October Garden Chores

There are many October garden chores for all parts of the country. Of course, cleaning up the beds and mulching is the best thing you can do to prepare your beds for spring planting. And if you need garden seeds for the fall, David's Garden Seeds® has many.

October Garden Chores - 10/3-10/9/2022

Monday, October 3, 2022 - October Garden Chores

Sunrise this morning from the gazebo while I was feeding the fish.

Good morning. At 7am, the guy who quit yesterday showed up to collect his things. Matt showed up to escort him around the property while he gathered his things. It is still sort of dark. Anytime you are not doing what you are supposed to be doing and you let thousands of dollars worth of trees die because they are not getting water, be prepared. However, this guy quit yesterday before David could even think of terminating him. Check out yesterday's post for more details.

I have to get ready for the day because we are having a meeting at 8am. I am sure most of the people already know his version of what happened yesterday. (Turns out, they did know.)

We had the meeting and David let everyone know that one employee is no longer with us. Big surprise...they already knew. Then I watered all of my plants and made plans to change up and fix plants for fall.

Hopefully, this will turn out to be a good day. It is cool but the temperature is 64°, not 57° like what was predicted for this morning. The high should be just 88° instead of in the 90s so that will be nice.

It is now 1:30pm and it is already 88° so I think it will go higher. The new baby fish seem to be doing well. I don't know if there are still 50 but I did see about 20 a little while ago. Of course, there are lots of places to hide in the pond. I have been feeding the big fish extra so, hopefully, they are not eating the babies. If they grow and live, we will have plenty to take back to the new pond when it is complete. Right now, it is just a deep hole in the ground that needs to get a lot bigger.

I filed medical claims for David and for Matt to Christian Healthcare Ministries. I have restocked some of the flowers and added some new products to the website.

I was in the house taking packages over when we got our first customers of the day. Shay came over and took care of them. I got back right after they were checked out. Shay told me the receipt would not print and that I would have to change the ink. I put a new roll of paper in the printer on Saturday and I put it in backwards. Oops! The paper goes under, not over or it won't print. There is no ink in a thermal printer. You have to use thermal paper but it has to be in the right way. I fixed it and tested it out. It works.

Matthew and one of our team members is out back doing yet another one of the October garden chores. The wind the other night blew down the little plastic well pump shelter in the back. The four sides and the top were sprawled out all over the ground back by my pine trees. They are putting it back together.

At 8am, our second outdoor worker called Matt and told him he would not be in today because HEB has him working until 6pm. He was supposed to be here at 1pm. This is just not working out well.

It is now 7pm. Matt is still out back. David found two more leaks in the irrigation system today and he had to go to Devine to get more fixtures. Matt is putting them in, trying to fix it. He has spent many hours doing October garden chores. I just told Matt to go home. He has been here over 12 hours since he had to get here early to take the guy who quit around to collect all of his stuff all over four acres. Matt got tree rows one and two working, something no one else has been able to do for three years.

Ethel, Lucy, and Kitty all wanting to go in from the back porch.

October Garden Chores

Now that our main outdoor employee has quit and our number two outdoor team member is going to work full time for HEB, we will have very little help with October garden chores. That means Matt and another one of our guys will have to carry the brunt of the load. It is ridiculous when Matt already has so much else to do but that is how it is in small business. You know, now that it is cooler, I think the October garden chores will be a lot nicer to do than in the heat.

Right now, the most important of the October garden chores is to keep all of the plants and trees alive by watering. We have a nice irrigation system but if there is a leak, water does not get where it needs to go. Trees and plants should be checked regularly to see if they are being properly watered. If you see something start to shrivel and/or turn brown, it is probably not getting watered. Get some water on it right away and then check the irrigation system for water leaks. Maybe the sprayer is clogged. Get the problem solved right away. Don't turn the water on and leave it and go away. Trees are expensive and right now, we have another 23 dead trees that cost at least $50 a piece if not more because someone was not making sure that the irrigation system was working.

Plant your wildflower seeds.

Plant your Texas 1015Y onion seeds.

Plant your garlic bulbs if you have not yet done so.

Continue harvesting plants still putting out fruit from summer.

Weed and water your garden.

Deadhead roses and other flowers like zinnias.

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

This is the Texas Early Grano Yellow Onion, another Texas winner. If you are in Texas and looking for onions to plant now or later in the fall to overwinter, here you go. Texas 1015Ys are gone.

Good Tuesday morning. It is 7:45am and the housekeeper is coming today. I feel so tired. It is 66° and will be up to 90° today. I need to go feed the fish. Matt is already here so everything is already unlocked. David made bacon and eggs for breakfast and it was good.

Our part time outdoor guy showed up at 8am today and he is still here now at 2pm. Matthew did not have to do too many October garden chores today.

The housekeeper was late because they were doing construction on 1604. All San Antonio seems to do is pick places on the roads to rebuild.

We have had several customers today. I have been in the house most of the day as I have had people there. My house has been cleaned while I have added a bunch of new pumpkin recipes for fall to this website. You can find some of the pumpkin recipes here and even more of them on this page. Also, here is my recipe for pumpkin bread as well as other Thanksgiving recipes. Growing up, we always had pumpkin bread for Thanksgiving.

It is only 84° now so that is good. A lady just bought out all of my eggs and that is awesome. She said they would probably stop by each week. I told her that would be great. She homeschools and has four young children. They were fascinated by all of the butterflies we have right now and by the new, baby fish.

Loretta Lynn passed away today at the age of 90. About eight years ago or so, David took me to a Loretta Lynn concert at the Majestic Theatre in downtown San Antonio. It was a great concert. She was already in her 80s at the time but she could still put on a great show. Three of her grown children also came on stage and sang. They were very good singers and performers. I have listened to her since I was a little girl. My mother just loved her and played the country music radio station for many hours each day at home.

Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Sunrise was spectacular!

We got some soft necked garlic bulbs in today. We have never sold it before but I am excited about it. Our fall crops are beginning to look pretty good in the cooler temps. Butterflies continue to be everywhere across our property.

Here is one of many monarch butterflies enjoying a good time with a zinnia.

We planted corn in this new hoop house over by the Fulfillment building.

It is now 2pm and 90°. I was so busy this morning that I never got a chance to come on here. We had a job interview this morning for an outside person. The problem is that she did not realize it was an outdoor position. She will start tomorrow and see if she likes it. We wanted someone to work outdoors Tuesday through Saturday. She cannot do Saturdays. No one can do Saturdays, yet grocery stores and Walmart are open on weekends. Why can't we get people to work on Saturdays? So I am constantly stuck working six days a week.

The other part time outdoor worker is here again today. Looks like he will be working here more than he told us since he got a second job with HEB. He was working hours for us. On Monday he started with HEB because of the benefits. We pay more but he needs benefits.

We have had several customers today. After the interview this morning, we went to Devine to do some errands and grocery shopping. Then I had to eat and start dishes since I forgot to turn them on last night.

I need to sneak over to the house and start some laundry as well. Plus, I have two loads of laundry to fold and put away. There is always laundry!

Our fall crops are doing quite well. The corn is ridiculously tall already. I have not even gone all over to see everything. Butterflies are all over our zinnias. Speaking of monarch butterflies, I recently wrote an article on here about them. In my research, I read that monarchs only lay their eggs on milkweed plants because that is all that the newly hatched caterpillars will eat. This is not true.

For the past six weeks, including now, we have been inundated with monarchs and other butterflies as they migrate to Mexico for the winter. Monarch caterpillars are all over our plants, eating off all of the leaves. This includes our vegetable plants and specifically, this morning, I found five of them munching on three different parsley plants that I had in pots to sell at our Farm Store.

Well, this week is just getting better and better. The employee who quit on Sunday got a job with our contractor who comes out here about once a week. Guess who the contractor is bringing with him tomorrow to our farm? Yes, the contractor knows all about what went down on Sunday.

The employee who quit has already texted our current employees that he will be back here working tomorrow with our contractor.

Our chickens are molting. It looks like they have been having a pillow fight every afternoon when I go out there. They have been giving very few eggs for the most part. This afternoon, we got two eggs. That is it. Only once before, sometime last year, did they give two eggs. I think it is getting light so early and staying dark so late that I may need to turn the coop light on at night so they will start giving more eggs again.

Thursday, October 6, 2022

A butterfly lands on some Jasmine in the backyard.

Good morning. I went out to unlock everything at 7am. It was still a bit dark. As I was feeding the fish, Nacho showed up and parked right by my store. Yes, he had the guy who quit with him.

Moving on, it is already hot and will be in the 90s again today. Apparently the puppies each took turns last night pooping and peeing in the den. Unfortunately, David let them out of their kennel which is their nighttime bed so they don't roam around in the night and do this sort of thing. They have not gone in the house in quite a while. Had he left them in the kennel, I think it would have been fine.

It is 7:52am so I need to get started. We have a new outdoor person starting this morning and I think our now part time outdoor person will be here. He left early yesterday instead of staying for eight hours and he was wearing earrings. We have a company policy that men don't wear earrings while on the premises. David asked him during the interview if he was okay with that. He said it wouldn't be a problem but apparently it is...

The new employee did show up and she is out there learning from the part time employee.

I just put de-chlorinator in the pond as well as algae killer. I will be putting new water in the pond in 30 minutes. I hope the chemicals do not hurt the baby fish. I just saw a baby that was half orange and half black. Very cute.

I just put the soft necked garlic up on the website. It is not live yet as I have to pass it off to David to add some things to the listing. Then it needs to be packed into individual bags that are ready for sale. Hopefully it will be ready by Saturday. Meanwhile, the hard necked garlic is going fast.

One of David's toes is infected. He showed me tonight around 9pm so I have to see if we can get him into the podiatrist in the morning. He said it started hurting on Saturday but he did not say a thing to me until tonight.

October Garden Chores

The main thing Nacho did for today's October garden chores is take down the tree teepees that were around every tree in the orchard and make sure that every single fixture is working, something that his new helper should have done when he was working for us. I also told Nacho how I feel about him bringing this guy here after he told David off and disrespected him. He laughed. Then at the end of the day, I told Nacho not to bring him back. He just laughed again. I hope I wasn't unclear. David is too nice but I have learned that I don't have to be when the situation calls for it.

Friday, October 7, 2022

Here is another monarch caterpillar on my parsley, eating off all of the leaves. So there is proof that the only thing they eat is milkweed. I have a bunch of bare parsley plants.

Well, I dreamed of David going to the podiatrist this morning so I got up. The doctor's office doesn't open for a while. It is still dark out. I hope everything runs smoothly today. Yesterday was a tough day. When you have someone on property who has disrespected you and then comes back for spite, it is difficult to deal with. I just don't need all of that stress. Neither does David.

It is now very cloudy and hazy. Alexa says it should rain at 10am. It is 9:45am and I hope it rains. Everything is brown and ugly again. Just two days ago, Alexa said there would be no rain for the next ten days.

I finally got through to the podiatrist's office and David has an appointment for later on this afternoon. This doctor is always awesome to get David in even when he is fully booked.

It is now 11am and very light rain has finally started. It didn't last for five minutes. David sent Matt and two other of our employees to Natalia to help set up Winterstrom Ranch for their grand opening tomorrow. If they are not ready by now, they will never be. This thing has been planned for two months...

David says that someone removed a faucet in the orchard yesterday. Today when he turned on the water pipes to get some much needed water to the trees, there was a big leak in one place so he went to investigate. Gee, I wonder who would have removed a faucet from the pipes back there yesterday?

We left the farm at 12:30pm and got to the doctor's office. When the doctor saw David, I explained that a pedicure had caused the infected toe. He said that pedicures done at salons keep him in business. He said the technician cut his cuticle off, causing a bad infection. He did some surgery on his toe and then drained the pus and fixed him up. Then he prescribed a weeks' worth of antibiotics.

We picked up KFC on the way back to the farm. Not many customers on the farm today.

No more rain today. I got six eggs this afternoon, enough to fill up a small carton.

On the short necked garlic, the price just to break even is three times what the hard necked garlic costs so we are going to plant it instead of selling it for right now. Hopefully, we can raise some of our own. Our hard necked garlic costs $8.45 a bag. To sell the same amount, the package would have to be more than $25. That is insane.

October Garden Chores

My October garden chores for today were watering my plants and replanting my snapdragons out front in the big container and in the first raised bed. I am not sure why they did not grow. So I used a rake and raked the soil a bit and then put down a lot of Dwarf Spurred Fairy Snapdragon seeds. I then applied water to them.

Saturday, October 8, 2022

Look at the gorgeous color! This was shot through the carport.

Good Saturday morning! It is 7:30am and quite warm outside. I unlocked everything and fed the fish. Now I am feeding myself and soon I will go out back and feed everyone outside. David and the dogs are still sleeping. This is a rarity. They are all usually up and at 'em by 6am. I know David is probably taking it easy after having toe surgery yesterday. Also he is on antibiotics but I am going to let him rest. I am surprised the puppies are cooperating.

It is supposed to get up to 90° today. Yes, we will be open from 10am to 4pm and we have plenty of garlic. Now is the time to get it in the ground. If you don't know how to plant and grow it, I wrote a page on how to grow garlic just this week.

Some friends of ours in Natalia, about 20 miles from here own a fiber mill and they are having their grand opening from 10am to 3pm with lots of vendors and food trucks. The name of the place is Winterstrom Ranch and David and I will be stopping by for a little while. They have alpacas to see and alpaca yarn to buy.

Don't believe them if they tell you it is safe to get close to the alpacas. Last time we were there with our grandchildren, I asked if they would spit on us. She said no. David was petting one and I was standing back, taking a photo. Then out of nowhere, SPIT. The one he was petting spit all over my hat, shirt and face. I felt so cheap and dirty. Then another one just a few minutes later spit on me again. So gross. I will be totally staying away from them! They did not spit on David or the kids, just me.

We had customer after customer this morning. Then David and I left for Winterstrom Ranch. We got there and there was no place to park except way on down the road so we did not stop. I think they have a good turnout but the only way to park is up and down the road which, by the way is illegal to do on our street. The road in front of our farm belongs to the state of Texas.

We went back to the farm and there were fewer afternoon customers. I restocked the refrigerator with drinks.

Svengoolie was sort of fun. We had Subway again.

October Garden Chores

My October garden chores include having to trim up some of my plants in containers. It is common for some leafy plants to let leaves die and then grow new ones. The brown, dead leaves don't look very pretty so I cut them off.

Sunday, October 9, 2022

The gorgeous colors that we get on most mornings out here on the farm are a great motivator for getting up early.

This past week, starting with last Sunday, has been a rough week filled with drama and lots of trouble. I really hate being in anything like that and I had three different scenarios going on all week long going through last night. I am done with all of this insanity. I just want to live a peaceful life. I am out in the country away from it all. Peace is good. Not feeling bad about myself is good. If you don't want me in your life, I am good with that. Just leave me alone. Move on with your lives. I am tired of being your cash cow and your scapegoat. Have a nice life.

Peace and quiet is what is most valuable now in life. So glad to be out of the city. I don't want drama any longer. Just let me be out here doing October garden chores & farm chores each day.

Return from October Garden Chores to Our Fourth Year

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