon. I'd like to get 11 more in before it gets too cold to work.

I got an email from Dalton E. Durio today. He has a couple of must have fig trees I want to order. There seem to always be just one or two more "gotta haves" out there.

Soon it will be deer season and time to start making smoked sausage.

[Rewton]

Does it ever get too cold to work in Texas?

[jmaler]

Sometimes for a day or two at a time.

[fitzski]

I spent the day cleaning up the yard and garden. I'll be planting the garlic in the next few days.

I also moved some of the bare fig trees into winter storage so the brebas aren't damaged by the frosts. Only about half of my trees have dropped their leaves. Some haven't even been affected by the 3 frosts we've had in the past few weeks.

[cjmach1973]

what kind of garlic? I tried Russian top set, Russian red, and giant this fall.

[fitzski]

I'm growing german extra hardy, music and romanian red from a garlic farm in VT.

These are all hardneck varieties. I always mean to replant my own but I never seem to have enough extra to plant.

There's nothing like fresh garlic

[Erick]

Planning is where I'm at right now. My little family has had alot going on lately. So hopefully I will get a chance to put some protection on my inground trees. Which did really well this year for their first year. I'm wanting to tie them down with the low limb method. The larger diameter trees I will have to figure out something cause they are stiff. I may have to cut them back two or three feet from the ground then put the protection on.. Or maybe dig on one side of the tree and lay it down on its side then cover it over with straw and dirt on top of that.. I'm just wondering what some of you think would work the best??

[Harborseal]

Harvesting figs, topping off pots, harvesting tomatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers, eggplant, saffron, watering, planting garlic and fall stuff - the usual.

[mountainfigs]

Odd not to have new ripe figs to post. Plus, sunk many fig pots way too deep into the ground this year. Roots anchored in through the drilled holes. Good thing for the early frost after all and plenty of good weather to dig them out for garage storage. Next year the pots will go only 2-3 inches I think below grade. Bittersweet time of year for figs. Really makes me rethink trying to come up with even some sort of micro-green space for a fig tree, old-time telephone booth size maybe or a somewhat larger lean-to. Not this winter but maybe next.

[jkuo]

I've been doing my fall garden cleanup tasks: harvesting the sweet potatoes, planting garlic, clearing out the frost killed veggies, planting flower bulbs, and prepping for removing a raspberry patch. As I get the time, I'll be prepping my garage for winter storage of my trees. If I get really ambitious, I may try framing a small greenhouse.

With the outdoor growing season quickly ending, I'm prepping my indoor growing setup for some strawberry seeds, asparagus seeds, and of course, a few fig cuttings. This year I'm capping myself at rooting 4-5 varieties, at least that's what I'm telling myself now.

[fitzski]

Good luck with your trying to cap at "4-5 varieties". I said the same thing to myself and I'm already at 4 so I'm going to try and keep it under 10 which means I have a chance at it being less than 20.

Kevin

[Altadena Mara]

This is a busy time in the garden here. I took out all my tomato plants and moved all my fig trees with ripening figs to the full sunshine where the tomatoes were. The trees were only getting a few hours of sun now in their old location. Marseilles EL is just ripening and tasted awful. I realized it was in full shade now, moved it to the sun. Hope that improves the taste of all the figs still on the tree.
I moved three fig trees into the ground from pots and enjoyed a fresh yellow sapote straight from the tree. It has a lot of fruit this year for the first time. I think it's my favorite fruit.....today.

[cjmach1973]

All the figs and perennials are dormant and organized, so now I turn my attention to what kind of new and weird cactus or succulents I want to buy.

[COGardener]

Completed winterizing... I hope. Staring at seeds from Igor, willing them to sprout and grow!!!

[brettjm]

I'm actually waiting for a good frost or two for my last outdoor projects of the year:

-I have about 150 bulbs that need to go in ground (daffoldils mostly, also some hyacinth and crocus...I like a pretty January/February garden!), and the mosquitoes are an effing nightmare.
-I also need to till up my garden, but there's no incentive to go out there when the mosquitoes eat you up and you have very little to harvest.
-Need to figure out what to do with my figs that I don't want to go dormant...I'm tempted to take them to work where I have a nice south facing 3rd story window. They're in small pots. Surely the boss won't mind
-Next on the list is finishing a bat box. I built it from scratch...a two chamber rocket box. I can probably crank that out in an hour, but again with the mosquitoes! They're insufferable. I have a carport rather than a garage, so there is no escaping.
-Finally, I have to figure out what on earth to do with a hibiscus, a lemon, and an orange tree. The orange tree is supposed to be hardy to 15, but not the lemon or hibiscus. In our old house, we had a nice sunny window, and the hibiscus flourished. In the new house, I'm not so lucky, so I'm still trying to find the best spot.

As for what I've been doing lately? I dug up a massive thorn bush by the stop sign in the corner of our yard a couple weekends back. That thing was made of pure evil. Went camping last weekend and shot skeet, which was pretty glorious. Went to a state park today for a little hike, which was also nice.

[71GTO]

I've been raking up an insane amount of pine needles from all the white pines around our house and now I'm 100% positive they need to go. On top of that I've been cleaning up some of the crazy overgrowth and weeds that the last owners let go. Some of the weeds I've never seen before...
I'm also trying to figure out how i'm going to get all my trees into storage. That is the one thing I miss about my old house I had a huge garage.

[jmaler]

All the figs and perennials are dormant and organized, so now I turn my attention to what kind of new and weird cactus or succulents I want to buy.

Do you have one of these, Donkey Ear? I enjoy growing this one.

[cjmach1973]

I have had something similar in the past, but right now I'm focusing on small stuff, like lithops, lifesaver plants, and chin cactus.

[aphahn]

Building a new chicken coop and then a greenhouse on the side of my shed.
Fall planting, strawberries, random stuff I started from seed, winter rye and barley.
Preping new beds for garlic and shallots (chicken coop is going where they have been in years past).
Trading scion Ya know, not much...

[jmaler]

Nice layout. The chickies will love it.

[don_sanders]

My phone finally gave out so I ordered a new one and had to set it up again.

Otherwise, cleaning up and getting ready for winter. Waiting for my trees to go dormant. Raking leaves. Brought a few small trees inside to grow over the winter. Harvesting what is left in my raised beds.

[WillsC]

up potting the tomato and pepper plants and today I started on the front greenhouse again.

[mountainfigs]

Picked this wonderful Brooklyn White fig today off a tree that lost its leaves last week. Strawberry glaze flavor near the eye and middle; sweet-tart at stem.

Other cultivars that have ripened this year after defoliation include at least Mt Etna, Late Bordeaux, Calverte, Ronde de Bordeaux. An Improved Celeste looks close; a couple Palermo Red (Aldo) look close. The Calverte was sweetest but had the advantage of having partly dried on the limb. The Brooklyn White was easily the biggest and sweetest without drying.

[Kelby]

I've gotten a couple Lattarula, Sal's and Bari since frost. 1 or 2 Atreano are softening up now too.

[eboone]

Waiting for the frosted leaves to fall off most of my fig trees, waiting for the next frost to kill the remaining leaves - so I can start a little pruning, root pruning on some, and then put them away for the winter. Still have a few figs on 3 or 4 trees that I put in the garage when it frosted. Getting an occasional Emerald Strawberry, LSU Gold, Red Sicilian, and VdB.

The pool winterization is finally done.

Cleaning up the garden, still picking a little broccoli and lettuce, have the Brussels sprouts to start picking soon to end the garden season.

The last of the apples to pick - what is left on my Enterprise tree.

Putting up a second hand outdoor spa on my patio.

But it's archery season, hard to find enough free time for everything.

[Kelby]

Come shoot the deer in my yard and you can have any fig you want! I think there are 3.

[chuckell]

It's been pretty quiet around here lately, things are winding down for most of us it seems. What's everyone working on or planning on?

I will be relocating my black raspberries as soon as I get a chance, too crowded where it's at. I'm also thinking about cutting down the size of my vegetable garden and putting in some raised beds, we'll see if that happens before things freeze up.

~working on in ground trees trimming back and winterizing ,storing cuttings in crisper( over 100) for later starts,cuttings all waxed and stored yes ,covered three in grounds letiza ,chicago hardy,and white bronx, going to mulch two trees (unknown),grows wild here near city of charleroi ,pa. just going to much heavy and not cover they will be three years old this spring,the parent tree grows wild no protection and produces figs every year,my caliper on these trees are about 2.5 " so this will be second winter in ground,hope they make it, first winter in ground last year ,i covered these trees to good,air tight yes they rotted half way back,was warned from members on f4f ,but didn't listen,i don't know why i didn't listen to the pro's ? so these trees keep me real busy ,not that i don't have enough on my plate as it is ,but got the addiction now .

[Kelby]

1st Atreano and likely last fig of the year. Good considering the cool weather and that 90% of the leaves got frosted!

[Harborseal]

The orange tree is supposed to be hardy to 15

What variety of Orange is that? Thanks.

[Kelby]

I think Satsumas are that hardy.

[brettjm]

Oops. Missed this earlier. The orange is called "Arctic Frost" by Garden Debut. The folks at my local nursery said someone they know has one they keep in a pot on their front porch. They just keep it next to the house on cold nights, and it has survived the past few winters. They said they got to sample the fruit once as well, and that it was very tasty.

[DBJohnson]

Have been wrapped up with a project at work that has kept me working long hours and traveling a lot.