The Old Guy's Garden Record

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Monday, September 1, 2025 - Labor Day (U.S.)

Trimming the bushes around our house was our job for today. I hadn’t trimmed the evergreens this summer, so they were a mess. While I have an old and very good electric hedge trimmer to do most of the job, some of the heavier branches required loping shears. I also got some good help doing the trimming from my lovely wife. We got worn out after doing the bushes at the front of our house. We have some more in back to do tomorrow.

The trimmings went onto our burn pile. When lit, they go up quickly.

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Tuesday, September 2, 2025

Annie and I both found ourselves a bit too gimpy this morning to do any more trimming. We're 67 and 77 years young. But I got out this evening and trimmed our last evergreen bush and dumped the trimmings on our burn pile. There's still a lot more trimming of low limbs and two laurel bushes to do. I'll burn the pile after we get a rain.

Inside, some gloxinias I started in June were ready for individual pots. I moved them to three inch pots which will do for just a while.

Our gloxinias in our dining room are pretty ugly right now. Only a couple of the plants have blooms on them. That's because I've hand pollinated many of the flowers, and the plants are working on maturing seed. If you aren't into gloxinia seed production, trimming off spent blooms will extend the plants blooming time. When I've harvested all the seed, the plants will get fertilized and moved to a different location to make room for some gloxinias coming into bloom in our sunroom.

You never have too many gloxinias!

Wednesday, September 3, 2025

We have a lovely day outside today. But Annie and I had errands to run that were more important than any gardening. Returning a rental car, some banking, and a bit of shopping filled our morning and early afternoon hours.

I've noticed something in our area recently. We live in rural southwest Indiana where many small landowners keep herds of cattle. Well, until now. As I drive past farms where there used to be large herds of cattle on pasture, I see landowners mowing their pastures.

With beef prices soaring, many of the small farms have sold off most or all of their cattle. One nearby farm had a bunch of small cattle I saw relaxing under a shade tree. None of the cattle appeared to be market weight.

Another nearby neighbor who usually has twenty or so Black Angus cattle appears to be now down to three!

The droughts out west have caused cattle producers to sell off their herds, increasing the value of cattle. And not unsurprisingly, our neighbors took good advantage of the higher prices. It's no wonder that ground beef now sells for 5 to $6 a pound.

Thursday, September 4, 2025

We’re accumulating some nice, ripe tomatoes. Unfortunately, there’s not enough of them to can. So I looked up freezing tomatoes, and it appears to be fairly easy.

While I saw some good instructions from a Google AI search, I noticed they didn’t suggest peeling the tomatoes. I went ahead and scalded the tomatoes after removing stems, blossom ends, and bad spots. I then thermal shocked them in cold water which makes the skins come off rather easily.

I’d hoped to pull the T-posts out of one of our raised beds today. Unfortunately, the weeds had grown so thick that I couldn’t get the job done. So I worked a bit on our Greenworks string trimmer. I’m now on hold, as the battery needed charging.

I’d also hoped to torch our burn pile today. Rain had been predicted overnight. And both Annie and I heard it rain last night. But alas, there was no rain in our rain gauge, although I saw a little in the bed of our truck. Conditions are still obviously too dry to risk a field fire.

Our hummingbird population is slowly but steadily decreasing. I'd been going through a four pound bag of sugar in about five days before they started migrating south.

And as I started writing this posting, I realized that I'd forgotten to spray our tomatoes. Stink bugs and leaf-footed bugs were doing more damage than I would like. So I mixed a spray of Captain Jack's Deadbug Brew and neem oil to hold off any further damage. Both are considered organic products. I will, however, thoroughly wash any tomatoes picked for fresh use or freezing in the next few days.

Thursday, September 11, 2025 - 9/11

Today is the sad anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Yesterday, a young activist was assassinated in Utah, leaving behind a wife and two children. And a high schooler in Colorado wounded two classmates before taking his own life.

My heart is heavy. Oh Lord, please help us.

The only gardening of note I completed today was moving a tray of relatively young gloxinias with lots of buds from our sunroom to our dining room table.

Four older gloxinias got trimmed back, fertilized, and moved to the sunroom. I doubt they'll do another blooming cycle, but occasionally gloxinias do. These were all plants that produced lots of blooms. I'll baby them a bit until they enter dormancy.

Saturday, September 13, 2025

I'd planned to do some outdoor work today, but a grocery offering changed those plans. While bone-in, skin on chicken breasts usually run about $3.70-$4.00 a pound, the store had some priced at $1.59 a pound. I bought four packages of two big breasts each. Note that ground beef ran $7 to $8 a pound today. I didn't buy any of it.

When I get on sale chicken breasts, I peel off the skin and harvest the breast meat and tender. The skin and carcass go into a pot of boiling water. I boned the carcasses later. The harvested chicken breasts get filleted and frozen for future use. The remains of the chicken breasts and skins go to our dogs! They're country dogs, constantly bringing in deer parts to feast on. We've never had a dog have a problem with boiled chicken parts.

Wednesday, September 17, 2025 - iOS26 Tahoe Issues

I waited a day before upgrading to Apple's new iOS Tahoe operating system. I waited to see if the new system had problems. I should have waited another day or so more. The upgrade took out my email and internet.

I finally found a good, but somewhat convoluted fix page at: https://macpaw.com/how-to/fix-macos-tahoe-wifi-issues. The software repair took several hours. And it turned out a lot of the problem was with the third party app, Little Snitch. But since the "upgrade," my Macbook Pro is running a good bit slower. But at least, it's again accessing the internet.

Note that this site is written exclusively on a 2018 Mac Mini. I stay with it as I have paid apps such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Microsoft Office that don't require a monthly fee.

Our hummingbirds are almost all gone. A week with morning lows in the upper 40s may have encouraged the birds to begin their migration. Hummingbird Central also notes that shorter day length may influence the birds to begin migrating. Whatever the cause, we're past seeing the mobs of birds at our feeders that we've enjoyed all summer.

It's hard to tell if what we're now seeing are migrants or possibly birds that have been here all summer and are slow to leave.

We have a “new” car replacing the CR-V Anne totaled. It’s another Honda CR-V, as they seem to last forever. Our old one had 240,000 miles on it when Annie wrecked it, and it appeared ready to serve us for many more miles.

We stopped and looked at cars at a couple of dealerships in Terre Haute, but were totally disappointed with what they had and their prices.

So…when we got home, Annie started searching Carvana. She found an affordable 2014 Honda CR-V plus new insurance online. Indiana Farm Bureau unceremoniously dropped a couple of forty plus year customers, auto and homeowners, because of Annie's accident.

We have a couple of family members who've gotten cars through Carvana. So far, the car seems to be in good shape.

We're back to some hot weather for the week. There is a chance of rain early next week.

Saturday, September 20, 2025 - Dry

Local TV weather folks have been referring to the U.S. Drought Monitor rather frequently lately.

Drought Information
U.S. Drought Monitor	U.S. Monthly Drought Outlook	U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook
Click on the title or the graphic (above) to access the U.S. Weekly Drought Monitor PDF Version of Graphic  Click on the title or the graphic (above) to access the U.S. Monthly Drought Outlook PDF Version of Graphic  Click on the title or the graphic (above) to access the U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook PDF Version of Graphic

Thursday's release of the Drought Monitor shows our county in the "Abnormally Dry" classification. To emphasize that to me, our well ran dry this morning while Annie had a load of laundry in. We used to deal with this stuff years ago when we had four long haired daughters living with us. But it has been so dry lately that the ground water level is apparently really low.

Fortunately, the well usually recharges in about forty-five minutes.

Spaghetti Sauce

We had enough ripe tomatoes the other day to make a small batch of homemade spaghetti sauce. I browned some hamburger and then cored and peeled seven or eight small tomatoes into the browned hamburger. Then I added some basil, parsley, oregano, garlic powder, and red and black pepper. I overdid the spices and had to go to the basement pantry for a jar of tomato purée to calm things down a bit.

The sauce was delicious.

Hummingbirds

I haven't seen any hummingbirds visiting our feeder today. I took down our second feeder a day or so ago. We usually see a migrant or two in late September.

Monday, September 22, 2025

Our drought may be over...in more ways than one. Our rain gauge had an inch of water in it from a rain that started overnight and lasted until the early afternoon. Tomorrow is supposed to be dry, but a bit more rain is predicted for Wednesday.

The other drought ending is concerning our deep well. It ran dry Friday night, and I couldn't get the pump restarted. A pleasant serviceman from Rankin Plumbing showed me what I was doing wrong. They'd shown me that when they installed the pump, but I guess I forgot. So after a very dry weekend, we have running water again. We were lucky to have lots of bottled water on hand.

Speaking of weather, I'm all sweaty from picking tomatoes this afternoon even though the temperature is in the low 70s. But after the rain, the humidity is high. I have a window open and a fan blowing across my office as I write.

I was considering taking down our last hummingbird feeder after two days of seeing no birds. But this morning, I saw two hummingbirds. They didn't land on the feeder, but instead chased each other around. I later saw one hummingbird at the feeder. So I guess I'll leave it up for a few more days for any more migrants coming through.

Tuesday, September 23, 2025 - Saving Gloxinia Seed

A tray of rather ratty looking gloxinia plants is doing just what it is supposed to do. There are lots of seed buds from hand pollinating flowers on the plants. One of the buds was ready to be picked and some seed squeezed out of it today. The bud will dry a bit more in a paper bowl of saved seed for another day or two as more seed will dry and be released. The bud/seed pod is the first of about six or seven that should produce seed in the next days and weeks.

The bud/seed pods let you know when they are ready to be harvested by splitting open. The image at right shows some seed escaping the pod.

I had an order this week via the Seed Savers Exchange for gloxinia seed. I didn't use any of the fresh seed to fill it as I haven't yet tested this year's seed for germination. But the seed used to fill the order was from the seed batch that produced the young gloxinias I showed here. They were seeded in June.

The image below shows the tiny gloxinia seeds.

I have a full feature story/how-to on Saving Gloxinia Seed with a bit better photos and diagrams.

Tomatoes

With some improved weather in terms of temperature and now a bit of rain, our six Moira tomato plants are beginning to produce lots of canning sized tomatoes. I counted today and found that I probably have enough good tomatoes to fill five or six regular quart canning jars. It takes about eight tomatoes of this size to fill a quart jar.

It feels a bit weird just having enough ripe tomatoes to can a small batch. We usually have far more tomato plants each season. But our early weather prevented planting. So I'm going to be happy with what we've got.

Hummingbirds

I considered taking down our last hummingbird feeder, but instead changed its nectar. I was rewarded today seeing two tiny birds fighting for dominance at the feeder.

Wednesday, September 24, 2025 - Canning Tomatoes

I canned the tomatoes shown here yesterday. I actually had to pick a few more to fill the last jar. There were lots of bad spots that had to be trimmed out. We got five quarts of tomatoes from the canning. But it took a bit of extra work.

Unfortunately, only one of the five jars sealed! That's something new and different for me.

So I ran to Walmart for some new lids and rings. I very carefully cleaned the tops of the four failed jars and put the lids in hot water before using them. All four jars then sealed. Since they'd had the recommended 45 minutes in the water bath canner the first time around, I just boiled them for 25 minutes the second time.

Rain

We received another inch of rainfall overnight. That should help our tomato plants. And even with the new rain, our well pump turned off again after a couple of showers and my copious use of water in canning tomatoes.

If the weather holds, we may be able to can another batch of tomatoes yet this season.

I’d really like to be burning off our burn pile today, but our county is still under a burn order.

Harvest Season

Last week on my way home from the grocery, I saw clouds of dust in the distance. When I got closer, I saw a farmer harvesting soybeans, always a dusty operation. I think it’s the first harvest I’ve seen this fall. Coming home today, I saw that the same field had been worked up.

Online Orders

Possibly when I was drunk, I placed a meals order with Factor. The order arrived a day late. My first try at the food was a terrible meatball meal. But the next day Annie had a good Burnt Salmon and I had a Pork meal. Both included some delicious asparagus. The Pork meal was seasoned ground pork over cheese tortellinis. Good tortellinis and asparagus are a food way to warm my heart.

We have a bunch of those Factor meals in the freezer. I'll comment more when I assess whether they're worth the cost. Right now, it's just 50-50.

Monday, September 29, 2025 - Canning More Tomatoes

After weeks of just letting it go, Annie and I got our lawn mowed yesterday. While the grass was high in some shady areas of our lawn and field, most of it hadn't grown much because of the drought conditions.

Surprisingly, our six Moira tomato plants continue to produce medium to small size tomatoes. We had enough to can another five quarts of tomatoes today. To my relief, all five jars sealed on the first try.

Okay, we’ve finished our order of meals from Factor. I should note here that prospective buyers avoid their meatball dinner. I hated it. My wife questioned whether the meatballs were made with real beef!

On the positive side, Factor’s vegetable offerings were delicious. All the rest were just so-so.

I doubt I’ll order from them again. I’ve enjoyed the break from cooking, but have some things I’d like to make.

How Did I End Up the Cook

When we married, I was still teaching school. On some days, I could leave the building around 3:30. That got me home in time to supervise my four step-daughters. Annie didn’t get off until 4:30 or five, so I was the evening cook. And I actually enjoy cooking, as evidenced by our Recipes page.

Tuesday, September 30, 2025 - September Wrap-up

After the Factor meal experience, I'll be back to cooking dinner again. Tonight it will be country fried steak, mashed potatoes and chicken gravy, and asparagus. I picked up a thin sirloin tip steak and have had it marinating in the fridge for a couple of days. I'll still need to hammer it with a meat mallot and use meat tenderizer. I wonder if our grocery is selling beef from tough old cows!

Not all our suppers are so deluxe. Tomorrow will probably be pigs in a blanket.

For the month, our gardening has consisted of picking tomatoes each day. But we do have ten quarts of them canned. Our hill of butternut squash has pretty much succumbed to the drought.

Our weather outlook for October looks dry but without an early frost. Our rain total for September was between one and two inches. So our garden plots remain fairly dry.

Contact Steve Wood, the at Senior Gardening