Dividing & Transplanting Iris + Baking Apple Sausage Stuffed Butternut Squash!
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00:00 you our forecast. Sorry if it's super glary, but I just wanted to show you we
00:03 do have a 24 degree night coming up in one week, which means I need to get those
00:09 dahlias tagged. And I've only got two rows left. I have been plugging away on
00:13 it a little bit and there's really not much to that. We're gonna save that to
00:17 the very end of the day and then I'll just get whatever I can get done, but
00:19 it's much easier to tag dahlias when you can see their blooms so that you tag
00:23 them correctly. Or at least for me because I get them confused so easily. So
00:27 we're starting here in the Hartley for a couple of reasons. One, it is a windy
00:30 outside today, so when we are outside I probably won't do a tremendous amount of
00:34 talking because the gusts just keep coming in and that makes it really hard
00:36 to hear. But I also need to clip a little bit of rosemary for what we are going to
00:41 be making. And I mentioned this recipe in a recent video. I was just gonna try it
00:45 out. We did and it was delicious. It's apple sausage stuffed butternut squash.
00:50 It's so good. We just came from the greenhouse. I got some sage out of our
00:54 green stock garden. It smells really good. And now we just need a little bit of
00:59 rosemary. I'm gonna take it from right here. That'll be perfect. We need to run to the
01:05 root cellar and get some garlic and onion and a couple of butternut squash.
01:09 Now this recipe, which we will link down below, is from a website called
01:13 Downshiftology and it calls for one like two and a half pound butternut, which is
01:17 what I did last time. But I want to make them in smaller like serving size
01:22 because it's even a half of a two and a half pound butternut squash that's pretty
01:25 big. So I've got some smaller butternuts I want to grab. One more thing. Pedro's
01:30 crew is here. They are starting the brick edging right behind the Hartley to
01:34 finish that area along the driveway and along where our benches are. So I want to
01:37 show you where they're starting and then at the end of the day we will look to
01:40 see what progress they've made. They've already made a tremendous amount of
01:43 progress. So you can see they've already dug it out. What they're gonna do is
01:47 bring bricks over, bring them down and back behind the bench and then they're
01:51 gonna do a brick edge along the driveway here just to kind of button this whole
01:55 area up. They're over on that side already starting to place bricks. And we
01:59 didn't grab a camera and put it out earlier this morning and they are so
02:02 fast. They get so much done so quickly. I thought we better get out here and at
02:05 least look at a before shot. I hope you can kind of see that pink line. I came
02:09 out and drew a line out just as sort of a guide here. But when that's all done
02:14 we're gonna bring it gravel in. So we'll have a little gravel walkway up in that
02:18 will run in front of the bench. The bench will actually be bumped further back
02:21 than that. They just moved it out of their way but it should just finish this
02:25 area up beautifully. And then on this side the bricks will continue around and
02:29 they'll meet the concrete opening over here. You can see my little brick edging
02:35 that I did a few years ago and it worked well. But we want it to all match and it
02:39 will meet up right here with the chicken coop landing. Right? Is that what you
02:45 would call it? Anyway exciting stuff. So happy they were able to get that done
02:49 this fall. Currently 42 degrees in the root cellar. The humidity is way too high
02:54 in there though. Yeah 97% that's not good. So we're gonna have to kick the fan up I
02:59 think to help combat that. You can see we're pretty full in here. We haven't
03:03 even brought dahlia tubers in yet. You can see peppers from my last harvest.
03:07 They've all been given away they just haven't been picked up yet. This is a
03:11 really good place to store them. So I you know as long as we have the space I'll
03:14 store them indefinitely. We've got some melons from our raised bed harvest still.
03:18 This is another little pepper harvest I did before. And then we've just got crates
03:24 and crates and crates of onions, squash. We've got garlic. We've got shallots. This
03:32 is the size I want to use today. I'm thinking we'll go with two of, well maybe
03:36 three. So one, two, three. We need garlic.
03:44 And let's do a Walla Walla. Beautiful. And all of our potatoes are in
03:55 these baskets right here and these crates right here. So much. I just love a
04:01 stocked root cellar. I don't know what it is. It just makes you feel good going
04:05 into winter knowing you have well food and like not fresh like fresh off the
04:11 vine but as fresh as you can get. I mean you grow it yourself in your own garden
04:14 and that feels good. Okay we are ready. Oh goodness. We're gonna walk with the wind
04:20 here. We're gonna run in and get our butternut squash prepped and baking and
04:25 while it's baking I think we'll run out and dig the iris. Try to be efficient
04:31 with our time because it takes roughly for the big squash 40 to 45 minutes to
04:35 bake. For these smaller ones I'm gonna give them about 30 and check them at
04:38 that point. They might be done. I put the umbrella down. It's all cockeyed.
04:44 There we go. That's better.
04:48 [sound of digging]
05:14 [sound of water running]
05:24 [sound of digging]
05:48 You wanna smell this? Squash. Squash. Yeah.
05:56 [singing]
06:24 [sound of digging]
06:50 Okay 30 minutes you guys. Really I have about 15 minutes because we need to
06:56 start the filling for the squash about halfway through baking time but I want
07:00 to go give the treats to the chickens and at least start digging the iris. Hey
07:05 girls.
07:07 [sound of digging]
07:15 Oh yeah. Anything with seeds. They are all about it. Starting to molt. They molt at
07:21 the weirdest time of year. Seems like this is the time of year where they
07:24 would want to keep all of their feathers when it's starting to get colder.
07:28 So there's the iris right there. This is where we stopped the other day with
07:32 the maintenance around the chicken coop. We've got a couple different varieties.
07:35 There's one that stays a little bit smaller and it's like the traditional
07:38 bearded iris and then there's one that has really upright like very strong
07:43 vertical. I don't know what kind they are. They're like a blue and gold. They're
07:46 real pretty but they're just way too tall for this space. So I think what
07:50 we'll do is we'll get them all cut back then we'll go in make our filling and
07:54 get that all done and then we'll come back out to dig. That might be the best
07:57 way to go here.
08:00 [leaves crunching]
08:20 [leaves crunching]
08:44 [leaves crunching]
09:04 [leaves crunching]
09:26 [leaves crunching]
09:46 Well not only does that give us a really clear picture as to how much this area
09:51 will be cleaned out once those are all gone, it'll make it a lot easier for them
09:55 to be dug up because I can see where all their roots are. It really isn't that
09:58 much. It's kind of like this section right here and then there's a little
10:02 section that kind of goes around the tree trunk. And once we get the hibiscus
10:07 out of here as well then we'll really be able to see the canopy of this tree and
10:11 it's just so gorgeous. Look at that. Oh and you know all of these red crab
10:18 apples were white blooms in the spring so you can imagine how loaded this one
10:23 gets. It's been a few years since I planted it though so I can't remember
10:26 the variety. I'll try to find that and put it on the screen for you. Now that
10:29 that's done let's head back in and we're gonna make our apple sausage stuffing.
10:33 Here are the ingredients. This is everything that's gonna go into the
10:36 stuffing. We've got our mild Italian sausage, spinach, dried cranberries, pecan
10:40 chips, onion, sage, rosemary, garlic, and an apple. Let's go ahead and check our
10:45 squash. Oh yeah that's feeling pretty soft. 30 minutes.
10:51 After we make the stuffing and put it in the squash everything will go back in
10:56 the oven for a little bit. So we'll just let the butternut squash chill here for
11:00 a second on the counter while we whip up the stuffing.
11:04 [whipping]
11:11 [chopping]
11:18 [chopping]
11:29 [whipping]
11:39 [chopping]
11:46 [whipping]
12:10 [whipping]
12:14 [whipping]
12:22 Everything's chopped now so we'll drizzle some olive oil into the bottom
12:25 of our pan. Make sure it's nice and hot. Now the recipe calls for you to cook the
12:30 sausage first and then to add the onions and garlic but I like my onions and
12:35 garlic to be nicely cooked down before I add my meat.
12:39 [sizzling]
12:46 Add in some pepper, a little bit of salt too.
12:50 [sizzling]
12:58 Boy I did a real fine job of cutting these onions, my word. I was at a really weird
13:04 angle. I was trying not to knock the camera over. Alright so we're breaking
13:09 these onions up a bit. Okay that's looking good so now we'll add in our sausage
13:14 the full pound.
13:19 We'll break that up.
13:22 [sizzling]
13:32 Okay so we're just gonna stir this together, let those flavors marry and
13:36 we'll just cook it until the Italian sausage is all brown and delicious looking.
13:42 Okay sausage is looking good so now we're going to put in our herbs and our apple.
13:50 And we'll just saute all of these together for just a few minutes. Let the
13:56 apple soften up a little bit.
14:01 Alright that's looking really good so now we'll put in a couple of handfuls of
14:05 spinach.
14:08 We'll let that wilt down.
14:13 Okay so now we're going to remove it from the heat.
14:17 We're going to add in our pecans
14:24 and some craisins.
14:29 Give it a good stir. Now we're going to be ready to stuff our squash.
14:35 Okay so we need to flip our butternut squash over. It's been out long enough, it's
14:41 easy to handle. It's still really warm though.
14:48 Play-doh time?
14:50 So you can scoop some of your squash out if you want to so that it holds more
14:54 filling or you can just leave it. Either way.
14:58 Now we're just going to take a bunch of our filling and we're going to fill up
15:01 each one of these squash halves.
15:13 Look at these, aren't they so pretty? We're going to put them back in the oven
15:16 for five minutes.
15:27 Okay they are all done. Don't they look so good?
15:31 So many autumn flavors right there and that's just a whole meal right there.
15:37 I'm so excited to eat it.
15:45 Alright guys I'm ready to dig in. I brought it out here to the Hartley
15:48 because it just seems appropriate. And it's so pretty. You can see all of the
15:52 spices like the herbs in there and you get sweetness from both the apple and
15:56 the cranberry and of course the Italian sausage has a ton of flavor.
15:59 It's just so yum.
16:05 I'm going to try it with some of these herbs.
16:16 Yum.
16:18 Alright guys we are back outside getting ready to dig those iris.
16:21 Thankfully they are very shallow rooted being around the base of that crab
16:24 apple. If you were digging out something else that might have deeper roots it
16:27 could be a little bit harder. But I think this will go pretty quick.
16:30 I'm going to get a couple of crates or a couple of baskets so I can keep the
16:33 two varieties sort of separate. And I'm trying to stay out of their way.
16:37 So I've parked the gator right here so I'm going to be trekking it a little bit
16:40 of a distance.
16:43 The wind had died down a bit.
16:45 This will work.
16:47 So let's get these dug up and put out in the south garden.
16:51 I'm nice and full from our lunch.
17:20 Alright.
17:22 Alright.
17:24 Alright.
17:25 Alright.
17:27 Alright.
17:31 Alright.
17:35 Alright.
17:46 Alright.
18:07 Okay it's a little bit loud because he's compacting the soil over there.
18:10 But we got all of the iris out.
18:13 I feel like that tree can breathe.
18:15 And I initially thought I was going to leave the lambs here.
18:18 And I might.
18:19 But I think maybe having a very short growing something in here.
18:24 Like maybe a really short perennial geranium would look really pretty in
18:28 here.
18:29 Just as kind of like a floor underneath this tree.
18:32 Because the branches are pretty low.
18:34 And I really want to be able to see it.
18:36 Like I want it to be highlighted.
18:38 I did paw around in here.
18:41 And this trunk was buried quite far.
18:44 I've got some suckers I need to cut off of it.
18:47 But I followed it down to where the roots start here.
18:50 I feel like that was good for the tree.
18:52 Just moving everything out from it.
18:54 These monstrosities are next.
18:56 Oh my goodness.
18:57 They're going to be really pretty though shortly with the bright yellow fall
19:00 color.
19:01 And then here's a look from the front.
19:03 So you can actually see underneath through to the chicken coop.
19:06 Oh.
19:07 So nice.
19:08 And this is what we ended up with.
19:10 This whole clump is all one.
19:12 Like it came out really easily.
19:14 You can see how shallow rooted they are.
19:16 Another good example of how iris grow.
19:19 Like right here.
19:23 See that?
19:25 How they spread like rhizomes like that underneath the ground.
19:28 Very shallow and then form new roots.
19:30 And shoot up new plants.
19:32 So you can separate these.
19:33 Like this one will come right off.
19:35 This is typically how you buy them.
19:37 They're like one little rhizome here.
19:39 And then usually, you know, they're cut foliage just like this.
19:42 That's how I've seen them anyway.
19:44 So you could go through and you could separate all of these.
19:48 Which I probably should do but I probably won't do today.
19:53 See that?
19:54 And then this clump here was the one growing right directly underneath the
19:57 crabapple that was really tall.
19:59 So a little bit of a different growth habit.
20:03 Okay.
20:04 Let's go find a sunny spot and get them replanted.
20:09 [wind blowing]
20:32 [music]
20:42 [music]
20:52 [music]
21:02 [music]
21:12 [music]
21:29 Okay.
21:30 I'm working with the shorter variety first.
21:31 I decided to go ahead and separate them from what we just dug up in that
21:34 small little space.
21:35 I got over 90 rhizomes.
21:38 90.
21:39 I just did a quick Google search and I could maybe find them cheaper than
21:42 this but the cheapest price I saw just in the first page was $5 per rhizome.
21:46 Depending on the variety, they go up from there.
21:48 There were some for $15 per rhizome.
21:50 I don't know what variety this is but 90 times 5 is $450.
21:55 That's why sometimes it is 100% worth it to move things and separate them.
21:59 And, oh, that just makes you feel good, doesn't it?
22:02 So we're going to have a great big old drift of iris right in here.
22:05 It'll start right by the sedum.
22:07 These are a Lichfield or Lichfield Angel Rose which gets quite large.
22:10 So we'll have a nice strappy, grassy texture right below that.
22:14 And it will tuck in behind this lilac toward the ninebark right there.
22:18 And then we'll start a drift of something new right in front here,
22:21 kind of where my kneeling pad is.
22:23 So it'll kind of tuck behind the drift of whatever else goes in here.
22:26 I think that'll be beautiful.
22:29 Instead of biotoning every single individual little hole that I dig up,
22:33 I just spread it over the top of the whole area, rhizomes and all,
22:36 and it will just kind of get churned in and mixed in when I'm digging.
22:40 So anyway, super happy with that. Let's get these in the ground.
22:44 (music)
23:13 (music)
23:42 (music)
23:47 Got them all planted. I recounted there are 93 iris in this space.
23:52 I planted them roughly 8 to 10 inches apart from one another,
23:55 so they'll have a little time to fill in.
23:57 I cannot wait to see what they look like though.
24:00 When I have a little bit of free time, I'm going to go through my pictures
24:03 and see if I can't find what color these were blooming the last time they were in bloom,
24:07 which I don't remember noticing them this spring.
24:11 They're usually in kind of a jumble with everything else that's in bloom,
24:13 and there are tulips back there, and of course the crabapple blooms.
24:16 So anyway, I'll go back through and see if I can remember.
24:19 I'm kind of hoping they're purple, but I think they're probably either purple,
24:22 champagne color, which I would love to, or a pale yellow.
24:25 Anything would be fine out here, honestly.
24:27 And seeing them all in one clump versus 93 plants, it's so awesome.
24:32 Now I am going to wait to water them in.
24:34 I think we've got rain on the forecast two days from now, which might be plenty for these.
24:38 If we don't get enough to fully saturated the soil, I'll come out here and give them a little bit more.
24:43 But when I broke some of those rhizomes apart, there were fresh cut ends.
24:46 It's kind of like letting a succulent cut heal, which they still will heal
24:50 even though they're underneath the soil.
24:52 It takes them a little bit longer, but there's still oxygen exchange and things like that.
24:55 So I don't want to introduce water right away to fresh open cuts like that.
24:59 So we'll wait a couple days on that.
25:01 So this right here is what we're left with.
25:03 Let's go find a spot.
25:04 This is a purple and pink corner.
25:07 And because these iris have some gold in them, I think we'll skip.
25:10 But boy, wouldn't it be pretty to have that texture right in here, that strappy, tall texture.
25:15 We'll have to find a different color of iris, a pink one maybe, to put in here.
25:19 Ruby chip junior buddleia is looking amazing, October 22nd.
25:22 Oh my gosh.
25:24 That would be beautiful right in here.
25:30 [MUSIC PLAYING]
25:34 [MUSIC PLAYING]
25:37 [MUSIC PLAYING]
25:41 [MUSIC PLAYING]
25:44 [MUSIC PLAYING]
26:08 [MUSIC PLAYING]
26:11 Well, I think that is going to be beautiful.
26:28 So there are 40 of that variety right there.
26:31 And again, I'm just going to let these be.
26:33 The soil is actually more moist over in this section, as opposed to the other side,
26:37 where we just planted.
26:39 But I will hold off, and then we may water later on this week if needed.
26:43 Oh gosh, there's some pretty color in this area, though.
26:45 I just have to show you this.
26:47 These are the Miss Ruby.
26:50 And then the Ruby chips are the ones we just looked at.
26:53 Look at the Brandywine viburnum.
26:57 Aren't they the most beautiful berries?
27:00 And if you look through this area right here, you'll see the Miss Rubies,
27:04 the Brandywine, straight through the Niagara, Panicum,
27:08 and then the Tiger Eye Sumac.
27:11 Oh, I love it.
27:12 We do not have much time left, but I'm going to tag just a few dahlias,
27:16 because a few is better than none.
27:18 I'm going to go grab the tagging tape out of the truck.
27:20 I just had to go pick up more this morning because I ran out.
27:23 And then we may get 10 done.
27:25 We'll see.
27:27 [no audio]
27:35 Okay, here we are.
27:36 We've got this row done, this row is done, and these two rows are almost done.
27:42 So I started at the other end, and I worked all the way down
27:46 to where those big tall white ones are.
27:48 And then I started in on this end because I thought I'd just work toward
27:51 that really thick patch from both sides.
27:53 And I was tagging on either side, and I ran out of tape, let's see,
27:58 right about here.
28:00 So if I could get from here to just that big thick patch of white ones down there
28:04 done, that would mean all I have left to do in the next couple of days
28:08 is this full row, and then there's just a part row there,
28:11 which would not take me too long.
28:13 So about 20 feet worth of dahlias.
28:15 That's about 40 dahlias.
28:16 We can do it.
28:17 Here we go.
28:19 So what I do is I just write the name of the dahlia variety on this red tape,
28:22 and then tie it around the base of the plant.
28:24 Pretty simple.
28:26 We made it a little bit further than I thought we were going to,
28:49 so I'm really happy.
28:50 So now all of these rows have been tagged.
28:53 I made it about 15 feet down this row, and I did the first two on this one.
28:58 So I have basically this amount left times two.
29:06 So I'll just need to get in there and get that one done.
29:08 There's some really pretty ones.
29:10 Like this one's called Noel.
29:13 Look at that.
29:14 Bees are loving it.
29:16 This one's the Red Labyrinth right here.
29:19 I love the yellow water lilies.
29:21 I think they're so beautiful.
29:23 And there's some beautiful lilac thyme down there, the hapet blue eyes right here.
29:29 Love those.
29:30 And, you guys, that is going to be it for today's project.
29:32 I told you it was going to be a mixed bag.
29:34 I kind of like days like that, though.
29:35 It kind of keeps you moving, doing different things, and I don't know.
29:39 That feels fun to me.
29:40 Gosh, this is a pretty one.
29:42 Every time, this one just catches my eye.
29:44 Sorry, I just had to stop for a second.
29:46 This is a la mode.
29:48 I'm also loving that one.
29:49 Oh, so pretty.
29:50 Okay, you guys, thank you so much for watching this video.
29:53 I hope you enjoyed it, and we will see you in the next one.
29:55 Bye.