October And Christmas Cactus

I meant to tell you this.  Before now.  October is the MONTH you don't water your Christmas Cactus.  So it will be sure to set buds for the holidays.  Now, some of your cactus might have an early start--mine always do because I forget to water them (frequently forget).

And coming up: don't water the Clivia (if you have one) from now until New Year's Eve.  Then water again.  This is called "dormancy" and some plants need a resting period before they can produce a flower.  Mine were washed off with a hose after spending the summer on the front porch (spider webs) and now they are headed to work with me for repotting.  Hey, it's what I do for "work" so I might as well be my own customer.   While the Clivia (pronounced Clive- E- Ah) are resting they don't have to be front and center.  Mine rest up in the unused second floor bedroom.  No heat.  And Clivia like it cool and shady.

I had a day at home today, finally.  So I went into the garden to get some kale and noticed that my June/October raspberries had produced berries.  I picked a huge quart of berries.  I also battled huge bees.  What a splendid surprise (not the bees).  I also dug out Iris, replanted my Mountain Laurels where the Iris had been, sorted my bulbs for planting (only crocus, snowdrops, blue hyacinth and garlic this fall).  G and I drove over to my friend's house when she gave us the Peach Alert.  I got a nice heavy peck basket of peaches.

The ripe ones are (sliced) in the freezer with the raspberries.  The unripe ones (we had quite a windy day and they left the tree early) are on the sunporch getting ripe along with the October tomatoes.  I also picked another load of green peppers and jalapeños.  They just keep coming.

G worked on putting together another rolling 5 tier shelving unit.  For the sunporch and all the plants we overwinter.  He also cleaned up the sunporch and organized my pantry things.  Things are moving along.  The smell of autumn is always sort of over-ripe.  Rotting.  So many bees and little gnats.  I also got a cup full of Concord grapes off my friend's vines--a pitiful crop this year.  No jelly.