MarthaJeanne's Garden 2024 part 2

Just to start the new topic.

Just to start the new topic.

Found someone to come and take veggies off my hands! Now they are her problem.

And when her husband picked them up, he also gave me two CDs, so I'm lying here listening to Haydn trios. CPE Bach will have to wait for tomorrow. I know who got the best of this trade!

I cut back some of the tomatoes that were growing out into areas they weren't entitled to. The Ananas Noir has a stem that missed getting supported. too late now. The fruits on it are too heavy. I see that they will not turn red. Better go look at them again. They may be nearly ripe.

Nope, still very green, but three fruits as big as my fist. The other one I was wondering about should be easier, as they turn bright orange.

>4 MarthaJeanne: Fried green tomatoes? I've also eaten green tomato pie. The baker asked me if I could tell what was different about her apple pie. The only thing I could find was that the pieces were cut smaller than I was used to. That's when she told me they were green tomatoes.

Very lethargic today, but I decided to see what the noise is in the street.(changing streetlights. The old ones are florescent and send light in all directions. The new ones LED and just down. Less electricity, less light pollution.)

It's cool out there, so I decided to weed around the sage plants. They really need a strong prune, but my neighbour likes to dty them for winter use, so I'll hond off until they are out here again. Did prune the hyssop. Lots of viney things are coming up through the sage, so I worked at that. Decided to chop the stupid caramel berry plant again. It fell apart in my hands and let me pull up its roots. Yeah!

I found a sage branch rooted and good to cut off, so I did, potted it, and we'll see if it was ready for life on its own. I used a wide, shallow pot so most of the stems are underground and maybe make more roots.

Anyway, I got a good basket full of weeds etc. so I have actually accomplished something today.

Also removed spam from the mailbox. Amazing how many people think that our 'No ads' stickers don't mean them. Now and then I call up the gardening companies and explain that I could use help if they could do what I want done and follow my instructions. "Oh, yes, of course we can!" Too bad, you've already proved to me that you can't.

Just picked tomatoes. I gave a pepper plant a support stick, and put an upside down plant saucer under those three big tomatoes so they don't sit in the dirt. Harvest amounts are down almost towhat I could actally eat. It was cool this morning (15°!) but over 30 mow. We need rain. That little bit a few days ago was not enough.

I did check. Although the plants look very dry, there is moisture in the ground even though I didn't water this morning. That doesn't mean they wouldn't really love a bunch of rain water. And like me, they don't really like this heat.

I finally (11:00) got around to go out and water. Since I missed the last 2 days, it was important. However, it seems to be starting to rain, so I limited the watering, giving the containers on the wall a full dose, but most other things at most a quick sprinkle. I also gave the citrus over half my current supply of rain water. If it rains enough, they will get more, also the containers a big helping of rain water. Otherwise I'll have to do more watering with the hose later.

Hmm. Sun, guess it's otherwise. Better finish the watering.

Did a full watering, including a second batch on the containers. Then a bit of harvesting. Staked up one of the toga eggplants. There may not have been usable rainfall, but the air is very muggy. Time to be back inside.

If I want peppers and toga eggplants for supper I should probably start fiddling with them fairly soon. Could also add some malabar spinach towards the end. Not sure if I want beef, chicken, or chickpeas in that. Yes, tomatoes go in, too.

>8 MarthaJeanne: Yes, good veggies. I included bacon, onions, garlic, one of my spicy yellow mini peppers, bay leaves. And ate it with toast and a fried egg.

What I didn't eat tonight went into 4 holes of a silicon muffin pan and into the freezer. Just because I managed to use today's harvest doesn't mean I could eat it all. I think it would be good with hummus, or over fish.

Airplanes are very loud this evening. A week from now it would be Jerry's plane coming in.The weather forecast says we might get rain Sunday - Monday.

Dare I mention that it sounds as though it might be raining?

Doesn't count unless it fills my container at least once.

Well, it was nice while it lasted. The shed roof got wet enough that water ras coming down the gutter, and the ground is a few shades darker. But nothing is really wet.

The forecast for tomorrow makes me think it will be about as useful as today.

I hadn't raked apples since Monday. I'll provably have to do a bit tomorrow, but there were so many. I also chopped a few branches where the apples were conking me on the head. And raked up the weeds I had cut back a week ago. critters have had plenty of time to move out. The bin is about half full and very heavy. It goes out tomorrow evening.

My goodbess! This is really rain. More in the last 5 minutes than the whole hour long driaale yesterday!

Got to go out and dance in it!

Wow! Everything (including me) is soaking wet. I was able to water the citrus, all the containers, fill up the watering cans. It is slacking off now, but I expect the container to refill, so I am very, very happy.

>12 MarthaJeanne: I dance with you!

>13 2wonderY: But I bet you didn't have to change clothes afterwards.

OK, the 'dancing' was mostly carrying watering cans of rain water to needy plants.

I have now harvested my first ananas noir tomato. Good thing, too as there was a slug on it and a hole. It's a bit bigger than the ones I've been harvesting so far.

A friend came over and took me shopping. She also took a big bag of veggies home with her. Win-win! (But she did not get the big tomato.) I bought mushrooms, so I guess I'll eat those for supper. I might even bake biscuits to serve them over. Unless I just eat biscuits with tomato and cheese.

The neighbour is back, so I cut the largest sage bush way, way back. (She dries the leaves for sore throats in the winter.) I have given her plenty, which let me get to the dead wood underneath. Then a good helping of compost and water to start taking off again.

She was also delighted to take a whole lot of lemon cucumbers off my hands. Maybe almost as delighted as I was to get rid of them. I have never known them to grow like this year. I like them, yes, but one or two a week, not a few every day.

No wonder the plants all look so unhappy. I had to wash my quilt today. Cotton quilt with cotton batting. I laid it out on the lawn on a sheet in half shade. Three hours later it is totally dry.

So of course the moisture is just sucked out of the plants as well.

I'm told that the other side of Vienna go a lot more rain Sunday Monday than we did. Clouds come in from the West over the Vienna Woods (hills) and dump what they have there in the hilly districts, leaving not much for the rest of us.

My plants did not get water this morning, but some days I just can't.

>17 MarthaJeanne: We are back to hot baking sun too. I haven’t put Saturday’s acquisitions in the ground yet.

Do you know what happens if you have a bad night, and therefore skip the garden routine that morning? The next morning you have double so many tomatoes to harvest. Luckily the neighbour is here with extended family, so they are having a big tomato salad with their lunch.

>19 MarthaJeanne: I have some tomato chutney recipes if you need them, lol.

I have a very good tomato chutney recipe that my mother got when we lived in several decades ago. I used to make it quite often back when there were five of us and I had a big kitchen, and nobody with diabetes. It's a lot more work than I am up to now, and I wouldn't be able to eat more than a single small jar of it in a year, so not much point to the whole thing.

I remember my parents visiting once. We had mac and cheese for supper, and my father said, "All this meal is missing is your mother's tomato chutney." Sure enough, I had forgotten to put a jar of chutney on the table. That was quickly remedied, and we probably went through most if not all of a pint jar that meal.

But I don't make mac and cheese these days either. It was great for filling up teenage boys. But it is very calorie dense for us now. We haven't used the fondue pot or the raclette grill since the last boy left either.

Jerry gets back tomorrow, so I won't have to try to consume them all alone.

Aaaargh! The other two big ananas noir were not ready to harvest yesterday. Today they had both been snacked on by slugs. One only a little, the other had half hollowed out. I have saved what I could.

I decided it was time to prune the gfeen zebra so that it was only in its own space. Each branch had to be checked for harvestable tomatoes. Once the pruning was done I could also check the rest of the plant for harvestables. I think we are having spagetti with green tomato sauce tomorrow.



Today's harvest.

I would feel bad about all the green ones I threw away if there weren't so many more out there.

I also tied branches up on other plants that needed it. It's 'only' 28° out there now. High time to be back inside.

I have cut up all the yellow and green tomatoes I have in the house, and they are boiling away in a pot with only olive oil, an onion, and two hot yellow mini peppers. I intend adding a large bunch of basil once they have cooked down a bit.

I have three ice cream pots (400ml) available, and think that I can fill all three, and still leave some for tomorrow. Plus of course, there will be more by then. That can be cooked up with more onion, garlic, bacon and Italian sausage, and other flavourings for tomorrow night. If I eat enough ice cream today I might even get more frozen sauce.

Added a bit of salt.

Added the basil. removed one chilli, but didn't find the other. I think it ended up in the basil I blended with some of the sauce before adding it. It's OK. A bit of heat, buy not overwhelming. Two pots for the freezer, and could do another if I didn't want some for tomorrow.

I did eat the ice cream, so I could freeze two finished spaghetti sauce tomorrow. (Giving my halo a polish.)

35° this afternoon. We did get 5mm last night, but it is barely a help.

I found several more green and yellow tomatoes, and have created my spaghetti sauce. I think it's going to be good. Might have found more tomatoes to use if I could have stood out there in the sun any longer.

Very meaty. Could use more tomatoes, but it's HOT out there.

We got about 13 mm rain yesterday and overnight. This is a reasonable amount. But the North of the city got over 10 times as much. That is not reasonable.

Not really my garden, but I boiled up some 'kriecherl' - cherry sized plums fron the fruit grower, and froze 6 muffins worth. I used wine and amoretto as liquid to start them. Then added cardamon. I did start halving and pitting some, but quickly tired of that. The only added sugar is from the Amoretto, but the sauce is plenty sweet enough for me.

The other thing I did today was pull ivy from under the apple tree. It is trying to go into the lawn, as well as taking over the whole shady area between the apple tree and the hedge. No. Stop. Just stop. It also looks messy where it overflows under the hedge out into the parking space on the street. Of course it also interferes with gathering the dropped apples. When I came in I had to throw my trousers in the laundry, as I had managed to sit in a few rotten apples.

Today got up to 28°, but then cooled off. Working outside was even pleasant. it is supposed to warm up again. Slowly at first, but 33° by Friday, which is when the market I like is open. I can't do it.

I did check this morning, but things did not need watering. I'd better get back to it tomorrow, though.

The neighbours brought me a few kilos of plums - the dark purple oval ones called Zwetschken. I have bought other fruit, and am considering a jam with bear and blueberry as well as the plums, using Ginger beer as the starting liquid.

Now back into Gutes fürs ganze Jahr for more ideas.

The clouds keep pretending that they want to rain. At least it's cooler today.

>28 MarthaJeanne: Yes! That method of pitting got old very fast. I basically just squeezed the cherry plums open to remove the pits.

>31 2wonderY: I left most of the pits in.

>30 MarthaJeanne: I've got cake in the oven.

I'll try the jam tomorrow. Maybe I should set up the dryer.

I plan to make jam and chutney https://thefoodieat.org/indian-spiced-plum-chutney/ tomorrow.

We'll see how many plums are left then.

Jam is made.

And now I'm working on the chutney.

I have not added the sugar yet. I plan to add the half package of Gelierzucker I have once the plums have cooked down bit. I added some molasses to make up for the brown sugar. After that is in, I will check how much more sugar I want both for flavour and texture.

OK. Disregarding the advice to let it mature for a few weeks before eating.

It has a good deal of heat. Another time I might add just one of my little yellow chillis. (Replacing the dried ones.) During the cooking I decided that the spices were a bit boring, one-sided, so I added the garum masala I had, about 1 1/2 T. Much better. With 250g 2zu1 Gelierzucker it seems quite sweet enough to me.

One of the jam jars lost ots lid in processing, so the top half got rather watery. I am using that as the liquid for preparing a Kriecgerl sauce. >31 2wonderY: You're right, that works. I have also added in the rest of the purple plums, and as it was still sweeter than I wanted, I chopped up a whole lemon. Leaving out the seeds. Had to add ginger beer as it was getting too thick. Tastes good now, and will become frozen 'muffins'.

Jerry was watching a few tits playing around the bird bath, sipping at the water, getting in, standing on the ceramic birds, flying up into the pepper tree and back down. He was even inspired, once the birds left, to clean it out, and refill it with clean water.

Glad to know it's appreciated. Also glad not to have to feel guilty that it was overdue for a scrub out.

I found directions for flame roasted tomatoes. If I'd known this a few weeks ago... The tomatoes are really good. Halved (my small tomatoes) and on a rack over a sheet pan under the oven's grill at 230° Some are going in tonight's supper, the rest in the freezer. Not sure how long they took. Not long, but that will vary by oven. I could smell them, and most had brown edges.

Actually, the directions mixed olive oil with flavourings, and drizzled them before grilling, but I wanted neutral ones, so I just skipped the oil.

Now I need to slice and saute a bunch of eggplant. Eventually I will make an eggy sauce with onions and feta, then layer ham, eggplant and tomatoes with the sauce in puff pastry. I have kind of mixed several recipes I found on line after harvesting lots of eggplants today.

>40 MarthaJeanne: The egg, feta, onion, mint mixture can't really be called sauce, as it isn't really liquid. I used two layers of it. More would probably have been better., Or these ingredients added to white sauce to make at least one more layer of it. I used two of my long eggplants and an egg one. That was two batches in my big skillet, and as much as I felt like doing.

Plenty of eggplant left for a brinjal-chickpea curry. I just need to buy more garam masala.

Jerry just ordered a box of dish washer tablets, and it came with a package of wild flower seed. A mixture of 40 different bee friendly plants. The directions are printed in white on orange in quite small print, but we worked hard to read them.

Plant the seeds around now or April May spreading thinly in a well prepared fine seedbed with no weeds. You really need to push the seeds down with a profi roller. Keep it nice and damp, and after two or three weeks you should see the first seedlings. Be sure to keep the bed weed free... Well quite outside of the fact that the areas where I might want these is not a well-prepared seedbed, and can't be turned into one right now because the earth is really hard from the long dry spell; and last time I looked in the shed we didn't have any roller, never mind a 'profi' one; watering with the hose would move the seeds, and even that would hardly keep soil moist in the kind of weather that isn't due to end for a couple of weeks; and if this mixture has over 40 different plants, how the heck am I supposed to recognise which seedlings are 'good plants' and which are weeds?

That is as far as I read. I think the seeds are landing in the trash.

>38 MarthaJeanne: Put another dozen fruit 'muffins' in the freezer. Mostly Kriecherl and Red currant. I added some raspberries, a couple of mandarins that are too sour (the sauce is very sweet in spite of no added sugar), and some of the ''Aladin's coffee spice' I bought a few days ago to try. Not in coffee, but to have various mixtures for baking, etc. This one seems very nice.

Our normal farmer's shop no longer has the currants, but we went to another one hoping for a duck dinner, (Yes!) and they also had the currants.

Besides the 'muffins', I have a bowlful to eat later with cake.

I have cut up the tomatoes from today and yesterday to do flame-roasted tomatoes again. They have now been in a 230°C oven for almost half an hour, and are nearly ready. Then the AC will have the whole night to lower the room temp again.

BTW, you need to be careful opening the oven, as this generates a lot of very hot steam. Once the first blast is gone, it's not so bad.

ETA yes, half an hour. This time I skipped the rack, and just pit them on baking paper. Once they have cooled down a bit I will put them in the freezer on the paper, and package them up tomorrow.

Time for bed, but I needed to do this, without pumping all that heat into the ground floor during the day. The new heat wave might go back down to just hot weather by next weekend. No rain in sight. 45 days over 30° so far this summer. If they say it's letting up, it's still been 28-29°.

Doing tomatoes in the oven again tonight. I filled the baking sheet as full as I could get it. Only problem - I'l have to bag them tomorrow. I do not have another ice cream container. Guess I'm not eating enough ice cream.

The tomatoes are really producing again. I have started pruning new growth with blossoms. It is September. The heat will end, and I'd rather they ripened the current fruits than try to grow ones thar can't ripen. The days are getting noticeably shorter.

ETA Oh they smell good. They are almost ready, but I turned the tray back to front to try to brown the front ones, too. Half an hour is what my oven takes.

Cool and rainy! I have refilled my watering cans and distributed one among the citrus. I'll give the containers along the house some later, once more has accumulated.

They say the heat is over. Hard to believe. Yesterday was still over 30°. Friday they are predicting 13°.

A little later. I kept thinking of my poor eggplants and peppers. They must know it's raining, but they are still dry. Yes! my rain water container is filling well. I can give those three containers each a watering can full. I'm wet, too now, of course. Never mind. This is a nice, steady rain. The kind that soaks in.

In an hour I'll go out and fill the watering cans again. Maybe give the citrus another drink.

Jerry was outside and called in to ask if I had cut something big dow. Well, no, I hadn't. I went out, and next to the shed was a three meter long rose branch. ObviouslY NOT cut down, as it was still attached to the rose bush. He got out our big cutter, and we cut it into pieces that fit into our bin. We assume that the branch was lying along the roof of the shed. We need to cut several other branches back.

The rose bush has not enjoyed this summer.

>47 MarthaJeanne: I’ve been observing the same thing about my roses. Oddly, the recent additions to my yard have performed better.

We took out the lemon cucumber plants today. That resulted in finding four fruits I had missed, but the plant had basically shut down.

I hope the tomatoes will ripen all the green ones on the plants. Hard to tell how rhet will react to the weather. Sunday was still over 30°. Current forecast for Friday is 9°. Tomorrow not quite that cild, but rain and storm. I actually watered today as the beds and containers felt dry. They must have really wanted the rain. We got 30 mm. Tomorrow is supposed to be more.

Also pruned the rose more, and raked apples.

So much for storm and heavy rain. We are having a very light rain, with a good breeze, but not more than that. It feels rather nice out there at 12°, a 20° drop since Sunday.

I harvested a few tomatoes and some eggplants, both regular and toga, so i', making 'Moroccan' chicken https://hillstreetgrocer.com/recipes/main-course-recipes/moroccan-chicken-eggpla... for supper. So far I have grilled the tomatoes in the microwave to make 'canned tomatoes', and now the eggplant is in there on the fan oven setting. Yes, nicely done.

I'll serve the chicken with couscous, and maybe the almonds. Amounts are rather funny, as I am using 4 chicken thighs, not 12. I think the tomatoes more or less make 1 1/2 cups, so that is half the tomatoes and water for the sauce. I had a lot more eggplant than the recipe calls for. Do I use all of it, of try to use the equivalent of half a big one? Other ingredients I'll use half. I can decide how much eggplant it needs towards the end. I probably have at least twice what would be a reasonable amount. But I am not always reasonable.

I ventured out into the garden this morning. The rain has stopped for now. The containers on the house wall were fairly dry, in spite of the spongy ground underfoot, so I watered them with rainwater.

I harvested a pepper and a handful of tomatoes. Then I cut a big bunch of basil. I have since chopped and oiled it and put it in the freezer.

The winds are still very gusty. Jerry has gone out, avoiding underpasses and such. We are expecting more rain tonight, but tomorrow might even see some sun. Vienna is cut off from most of Austria as the Autobahns are closed, and no trains are running on the main lines. Anyone who can't get to school today is automatically excused. Advice is still to only go out if really necessary, but not as forcefully as yesterday. Our garden seems to have done well. Do you think the grass will start to grow again? It was last cut in mid July, and hasn't needed it since.

Next project is a banana fruit bread. Then supper. Not yet decided between Carbonara and spring rolls from the freezer. Anything more exciting would have meant going shopping.

Blue skies, sun, no wind, cool but comfortable temperatures. You'd never guess the past few days had happened. Well, except my weeding containers are full to the brim with water. LOTS of apples on the ground. And that ground feeling very spongey.

And for the first time in months, the bird feeder under the apple tree was nearly empty. I guess it was easier than finding other food in the storm. I wouldn't have cared to fly around a lot in the heavy rain and gusty winds. But even birdies get hungry after a few days of it.

I had plenty of rain water available for the containers. Yup, even with that storm, the south side of the house was mostly dry. I'm hoping for a final bumper crop of peppers and tomatoes, and even eggplant now that the plants have both sun and water to ripen all the green fruit.

We really do need to go shopping though. Eggs, butter, various dairy products, pretzel sticks, bananas, lemons, bread, meat, chocolate ... all those life necessities that start running our after a week. better check my flout reserves.

Still, we got off easy. No major damages in this neighbourhood.

>52 MarthaJeanne: I’ve seen some pictures. Glad you stayed out of the worst mess.

I too just stocked up on pretzel sticks.

>53 2wonderY: I tend to low salt levels, so always have pretzels around in the summer. Somewhat tastier than just dumping several salt crystals on my tongue, but I do that, too at times.

Several doctors have told me to ignore general warnings to reduce salt. That is true for 99% of patients. But you are the exception. Such a hassle that most salty snacks have reduced their salt levels way down. But the pretzel sticks I buy are still 4.5%salt.

As it is now cooler, finally, I sowed some spinach this morning. Then we went to the garden centre and I bought salad starts. It will be nice (in a couple of weeke) to have lettuce again.

We went to a garden fair today. I was planning on buying bulbs from a stand owner we know, and also looking for more starts of salad greens.

Right at the entrance I got my salad plants. Great! In the meantime Jerry had found a frill spice mix. We continued around buying White poppyseed pastries (yum!), ginger fruit bars, and vegetable soup powder. But we never found the stand we were looking for. Turns out he is at a different garden fair.

On the way home we decided to eat at a favourite fish restaurant. They were still very full at 14:30, but we got a parking space and a table. Good meal, and the usual good service, but we were surprised at how busy they were. Until we remembered that the big, better known restaurant in town is right at the Danube and got flooded out. I'm guessing that Binder was getting many of their customers, and probably using some of their staff as well.

I have planted out the greens. Looking forward to good salads in a few weeks, and throughout the winter.

Well, I've picked quite a few apples and given them away. I have also raked apples off the ground. I also cut off two limbs that were not needed where they were growing. We probably ought to ask the landlord to send people to prune it again. The neighbour has cut it back from the electric lines a few times, but it is getting very bushy on the lawn side again.

I trimmed the new growth off the tomato plants. Please don't try to make new baby tomatoes. There isn't time. Ripen the ones you already are carrying.

I finally cut back the lavender, and pulled more weeds in that area. Anyone (near here) interested in a baby szechuan pepper plant? I also have a sage plant available. The pepper tree is getting close to harvest. The berries are red, but not splitting open yet.

I should be able to finish filling the bin tomorrow for Tuesday's pick up. Weekly pickup goes through the end of November, and this time of year I hate to waste it, as there will be a lot to clear soon.

A big grasshopper was climbing around on me as I did all this, but I left it outside.

Everyone has been admiring our apples, and saying how wonderful they are. Well, I have to admit, they are really big this year, and not as wormy as usual, but I like my apples to have some acid, and I am so sick of raking them. That starts in June.

Anyway, Iwas being made to feel a bit guilty for wastung them all, so I remembered that I really liked Thyme Jelly years ago. Best thing to eat during a bad cold, as the thyme is good for your airways, and also makes your mouth taste clean for a change. But Making Jelly is a lot of work.

I compromised. I cooked up the apples with a lot of thyme and one of my bitter oranges. Then I removed the thyme and pureed the whole thing. These apples also don't break down. I added the juice of a lemon. Did I mention that the apples have no acid? I added sugar to the puree. Not really sure how much. I messed up the weighing. Mixed that in with the stick blender and put it back on the stove.

I ended up with 6 jars. It's good. The orange is quite prominent. I gave the neighbour a jar and a taste, She likes it, and so do I. But I do not like these apples. Anyone who wants them is welcome to tale them.

I had put out a pailful of apples. They went, partly in individual apples, but then someone took the whole pail, before the neighbour got to it. So I picked her some more. Both Jerry and I have given apples to passersby who have admired them.

BBC had a podcast this morning about slig repellants. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00237z6?at_mid=CrjpOaudmp&at_campaign=Sli...

Nope. They climb over barriers like egg shells and copper. Other things, if they are strong enough to get the slugs are problematic one way or another. Thought so. At least I have no objection to killing the things. This year has been so hot and dry that after they killed every zucchini start I planted, they haven't really been a problem. My beets do have nibbles out of them, but I can live with that.

Speaking of beets, I bought starts of cylindrical beets this year. Very tasty, and I love the shape. We had some last night, and I am very happy with them. They have been in the tomato bed down under the vines, so they have gotten water, if not a lot of sun. It seems to have worked.

Less than a month ago I was complaining about 30° and dry. Now it is 10° and rain. And I'm still not happy. You just can't satisfy some folk, can you. I have so many green tomatoes and peppers out there waiting for a few warm, sunny days to ripen them. Maybe next week.

The days are also getting short. Humpf. The problem is that I spent four years in India as a girl. In a reasonable place where the sun came up at 6 every morning, and weht down at 6 every evening, all very reasonable and predictable. This bit about so much sun in the summer, and so much dark in the winter still bothers me.

I remember, one Easter, getting up in the dark, and walking with flashlights to the church at Coacker's Walk. We met outside with a trumpet for our music, And it had barely started to get less dark as the service began, Then, during one of the prayers, the sun jumped up over the horizon, down below us across the plain under the cliffs, and it was light. Halleluja! That's almost 60 years ago.

I’m tomatoed out. I’ve harvested and packed and eaten so much this season that the basket I picked a couple of days ago is still sitting on the carport gathering fruit flies.

Went to the garden centre. Came home with two watering cans to replace the one that has died. Three packages of allium bulbs. Endive starts. They did not have starts of Pak choi or Chinese Cabage.

And a package of seed tape for Italian salads. I may or may not use the other two next year, but I really want to try out the Hirschhornwegerich, Eng. buck's-horn plantain, Italian erba stella, latin Plantago coronopus. It sounds very interesting, is supposed to be very winterhardy if I can get it going. Worth trying, anyway. I'll probably finish Frisches Gemüse im Winter tonight. 4 1/2* if you happen to live in Vienna.

I've had a good look at my Allium bulbs. Two packages say 60-80cm and the third 70-90 cm, so I threw them all into a paper bag to take out and plant. One set is called Granat-Kugellauch, one is Purple Sensation, and the last is Mischung (mixture).

There it goes! Today is the yearly check of the alarm systems, so they will sound off again and again for the next hour. This year they have added an alarm on cell phones. As we expected my old dumb phone did not get it. But Jerry's old cell phone still had a bit of charge and did get it in spite of no SIM-card. Interesting. I won't go outside until it's all over. Much less loud in here.

I did not buy the package called Sky High. I had some taller than me last year, and I prefer the shorter ones.

I just weeded a bot of empty border along the fence, and I will plant many of these there, then put in a row or two of the erba stella. I will also sow some in the house to plant out. I should get something out of it.

(More sirens going off.)

Planted that group of Alliums and erba stella. The rest of the erba stella tape is either with the lettuces or in a small tray on the window sill (inside). We'll see what comes up, and when.

I also picked three big peppers. None of them are really ripe, but far enough for me to be willing to cook them, in the hopes that the plants will now concentrate on the next ones that are still much greener.



Tonight it's those peppers cooked will onion, apple, and some beef, caramelized onion and fig sausages I have dug up out of the freezer. Should go well. With rice I think, unless I decide to make biscuits.

I had a BLT for breakfast with my lettuce and my tomatoes. I now have beets pickling in the refrigerator. The slugs seem to be enjoying them, but they have left plenty for me on each beet. They had a lot longer in the oven than The Victory Garden Cookbook called for, and I would still prefer them softer, but the flavour is good.

The erba stella seed tape in the house has sprouted. Much too delicate for me to try to handle.

I took out some of the spinach seeds from the sprouter and planted them. They are just barely beginning to sprout, and may well not like the temperature shock. I started cutting back the tomatoes. Ooops! Well that large fruit that is light green goes on the window sill to see if warmth can convince it to turn red. I also found a handful of small red ones. We stopped at two growers yesterday to get tomatoes for a pizza. They are both rather low on the ones I like. At the second place he told me they have heating and extra lights in the greenhouse, and plan to keep producing through mid November. But my poor planties are out in the cold cruel world. It's just frustrating how many full size green ones are out there.

I cut down my Roma paste. Large bits of it went for composting, but the branches that had large green tomatoes are now in a paper bag with a very ripe banana. I did find one ripe one in the process, and a few on another plant. I need to do more tomorrow, but hopefully the weather will be nicer. It got up to 15° today, but no sun and there is a stiff breeze, and now and again a drop or two. Not weather for spending time in the garden.j

I also brought in a few peppers. They are still ripening, but someone is eating bits out of the riper ones. Still, I get most of it.

I cleared the chilli and froze them, yellow, green or purple. I'm not sure why one branch has purple ones, while the main plant is yellow. Still, they will add a bit of heat to winter stews.

I have mushrooms in the refrigerator and eggplants in the garden. What should we have for dinner?

https://www.seasonedkitchen.com/eggplant-mushroom-pasta

Peppers? I have them too. I will also add some ham that needs to used up, basil, of course. And Gnocchi instead of paperdelli. We even bought mozzarella at the supermarket this morning, just on general principle.

I just pulled up each branch of the eggplant plant, cut off any fruit, then added the branch to my compost basket. That's one container emptied. I'd forgotten that there was also a pepper plant in there, which is the green pepper.

The erba stella is coming up outside now too. Once the seedlings have gotten a bit bigger I can move them to this container. Right now both inside and out, they are just the thinnest of threads. I'm actually very excited that this is working.

Since cleaning rhe bird bath (see https://www.librarything.com/topic/356626#8649550 ) the sun has come out. I finished cleaning out the container that had had eggplant in it. I needed to reseat the wire that holds the sides together, added a bit of compost and watered.

I then transplanted 10 erba stella seedlings from the lettuce container. They are much too tiny for any of my garden tools, but I suddenly realized that my snake would work.



I bought this in a Delhi bazaar nearly 60 years ago, and it still delights me, although it almost never gets used. Neither the tiny spoon, nor the wriggly handle really work. But it was just the right size to pick up a tiny seedling and embed it in wet soil.

I then checked the bird feeders. One was nearly empty, so I added its last bit to another and brought it in for a yearly clean. I should probably move the one in the pepper tree to the bush to get it emptied out. Sometimes the little birds like to sit there, take a bit of food, fly down for a sip of water and repeat, or they eat there when larger birds are at the other feeders, but mostly the pepper tree is just too close to the house.

Sweet spoon!

>72 2wonderY: I saw it, and I had to have it, although it was a big hunk of my allowance. It was from a little silversmith booth in a big bazaar that was a 'must see' tourest attraction.

>67 MarthaJeanne: Got a big harvest of tomatoes out of my banana bags this evening, and very few bad ones, They really are ripening nicely in there.

I went out and cut back more tomato plants. Got a fair number of ripe ones, and refilled the bag I had emptied with more that could yet ripen.

Neither bag has a banana in it at the moment, as the bananas had gotten just to banana bread ripeness, and there are only two at edible stage on the table. Tomorrow.

Before tackling the tomatoes, I was walking past my big lavender pot. It will go into the tent when we set it up (probably this week). I realized that it could use cutting back. It turned out that one of the major branches had not quite broken off, so getting rid of that was good. Mostly I'm not watering the things for the tent just now to cutdown on weight when moving them, but having cut the lavender way back, and seeing as how it is always thirsty, I did give it a drink. It will now fit a lot better.

I hate the fall time change. It is not quite 4:30, and getting too dark to work outside. Not that there has been any sun today at all.

We have more or less gotten the tent set up. Not all the zippers are zipped yet, but we're getting there. I think this is our third one of these things, and at least the ends of the zippers are no longer corroding aluminium, but we still have trouble getting them going.

Jerry is totally busy tomorrow, but as I have the energy I can set up the electrics (heating, ventilation, driveway lights and their timer) and start moving the plants in. If there were a frost warning now, we could at least give things some protection. I don't have things that curl up and die at the first sign of low temperatures, but several things that don't take well to frost. Three citrus, one bay, my big lavender, and several smaller things, including social garlic, lemon verbena, and even several flowers that I quite like. If they can stand fairly low tenps and light and benign neglect for a few months, I try to fit them in.

Today was the perfect day to work on this, as it was sunny and got up to 18°, so working outside was a pleasure. The Szechuan pepper is ripe for harvest, and we kept getting the scent of it as we brushed past. Nice! If you are in Vienna and want some, feel free to come by and pick as much as you want. It produces much more than we can use or I want to process.

Oh, yes, an abandoned pot on the terrace has a baby tree in it if you want to grow your own. Of course, the first harvest will take a while, and the tree will grow quite large. We have been successful at keeping the bottom two meters to a one meter diameter. It has quite wicked looking thorns, so this is important.

I think we've done it. One corner zip has not cooperated, but the electric bits seem to be working as they should, and everything that needs to be in is in, I think.

It will be nice having the driveway lights again. I did not want them set up before today, though. It seems to now be accepted that houses where trick or treaters are welcome are lit up with decorations, and everyone else is left in peace.

The weather man has been mentioning the word frost about Monday. I suspect that does not include Essling, but it's nice to be ready when it does come.

We had our first frost last night according to the thermometer. The tent did its job.

The basil turned black except for the two plants right up against the house. I stripped the peppers, most are a good deal greener than I like, but don't seem to have been hurt by the frost.

I have watered everything that might still be a crop out there. To my surprise, there even seems to be some baby spinach. I had not thought that either of my attempts had actually germinated.

It's noon now, and the sun has not yet made it through the high fog. 3° and no wind. (The heater in the tent must have gone on. It's 6° in there.)

High time to finish getting the bird feeders ready for winter. I washed one earlier. Now I threw the last bits out of the other two. The crows will find them. Detergent and hot water will get any other remains, and I can have them filled and ready If snow comes. Even through most of the winter the birds prefer wild food, but when everything is covered in snow, or we get rain and storm, they like to know where to get fast food.

I'll also bring in my bird bath and replace it with a large plant saucer. I give them hot water if it freezes over, but my nice one stays inside where it doesn't get harmed by frost. Just recently Jerry was going out to open or close the tent, but waited inside for a tit to finish its bath. In general, I think the bees, wasps and flies got as much good out of it during the summer. Fine with me.

That's done. And yes, there is a nice landing rock for the insects.

Right now the bird bath is out of the water and has been sprayed with disinfectant. Mostly to kill the algae that like to settle in the mortar of the mosaic.

There is a lot to do outside today, but at 4° my fingers get cold fast. So far I have swept the terrace to not keep stepping on szechan pepper. I harvested the last beets from the tomato bed and added my secret tomato fertilizer to the bed. Compost mixed with eggshells and wood ash, both good sources of calcium to prevent blossom end rot.

Next I need to add more compost and rake it. There are also plenty of leaves to rake up under the apple tree. That will be easier once I have emptied compost out of the bins I use for leaves, weeds, and compost. Right now they are still full of compost. If I get that done, there are still a few summer plants to clear. And there is always more weeding to be done. But not with grey skies and low temps. I am not a total masocist.

Well, that's all the raking I'm doing today.

I also took out the last tomato plant. There was a lot less still out there than I thought.

The bin is about half full. not really enough, but I've been busy in the house this week. We have a few more weeks before they start collecting only every other week. Since most of the leaves are down it should be OK.

I had ignored my tomato bags for too many days, and when I went to pick them up and see if I had any ripe ones, the bottoms fell out leaving a rather stinky mess on the floor, which, however, included a lot of ripe tomatoes.Once I had picked them over I washed them, and was left with a large bowl of ripe tomatoes. I also washed the floor.

The sun is out, and rapidly warming from a frosty night. Jerry raked, while I finished clearing one of my raised beds. It still has one chard plant in it. That can stay. I weeded, raked, and then scattered a package of sugar pea seeds. I raked them in a bitand watered. According to Ernte mich im Winter, they should sprout, and the plants can be harvested at about 10 cm for salads or stir fries. And, of course, if plants get away from me and grow up, I'll have peas in the spring. Wolfgang Palme says regular peas can take a bit more frost, but I wouldn't want the plants. Besides creating more winter harvest, the plants cover the bed, and the peas fertilise it for next year's crops. So I figure it is worth trying. It's not like I have anything else growing there now. A package of pea seed is not that expensive.

Did I say here that I bought a grow light? Still trying to get some real plants of erba stella. They seem to like it.

Had to leave to go shopping.

I bought small pots, a base for them and a small bag of potting soil. Now 18 of them are is a position to get bigger, and I have a few left over to replace any that didn't survive transplanting.

It is cold and dark and damp outside, but I was able to pick 6 kinds of greens for a pasta salad tonight. Blun still has tomatoes, and I got peppers and cucumbers at the supermarket. Not sure if Jerry was able to get some interesting protein to go in. It may end up being ham and a hardboiled egg. I could pick some herbs later.

The sun is out today. At 7° it wouldn't even be that cold if it weren't for a brisk breeze. Tomorrow is the last weekly compostables pick up. I swept the terrace and raked both under the pepper tree and the apple tree, but the volume is way down. I cut down one last tomato plant from its cage. I watered the containers of salad plants.

There are still a few other jobs I could do if my hands don't freeze off.

We raked. I watered and fed birds. Jerry turned the outside water off. It was sunny and only a little wind, so we both decided to take advantage of it. We had a hard frost last night. Even now there was still ice on the rain water. Most of it is now in watering cans in the tent. More comfortable for the plants, and space to collect more if it comes. Poor citrus plants got ice water today. Brrr.

The bin is only half full, so it doesn't matter that it doesn't get picked up this Tuesday.

It is cold (4°) and dark and drizzly out there, and I have raked two baskets of leaves, and I don't care if there are more leaves and more space in the bin that gets collected tomorrow. I've had enough!