What now?

With just a few weeks until the new year, here are a few things to consider:

Finish raking the leaves now that most of the leaves are off the trees.
Mulch leaves on the lawn, with a lawn mower which returns nutrients to the lawn and keeps the grass mowed.
If the need more leaves contact your neighbors, look for bagged leaves on Springfield streets or call the City of Eugene.

Poinsettias

When buying poinsettias, look for plants that have the bracts (flower parts). If the plants don't have bracts, the poinsettia has gone thru significant heat and cold changes. Keep the plant at a constant temp of around 67 degrees. Avoid heat vents, wood or oil stoves and/or fireplaces.

Thanksgiving

Let us be thankful for all of the blessings we have.

After traveling to international destinations on different humanitarian projects, I have learned we live in a great land with many freedoms. Today, let's not forget.

Weather

Time to focus on holiday travel, family and, of course, food. The PNW will see on-and-off again light rain and showers over the next week, with a few chilly, dry days as well. Wed, Sat, Sun should be the driest days. FROST possible during the upcoming weekend, behind the cold front which will pass Thanksgiving Day / Fri.. Right now, homeward bound travelers on Sunday should not have major.problems. The PNW will likely experience DRY days from Nov 28 until around Dec 3 or 4.

FAMILY

During this holiday season, enjoy your family and friends.

Share any winter squash, cabbage and apples that are still around with those who may be in need.

Collect leaves than have been put into the plastic bags long side the curb side.

Holiday Time

As the holiay season approaches, the blog additons MAY be fewer.

The weather is predicted to be colder and wetter, althought it has been pretty wet for the last two weeks.

If you have a winter garden, continue to use it for the holiday season meals.

The winter squash should be perfect for the pumpkin pies and the winter apple for apple pies. Ummmmmmmmmm.

Reminder

Hoses in and drained.
Outside water supply protected and drained.
ALL tools put away, yes go look again and find them all. (I found two more I missed!)
Cabbage and brussels sprouts are still doing fine.
Start to control the weeds. If the weed is mouse ear chickweed, let it grow. It is a great winter cover crop.

Leaves and lawn

Yesterday was the perfect day to mow the taller lawn grass around the yard, plus mulch the dried leaves that had fallen. If we can get one more dry day within the next week, most of the leaves can be mulched.

Voles or field mice

I had a gardener say that their winter squash had a lot of chew marks on it. Typically this is the vole or field mouse. I am hearing more damage coming from voles this fall. Place the squash up off the ground or off the garage floor.

Get a few cats for a while.

Set snap traps, live traps, sticky boards or place Decon type baits along walls. Keep the baits out of the way of dogs and/or cats.

Leaves

With the amount of leaves falling, you have several choices:

Rack then into the flower beds.
Use the lawn mower and mulch the leaves back into the lawn, or use the lawn catcher and place leaves in the flower bed or onto the garden.
Rake into a wheel barrow and then place leaves in the garden, around the berries, cover the rooted veges or place into a compost pile.
Most yards can use MOST of the leavwes that fall each winter.
Keep the compost pile covered to prevent the rain from getting the pile TOO soggy.

Weather Report

Friday November 6

The first notable storm front for November has passed, with a load of cold air pouring in from the NW that will begin the winter snow pack in earnest. Another fast moving, WET, BREEZY front will pass late Sunday / Monday, with additional below pass level snow in the mountains on into Tuesday. HEAVY SHOWERS. Sunday may not be too bad a day for leaf collection.

Next week should yield 2 or 3 "scattered showers to mostly dry" days in between storm systems.

-> HEAVY RAIN possible with a strong series of storms modeled for Nov 17-20. That period may also include the first significant WIND EVENT of the season (last night was a teaser).

http://ovs.com/weather_cafe.htm

Protect Garden

Protect veges in the garden. Mulch with leaves, straw or compost to protect:
potatoes, carrots, kohlrobi,or other roots crops as the temps drop below 32.

32 degrees - Burrrr!

I went out to get wood and the temp was 32 degrees - clear sky. I quickly covered the faucets with the styro foam protectors. I still have some hoses out but I disconnected the hoses from the bibs and after the hoses warm up tomorrow, I will remove all of the water. I lay the hoses flat so water DOESN'T collect in them. Often wrapping the hsoes in a circle keeps water in the hoses and the hoses will split when the temps drop and ice in the hoses freeze.

If you have an exterior watering system...it is time to shut it down and drain the system. If you can't drain the system in the next day or two, place buckets, straw or tarps over the faucets until the system can be properly drained.

If it gets really cold, letting the faucet drip keeps the pipes from freezing but the facuet must continue to drip.

Garden Cleaning

It seems that the last few nights must have gotten colder than expected, as all of my warm season plants have vanished. Start the winter clean up. Remove the pumpkin, cucumber. tomato, pepper plants; as most of the plant material is pretty diseased. I have a clean compost pile and dirty compost pile. The dirty pile is way off in a corner. This is where I put the disased plant materials. The only other disposal method is to put the plants into garbage bags and then into the landfill, but we are trying hard not to do that.

If you a have big enough area, burying the diseased material can be done but the diseased pieces can be viable for many years.

Cabbage, Romanesco, celery are still doing very well.