Yeah in our area, showy milkweed and...narrow-leaf? milkweed are the best choices. Our local garden club started a milkweed patch with both kinds to be a monarch waystation for the annual migration, and it's doing very well.

Saskatoon berries(or serviceberries or june berries) are native here as well, as are currants. Crabapples also thrive here, as does rhubarb.

I don't know if I'd make medlar jelly, I'd want to taste the whole fruit first

Speaking of, time to do the evening watering and put our chickens to bed(lock them up safe for the night from predators).

I planted a lot of cucumbers so that I would have enough cucumbers the right size at the same time for making pickles. Now that I'm finished making pickles, I have A LOT of cucumbers that I've been giving away as quickly as I can. We eat some almost every night as well. Does anyone know how to "preserve" cucumbers other than making pickles? Or of a good way to just use up a lot of cucumbers?

Relish and um...skin care products, I'll look in my books tomorrow and find some recipes.

Sorry I didn't post anything yesterday, unexpected situation came up and I'm not sure when I'll have time to check the books.

No worries, Kalta,
The vines are starting to die, so there is an end in sight to my over abundance of cucumbers. I'm going to a family reunion this weekend out of state and I plan to pawn off as many cucumbers as I can when I'm there.

johobbit, I know what you mean about the cherry tomatoes splitting!

Yep. But you know what I've found? Now that the cooler weather has settled in, they're not splitting nearly as much. We are overloaded in tomatoes—both cherry and large.

Our cucs finished awhile ago (so tasty!). But this past weekend on a gorgeous autumn evening with a stunning sunset above (almost surreal in its beauty), we harvested all our potatoes—Red Chieftains. More than a bushel basket of them, and that was just from three not overly long rows. We also dug up our carrots. They're not huge, but boy, are they delectable!

At the end of the season our peppers really took off. Beans have been done for awhile, but we had a good yield from them. Love this time of year, both for the abundant harvest and for the gorgeous floral colours and fullness!

Between tomato and cucumber vines dying and having near freezing temperatures at night, it's time to "put the garden to bed" for the winter. It's a bittersweet time--I'll miss the fresh produce, but I'm also ready to be done with canning for the season so I can move on to other activities.

The tomato vines are nearly all pulled up--at the end it wasn't just the cherry tomatoes splitting; the regular tomatoes all had large cracks on the top which meant cutting off and throwing away half the tomato.

There are still quite a few green peppers in the garden. I will leave them as long as I can in the hopes of getting a few more red peppers. And I will keep the lettuce going as long as possible too--it's crisper in the fall.

There's still a lot of garden clean up to do before the snow flies, so here's hoping the snow doesn't fly for at least a month yet!

I dug 2/3 of my sweet potato plants today. I had to, my dog discovered them and was helping herself.

I decided that this year I was going to start gardening. So I made a huge garden bed and planted tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and sweet potatoes. i ended up making 9 quarts of salsa from the tomatoes and peppers. Cucumbers did horrible and just now remembered that i have sweet potatoes waiting for me. Thank you Fantasia_kitty for reminding me HAHAHA. Tonight we shall see if I have those or if they are all ruined.

i ended up making 9 quarts of salsa from the tomatoes and peppers.

That's a lot of chopping!

The first snowflakes started falling here this morning, so I picked the remaining lettuce and now the garden is empty. In some years past, I have kept lettuce going until mid November by covering it with hay and a plastic tunnel, but there wasn't enough out there this year to make it worth the effort just to have bragging rights at Thanksgiving.

I hope we still get a few sunny days before the real snow comes so that I can get the garden cleaned up better and mow the yard. It's been far too wet lately to get much of anything done outside.

It's supposed to drop to 17F tonight, so I picked my celery which is the last thing in my garden this year. It's soooo potent. It's small but it's got bigger taste than the store bought variety. I plan to chop it up and freeze it this evening.
I do need to get my herbs out of my front pot too. Either that or cover it.
I'm not planning on doing much next year except for an occasional plant due to my whole herb garden being taken over by horrible weeds and grass. Going to kill everything off next year. Should be interesting.

How did your sweet potatoes fare, fledge1?

Did you get those wished-for sunny days, Grandmama?

I've never planted celery, fantasia, but I bet it is absolutely delicious.

A few weeks ago we finished digging up any 'leftovers' in our veggie gardens. The potatoes are all harvested, as are the carrots (which we have already devoured—so-o-o good!), and the veggie plots are ready to be planted again in late spring, 2019. We went away for a couple of weeks recently, so before we left, we began winterizing the floral gardens. More to do there, though, especially as we have had a few frosts, with snow coming periodically, and it's turning quite cold. 'Tis so pretty, 'though, with the coloured leaves on the ground, mingled with the fallen snow.

It's sure hard going back to store-purchased produce, especially since my favourite market (runs from June 1 - Oct. 31) is now closed. They purchase only local product (within 75 kms), and I miss them SO much! The stuff from grocery stores can taste akin to rubber or cardboard after weeks of fresh goodness from gardens!

johobbit, I so know what you mean about going back to store bought produce. I'm missing the taste of the peppers and tomatoes from the garden so much. And it doesn't seem right that I actually have to pay for cucumbers. I had so many this summer, I was giving them away to anyone who would take them.

Yes, we did get some sunny days and the yard got mostly mowed while running the lawn mower out of gas. The leaves also got mostly raked and are now in compost piles. Of course, one of the maples waited to drop its leaves until after it snowed, so not all the leaves got raked. . .

Of course, one of the maples waited to drop its leaves until after it snowed, so not all the leaves got raked. . .

Yep. And the snow stayed for over a week. We now mainly have leaves to clean up that got stuck in the gardens, and would like to give the lawn one more mulch-mow, 'though I dunno if that's going to happen. But our geraniums are frozen in the ground, so we hope to have a wee thaw soon in order to pull those up before Christmas. We usually have November to finish off winterizing the gardens, but this year was quite different with the snow coming and staying.

I give a lot of amaryllises away each year (they make great gifts), so have spent some of this afternoon planting the bulbs and making them ready for gifts. Love these gorgeous stems and flowers. When our kids were young, we would make a very light mark on the stem at night before bed, and when they woke up in the morning, behold! it would have grown a 1/2" or more. Then came the day, finally, when the buds began to bloom, and wow! After years of experimenting, I have figured out that the last week of November is the best for planting the bulbs in order for them to be in full bloom for Christmas Day.

Because I love fall chrysanthemums, we have quite a collection. I have been debating where to plant them, having tried one spot around the back, but it's too shady. Finally a much better spot hit me (so obvious!) when mowing the lawn one day late summer, so we shall over-winter the mums, then dig the garden in the spring, then plant 'em and see what happens. Hopefully something.