Start planting the bulbs of spring time. From now until the end of October spring flowering bulbs can be planted for colorful beauty when spring arrives. You can plant the bulbs of hyacinth, crocus, jonquils, narcissus, and snowdrops. Most hardware stores have plenty of bulbs in mesh bags of assorted and individual colors and also bins of bulbs that you can select from. Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walmart, and Ace Hardware have large selections. Hyacinths come in colors of red, white, yellow, pink, blue, purple, and lavender.
To start bulbs off, buy a bag of bone meal or bulb booster and broadcast it around the bulbs and add a handful or two of peat moss around the bulbs before covering with soil. As we move nearer to October, cover the bulb layer with a layer of crushed leaves. Next spring, the green spikes of the bulbs will pop through the leaves and be easy to spot.
September brings the season of the apple harvest. Most produce stands are adorned with bushel baskets of red, yellow, green, and bronze apples at this time of year with gallons of apple cider. There are so many varieties of apples to choose from as well as so many different tastes. The county’s biggest producer of apples is Washington state, North Carolina, Virginia, and New York state. Keep plenty of apples around for pies, cobblers, dumplings, dressings and just for a snack or Waldorf salad.
Making an apple casserole. In the above paragraph, we mentioned many uses of apples, but here we offer something unusual in the form of an apple casserole that is simple and very easy to prepare. The ingredients are nine or ten tart apples such as Granny Smith or McIntosh, three-fourths cup plain flour, one pack Ritz crackers, one cup light brown sugar, two cups or eight-ounce bags of finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese, one stick of light margarine, one tablespoon vanilla flavoring, one-third cup milk, one tablespoon apple pie spices. Slice apples into one-inch cubes after peeling and coring. Mix with apple pie spices and one third cup milk. Pour into a 13x9x2 inch baking dish or pan sprayed with Pam baking spray. Mix light brown sugar, flour, vanilla, and cheddar cheese and pour over the apples. Crush the Ritz crackers or run through blender in “grate” mode. Mix the crushed crackers with stick or melted margarine (add more margarine if you think it needs it). Bake at 350 degrees for half hour. Serve with Cool Whip if you desire.
The leaves are colorful and some are falling from the trees. They are beautiful in all their glorious colors and so graceful as they fall on the lawn and garden. Do not let them go to waste or blow away. Rake and vacuum them up to make ingredients for the compost pile of bin and mulch and a blanket for roses, cool weather vegetables, shrubs, and flower beds. They are one of nature’s most valuable resources.
Mowing the tough grass of early autumn. The grass on the early autumn lawn is in the last lap of a journey that started in the March. As we move past mid-September, the grass is tough because of rainy days and a series of heavy morning dews that linger until early afternoon, plus the fact that many types of grass are seeding out. When mowing the grass of autumn, make sure the grass is dry even if you have to mow late in the day. Keep the lawn smoothly cut, but don’t set the blade too close. In just a few weeks, Jack Frost will do his lawn work!
Keep feeding the hummingbirds. The mid-summer flowers are slowing down, but the hummers still have a month before flying south. Help them in their quest for food by keeping nectar in the feeders two or three times a week. You can make your own nectar by mixing half sugar, half water, and a few drops of red food coloring in a jar or container or purchase nectar in ready to use bottles or envelopes to mix with the proper amount of water. Use a funnel to pour nectar into the feeders.
The season of the mum is now upon us. Nothing speaks of autumn like several containers of colorful mums on the front porch. With just a bit of tender loving care, they will endure for a long season on the porch. You can chose from colors of white, bronze, white, pink, lavender, yellow, light orange, and wine. You can re-pot them in same containers that summer annuals were in. Keep them toward the back of the porch for added protection, also keep several towels or sections of newspaper to cover and protect from frost and freezes and they should last well into cold weather and frosty nights.
Weeds are making their last stand in the garden plot. The weed games are still in progress as they are trying to produce seed to next year. Only you can stop their cycle the old fashioned way by pulling them up by the roots and tossing them out of the garden. Pulling weeds up now will keep them from forming seed that will winter over to infest next year’s garden. As Barney would say “Always nip it in the bud.”
Keep watching the grapevines for a harvest. The scuppernogs, muscadines, as well as the Concords are reaching harvest stage. The birds are also watching them, so try to beat them to the punch. You will want to pick often so that you will not lose any to the birds. Pick the grapes often and process them for juice. Refrigerate the juice and reserve it for a later time. Keep saving juice each time you pick until you have enough to make jelly. Do not put sugar in the juice until you have enough to make jelly.
The mighty oaks are beginning to unload their acorns. The mighty oaks are now filled with a harvest of acorns and they are beginning to make their journey to the ground, lawns, and forest floor. Many weather prophets keep a close eye on the harvest of acorns that fall and predict the amount of the acorn harvest with the kind of winter we are in store for. My grandma always checked the acorns that covered the ground or that bounced off her tin roof each night and one of her predictions was when the ground was covered with acorns, the ground would be covered with heavy snows. Dogwood berries that stayed on the trees were a prediction of a long, cold winter ahead. Another of grandma’s winter weather observations was that when squirrels gathered up huge amounts of acorns and stored them, we could expect a cold and rough winter.
Sounds of thunder in September. A thunderstorm in the month of September is not all that unusual because we still have enough warm days and remaining humidity that can generate a thunderstorm. They may not be as severe and gusty, but a thunderstorm nonetheless. The month of September is the peak of the hurricane season and in this part of the state, they can generate thunderstorms. A bit of positive weather lore to add to September thunderstorms states that “Thunderstorms in September is a sign of abundant vegetables and fruits next year.” Into every life, some thunder must fall.
Keeping your eye on developing green tomatoes. The first frost of the season is about one month away. The late, late, tomato plants should be developing some small green tomatoes on the vines. Give the plants a feeding of Tomato-Tone organic tomato food and also mix a few quarts of powdered lime in a sprinkling can of water and pour around the base of the plants. This will pave the way for a harvest of green tomatoes before frost to store and ripen into the winter.
Hoe-Hoe-Hoedown: “The last laugh” – A gray-bearded man was sitting in a truck stop eating dinner. Three motorcycle bullies walked into the truck stop. The first cyclist walked over to the diner and placed his cigarette in the man’s lemon pie, and went and sat down at the counter. The second cyclist walked over and spat in the man’s glass of tea, and then walked over to the counter. The third cyclist walked over to the man and flipped over his plate and then went a say down at the counter. Without a word or action, the man at the table left the truck stop. One of the cyclist said to the waitress, “Was not much of a man, was he?” The waitress replied, “Not much of a truck driver either, he just backed his rig over three motorcycles!”
Bible Question: What excuse did Adam give to his children as to why he no longer lived in the Garden of Eden? Adam told them “Your mother ate us our of house and home!”
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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