Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Even though I know this is a bad idea, I’m off to do it anyway!

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

American History and Black History can not be separated.

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Garden Chat: Buckling Down for Winter

Sunday Garden Chat: Buckling Down for Winter

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scout 18 oct chickens

From reliable garden commentor Scout211:

scout 18 oct one

In the foreground are broccoli plant starts for the winter garden. In the background is the summer crop of butternut squash that probably will produce all through the winter garden season.

scout 18 oct two

In the foreground is the winter crop of lettuce and kale. The bed in the background contains the end of the rhubarb for this year, a few strawberries from summer and a few red lettuce starts.

scout 18 oct three

Everbearing strawberries from this summer. They are true to their name and are still yummy.

scout 18 oct four

In the foreground are brussel sprouts for the winter garden and behind them are three tomatoes left from summer. They are still producing, but infrequently.

scout 18 oct five

Red cabbage starts for the winter garden.

At the top: Chickens! They don’t sit still for photos so I threw them some melon rinds to keep them busy and still.

***********
What’s going on in your gardens this week?

Reader Interactions

102Comments

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Got to get my garlic in. Towards that end, I bought 4 yards of compost (only need 1/4 for the garlic, the rest goes in the big garden) and almost collapsed my trailer under the load. Sigh…. made for a long drive back from STL on Friday. So today I am cleaning up tomato plants, tilling the compost into the garlic bed, picking the dried beans, and probably watering the Brussells Sprouts and lettuces.

    Oh, and building fabric hoops for the lettuces and spinach. Got down into the low 30s the past 2 nights in a row (no frost up here on the ridge top) and while the next few nights are supposed to be warmer a freeze is coming.

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Way OT: If only people had remembered to bring their guns, maybe nobody would have died. Oh…. Wait a minute…

    James Vernon was teaching a chess class with 16 children at Morton Public Library when authorities say 19-year-old Dustin Brown entered the room with two knives.
    …
    He said he first tried to calm Brown and deflect his attention from the children attending his class.

    “I tried to talk to him. I tried to settle him down,” he said. “I didn’t, but I did deflect his attention” from the children “and calmed him a bit. I asked him if he was from Morton, did he go to high school. I asked what his problem was. He said his life sucks.”

    Vernon said the man backed away as he got closer to him, but he was able to put himself between Brown and the room’s door, with the children hiding under the tables behind him.

    “I gave them the cue to get the heck out of there, and, boy, they did that!” Vernon said. “Quick, like rabbits.”

    Vernon said Brown responded by slashing him with a knife.

    Vernon, saying he was “bleeding pretty good” at the time, held the suspect until a library employee arrived to remove the knives, and kept the man pinned until police officers and paramedics arrived.

  11. 11.

    Poopyman

    Just fyi, it looks fine on a Chromebook running (what else?) Chrome, although the wfi sucks on this side of the house.

  15. 15.

    Poopyman

    BTW, if you’re on that part of the world where it’s still pre-dawn, check out Mars and Jupiter right next to one another just below Venus, high in the east.

  16. 16.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Every one of the photos is upside down for me. I’m on an iPad, Safari.

    Edit: in North America

  21. 21.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    iPhone, in bed in Detroit, upside down (the photos).
    In a reluctant concession to age and spinal health we’ll be shopping for a snow blower today. At a combined 111 years my wife and I are looking for alternatives to shoveling. I’m thinking electric because all of the pavement is within 50′ of an outlet and carburetors will always let you down.
    Mostly this is for my wife since I travel constantly and always seem to be somewhere pleasant and warm when Detroit gets a snow storm.
    So shopping today and maybe raking leaves.

  24. 24.

    Satby

    It’s 29 this morning here in SW MI. So glad I remembered to take in some of my potted plants, but thought we were only getting a light frost so I didn’t cover other stuff I would have. Oh, well, that’s gardening.

  25. 25.

    Gindy51

    No garden left, pulled in pounds of green tomatoes for dehydrating once the temps get up to above 45 and I can turn the machine on. Everything else is gone as it was 24 degrees down in my garden area. Bad for garden, great for dogs (no bugs, cooler temperatures).

  29. 29.

    Schlemazel

    @Baud:
    As our candidate you are expected to offer each of us just that – ALL.

    Chromebook – pictures just make me ill, what crumby little garden we did have was frosted to death a couple days ago.

  30. 30.

    scav

    I’ve noticed this behavior before: photos upside down on the ipad, rightside up on the box with keyboard.(eta also a mac)

    eta2 And upside down chickens are the highlight of my morning. fine chickens, fine garden.

  31. 31.

    currants

    Scout211–Your garden is gorgeous, so neat and orderly, unlike the complete chaos of mine at this time of year (when I’m trying to get new bulbs in for spring, salvage what I can before frost, and if I’m lucky get in cover crops to hold the soil in case of heavy rain). Remind me where you are? And do your everbearing berries go all winter long…and back into spring? Ours go into November (zone 6b in MA).

  33. 33.

    JPL

    Your garden is beautiful.

    @raven: How was the game? The score indicates pretty good defenses on both sides or sucky offenses. A win is a win though.

  35. 35.

    scav

    Moved to the Macbook, everything’s flipped back up to the dull setting. Seriously, the chickens are really a lot of fun the other way. All you people with dull text: try it.

    ETA again. And on beyond the joys of wall plantings lurk the bliss of ceiling plantings. Cabbages as chandeliers.

  36. 36.

    HeartlandLiberal

    First time I have grown lemongrass. Had a large clump of it that had grown in herb garden since late Spring. Researched and discovered that aside from using core of roots in Asian style stir fry dishes, you can make tea with the leaves and upper parts of the thick lower ends of each blade. So I dug it all up, it would likely not have survived an Indiana winter. From what I read online, the lower thick part of the grass used for cooking will store in freezer for six months, so cleaned all those up and froze them. Chopped all the rest of each blade into two to three inches pieces, and dried them for 24 hours in my dehydrator. All now stored in sealed coffee cans.

    I had never tried lemongrass tea, but after a couple of cups while taking care of harvest, I am hooked. Delicious.

    I stopped turning on the water scarecrows two weeks ago. So, in gratitude, the deer swept through this past weekend and wiped out the few remaining tomatoes. I hope they enjoyed them.

    I still have lacinato kale and collards growing. I also harvested a dozen beautiful habanero peppers, will be cooking them down with shredded carrots, then blending them and adding to white Modena vinegar to make a batch of homemade hot sauce.

    What we really need is rain. It has not rained for about two weeks, and the ground is turning into a brick, which is not helping remaining radishes and late greens.

  37. 37.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    I’m on a PC now with Vista and the chickens are no longer hanging by their toes. But on my iPhone (5S, IOS 9.02) they’re still looking pretty precarious.

  38. 38.

    Schlemazel

    I still read the Dilbert cartoon every day, it is not terrible (todays is not terrible for example). But at that site Scott Adams also blogs, I never ever ever read that lump of horse hockey. He went well and truly insane a few years back, which is a shame because I met him in the early 90s and he was well grounded and seemed pretty sharp. He fashions himself somewhere along the libertarian spectrum but with a huge wad of predestination and other gobblety-gook. Anyway, thats just an overly long set up for the link he posted titled “Tony Robbins Explains How to Defeat Donald Trump”

    If you know what a load of shit Robbins is you can guess but here is the link for your morning entertainment
    http://www.businessinsider.com/tony-robbins-how-to-defeat-donald-trump-2015-10

  43. 43.

    Betty Cracker

    What a handsome flock! (Upside down on my iPad, right side up on my Winders machine. Weird!)

  44. 44.

    debbie

    Rolled out of bed to watch the beginning of the city marathon running by my apartment. Amazing how many different running styles there are, but I still don’t understand the guy running shirtless in low 30s weather. It was only at the 5-mile mark.

  45. 45.

    satby

    Scout211, your garden is wonderful, I should have mentioned in my first comment. All of you organized folks with your neatly mulched raised beds are giving me a huge inferiority complex ;)

  47. 47.

    Cervantes

    @Betty Cracker:

    (Upside down on my iPad, right side up on my Winders machine. Weird!)

    Did not happen before people started taking photos with their phones.

    When you held a digital camera and took a photo, you never (unintentionally) held the camera upside down: the device had a fixed orientation that everyone’s hands naturally respected. But phones are often held “upside down” when photos are taken. We (write and) expect software to magically take care of things via metadata (EXIF tags and the like), but this introduces complications: servers and browsers sometimes treat metadata idiosyncratically; or devices strip metadata away completely when photos are being transferred; and so on.

    Hence the confusion.

    Or rather, why should I think of it as confusion? Gravity-defying chickens can be fun!

  49. 49.

    gelfling545

    Lovely, orderly vegetable garden. After this year’s vegetable debacle I believe I’m giving up on vegetables in the garden & turning the (small) space over to cutting flowers. It snowed (no accumulation) here yesterday, currently 37 degrees with snow showers predicted and I have much garden cleanup still to be done. Sigh.

  50. 50.

    Another Holocene Human

    @OzarkHillbilly: Something very similar happened 20 years ago to someone I know. She had children with her and gave them a signal with her eyes through a mirror. They ran away. The man cut her in the chest. The kids got the police, and she recovered from her injuries, but was too traumatized to return to work for months.

    If he had had a gun …

  51. 51.

    MazeDancer

    Beautiful garden! Most envious.

    Pics upside down on iPad with Safari. Interesting it seems to be a browser/OS thing.

    Hard frost did come last night, plants frozen, yet the trees are full leafy green. Another not usual thing.

  52. 52.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Schlemazel: You never had hot carrots?

    Anyway, it’s like carrots in marinara sauce (yes, that’s a thing). When cooked and the starches broken down, they’re mildly sweet.

  54. 54.

    Josie

    Lovely garden and chickens. I am jealous of the organized raised beds, but more so of the chickens. I can’t wait until I move to a location where I can raise some. It looks to be about two years.

  55. 55.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Schlemazel: Meh, it’s a video.

    Scott Adams got big into creationism and decided he was going to be loud and proud about it in the 1990s. He has been trolling and auto-trolling (he got busted praising himself under socks) on the inter-tubes since the 1990s.

    Predestination too? Well, in for a penny, in for a pound, I guess. Predestination just seems like the most oppressive doctrine that Western christian movements have ever coughed up.

    But the real deal is that Scott Adams is displaying his fanatical devotion to the state of science in the 18th century when clockwork universe still seemed like a reasonable position to many serious thinkers. Quantum physics decisively blows that out of the water (but there were hints for serious scientists if they were looking earlier than that). Ditto for creationism, you don’t look like a moron for flogging that–prior to the 19th century. Then science steamrolls you.

  56. 56.

    WaterGirl

    We got a hard frost last night – down to 28 degrees – so everything is frosty this morning. So sad. At least all the pots I moved under the carport are still okay! Looks like I will be able to move them out on Monday and have them be okay for another 10 days.

    I took photos last week and planned to send them to Anne Laurie so we could have some happy flower photos before we lost everything, but I never seem to actually send the photos to Anne Laurie.

    I would take self-sending photos before I would use a self-driving car.

  58. 58.

    Josie

    @Josie: A question for those who raise chickens. Did you get advice from a book or web site that you found particularly helpful? I can start studying and planning, even if I can’t start raising.

  59. 59.

    Scout211

    @Cervantes:

    This actually may be the problem. I took the photos with my iPad but I have no idea if the device was right-side up or down since I used the landscape position.

    The photos are not upside-down on my iPad screen here but I have not updated to 9.

    When the inverted photos happened to people as they updated to iOS 8, it was suggested that the go to the compass app and recalibrate.

    Sorry if it was my bad.

  60. 60.

    Schlemazel

    @Another Holocene Human:
    I guess I was lucky enough to have missed his go at creationism – thank pasta! I didn’t want to go into too much detail as the intro was already too long. Adams is another one of those people who I ignore while appreciating their craft. Maybe its too much money, maybe its too much exposure to the idiots on the net but it boils down to he is nuts & its best to pretend to know nothing about him.

  61. 61.

    Scout211

    @currants:

    This is my first year for strawberries. I was told that they should bear through November, maybe longer depending on the weather.

    We are in Northern California.

  64. 64.

    scav

    @Scout211: Not your bad — not at all. Acrobatic chickens and cabbages have immeasurably improved the morning, even as they are physically fine specimens in any orientation. This whole “North is as the top invariably” bias is something we should break out of. Besides, orientation — notice the Orient in there? — once meant that the East was at the top, so find the eastern wing of those chickens and we’ll try ’em that way.

  65. 65.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Josie: Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow. Everything you’ll ever need to know and more. It is just my first year w/ chickens so I’m still in the learning stages. I can say the book fed as many insecurities as it relieved but I think that is just me. Having all the info, I was looking for things I needn’t have worried about. After 7 months I am far more relaxed.

  66. 66.

    Scout211

    @Josie:

    My husband is the chicken wrangler in our household and he did quite a lot of research both online and from reading books.

    Also, too, our granddaughter is in 4H and we’ve learned a lot from her.

  68. 68.

    Botsplainer

    I’m in Puerto Morelos right now (just south of Cancun), and have been listening to several roosters crowing for a few hours now.

    I’m bored shitless (I got in yesterday), as my solo dive trip looks like a complete bust thanks to a stubborn tropical weather pattern clinging to Campeche like a tick. Red flags are out due to wind (so the boats have to stay in), and the heavy rains wash sediment into cenotes and wreck visibility. I can’t even snorkel inside the reef.

  69. 69.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Botsplainer: Couple of months ago I was reading about a major seaweed problem on pretty much all east-facing shores in the Caribbean. What’s that looking like there these days?

  70. 70.

    Cervantes

    @Scout211:

    Sorry if it was my bad.

    Hardly a problem. In fact, your photos as uploaded to Balloon Juice still have some of their tags, including the one for orientation; and the one that tells me you took the photo of the chickens on an iPad Air.

    I also see you’re in California. Lovely garden! Thanks.

  71. 71.

    Josie

    @OzarkHillbilly: Thanks. It looks good. I have a couple of Storey’s guides for other subjects and have found them to be well done. I will start reading and dreaming.

  73. 73.

    Botsplainer

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I was here at the end of July, and the seaweed was a huge problem – it was piled two feet deep at the surfline and the water was nasty to get in up to about 20 yards off the beach. This pattern looks like it is breaking that up quite a bit. One of the dive shop people said it was 9 feet high in some parts of Honduras.

  74. 74.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Botsplainer: I was in a small mountain village in central SLP on X-mas once and they held one hell of a party. Every one from all over that jurisdiction showed up, had to be 1,000+ people. Music, drinking, dancing, fighting… All in our group got drunk as skunks. I went to bed about 3 am. The roosters started up about 3:15. The next morning we got up and hiked over the mountain to drop a 400’+ pit that was one of the more beautiful I have ever been in. The hangovers had everyone kind of ‘meh’ about it.

    They still talk about those damned roosters tho.

  75. 75.

    Betty Cracker

    @Cervantes: Can you tell me which one has orientation (via email)? I looked through the data quickly but didn’t see that. I’ll strip it out and repost. It’s not a good idea to have that info online. TIA.

  76. 76.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Josie: I built my 10×10 coop based on the plans in her book with the droppings pit and the nesting boxes accessible from outside. It has worked out well.

  77. 77.

    Cervantes

    @Botsplainer:

    I was here at the end of July, and the seaweed was a huge problem

    Sargassum is proliferating because of climate change and deforestation in the Amazon — meaning it’s not a temporary problem.

    Or rather, it may be a problem for some humans; but not for others and not for many other creatures.

    Anyhow, I’m sorry to hear you’re bored in Paradise! Hope it works out.

  78. 78.

    Steeplejack

    @Poopyman:

    [. . .] the wi-fi sucks on this side of the house.

    I highly recommend a wi-fi range extender such as this one (or similar). Not expensive, pretty easy to install, no fuss after that. My brother was getting a weak signal in the kitchen and family room. I put in one of these, and now he gets good coverage there and even on the back patio.

  79. 79.

    Cervantes

    @Betty Cracker:

    By “orientation” I meant which way the image should be displayed: as is, rotate 90°, rotate 180°, that sort of thing.

    Whereas if what you’re wondering is how I saw that the garden is in California …

    But thanks for trying to protect people’s privacy. I appreciate it.

  81. 81.

    the Conster

    We’re going to need a bigger popcorn bowl:

    Donald J. Trump Verified account
    ‏@realDonaldTrump

    Jeb, why did your brother attack and destabalize the Middle East by attacking Iraq when there were no weapons of mass destruction? Bad info?

    Retweets
    1,111
    Favorites
    1,533

    6:29 AM – 18 Oct 2015

  82. 82.

    Pie Happens (opiejeanne)

    Not sure how my garden is doing; our house-sitters haven’t sent us photos, other than a couple of shots of giant beets which my daughter found amusing. One is big enough to carve for Hallowe’en.

    We are currently in Kettleman City, a place with two redeeming characteristics: a hotel that takes cats, and an In’n’Out. We arrived too late to eat there last night, and neither of us thinks we want breakfast there, although it would probably be better than the breakfast being served at this hotel.
    We hope to be home tomorrow afternoon, but not sure what mischief the weather in Northern California has been up to the last few days. Driving through the mudslide area on I-5 last night we couldn’t see much evidence of it but the road surface has been badly damaged in places between Gorman and Grapevine, probably from when they were scraping the mud off.

  83. 83.

    Poopyman

    @Steeplejack: Thanks! I’m hoping to move from 802.11n to 802.11ac this week, and hoping that cures the problem.

    The way the house is designed and where I have the router (next to Mrs. P’s office), the signal has to go through 2 exterior walls, a floor, and an interior wall to make it to the front upstairs bedroom. OTOH, it doesn’t quite make it to the street in that configuration.

  85. 85.

    benw

    @the Conster: I imagine Jeb curled up in a little ball mumbling:
    “He kept us safe.”
    “He kept us safe.”
    “He kept us safe.”
    “He kept us safe.”
    …

  88. 88.

    Cervantes

    @Pie Happens (opiejeanne):

    We are currently in Kettleman City

    Again!

    a place with two redeeming characteristics: a hotel that takes cats, and an In’n’Out.

    “Uncle Dave” Kettelman was quite a guy. Immigrating from Germany he made a fortune as a rancher and some-time miner. He also became a prominent civic leader, and the family is still around … so be nice!

  93. 93.

    Botsplainer

    @Cervantes:

    My uneducated perception is that it probably isn’t a good thing for the feeder stock at the bottom of the chain in the shallows (the chemistry there seems super fucked up, a reeking sulphurous stench and an oily feel of decomposition). About only real help provided is for baby turtles (which frankly need the help).

    I’ll agree that it is a warming and deforestation problem, and gonna be there long term from Trinidad to Texas.

  95. 95.

    Aleta

    Since the subject has come up, why don’t links to previous comment(er)s on this blog work on my iPad? And why would editing of comments (immediately after posting) stopped working (on MacBook, also) starting a few weeks ago?

  100. 100.

    opiejeanne

    @Cervantes: we have been in the actual town, which is about a mile away from I-5, and it is a poverty-ridden place, dismal and with little opportunity other than working on one of the vast corporate farms and “ranches” (incredibly huge feedlots), or serving coffee at the McDonalds take-out window.
    I doubt that Mr Kettelman’s heirs live in town these days.

  101. 101.

    HeartlandLiberal

    @Schlemazel: Adding carrots to habanero sauce is pretty common. It adds a sweetness. Try Googling ‘habanero carrot sauce’, and you will get a plethora of example recipes. The proportions vary wildly according to taste. I also add some lemon, the citrus really compliments the habanero and spikes the flavor. I go for flavor, not super hotness.

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