And finally found the time (and the nerve) to repot my orchid....We shall see how *that* comes out.

Wow. Added up all the tomato harvest and So Far This Year (2 Oct 2014) from six plants, late to go into the ground, fed like bejesus to catch up,

OVER 97 Pounds harvest as of today.

48 pounds in the last week.  AND the BIG ONE for the year, beating out numerous >1lb'ers, including one at 1 lb 9 oz, we have a new winner at 1 lb 11 oz, Brandywine"

The tomatoes are, indeed, rolling in

Sometimes (!) it's nice to be retired, it appears. A little over 3 months in, and I am not having ANY trouble keeping busy.

Thirty lbs of tomatoes (and a few peppers.) There were 9 over a pound.

2 7-quart pots

Squeezed it all in to the one pot!

 

7 quarts of yummy tomato goodness!

AND we got the most vulnerable of the trees and bushes with their protection against the rutting bucks.  Not ready for the winter, but at least the fall!  It was a busy couple of days...

Well there is a garden this year after all.

End of August, after a dry month we are back on track with rain and some tomatoes are finally ripening. Picking some of them a bit green to encourage more to ripen - there are a bunch!

First tomato, Amish Paste. Cat and Saltshaker for Scale

Brandywine

Black Brandywine

San Marzanos

The retaining walls below the patio are home for the tomatoes this year, where there will eventually be more bushes and other less utilitarian plants.

The front entry has half the garden started (with lots of placeholder plants, dug up from the old house, which are relieved to finally be in the dirt instead of pots!) Along with a Cornus Kousa (Summer Gold) and a Clethra Alnifolia (Hummingbird.) And so far the strings have kept the deer out - there's enough else to eat. The hostas got cages, though, because it did not take long for the buggers to find them.

Well it really is funny, that the house is all done now, we are trying to move in/move out of the old house.  Most of the move is done but the old house is getting spruced up to go on the market, so we are not spending nearly enough time at the new one!

The yard is a muddy mess, as is the driveway, since the last big thing is to (re-)establish final grade around the house, redo the driveway and add the second one, and then get some seed down.  Probably over half an acre that got dug up and rearranged, so that's a lot of seed.  Planning on some short prairie grasses for the majority, where there aren't garden beds, with plantings and just a little regular lawn for gaming outside.  It will be a work in progress for the rest of my life!  A thought that I find both exhilarating and exhausting.

The "blank canvas" of the patio area with big retaining walls:

Shouldn't I be outside instead of blogging?

I did manage to add two pages, one for Starting Seeds, and one with a couple of pictures of the new house.  We finally made it to 60 deg F so I should probably try and get something done outside today before dinner...

It's been a long fall and winter, lots of things to do with the new house on the verge of starting. May be posting more about that....in the meantime, with the discussion of impatiens and their impending doom (hope not) here is a picture of my shady corner many years ago - you can still see too much of the neighbor's icky yard, and this was before the shed was built behind the fence, making it even darker....Impatiens are invaluable to me here, Shady Ladies! And today, amazing number of cardinals mobbing the feeders this evening. A minimum of a dozen in view...light snow falling, quite the colorful sight!