N & C Midwest: October 2017!

Just like that it's October, SFGers!  Whirlwind (literally for some of us here is the States) summer.  Record breaking termperatures, rain for days, just an interesting ride weather wise.  It took it's toll on my harvest for sure, especially the tomatoes and cucumbers.  Squash was ravaged my SVBs, I got a few.  Late start hurt my melons.  But I did get a few.

What went well or not so much?  What's on tap for what remains of the season?

Scorpio Rising wrote:Just like that it's October, SFGers!  Whirlwind (literally for some of us here is the States) summer.  Record breaking termperatures, rain for days, just an interesting ride weather wise.  It took it's toll on my harvest for sure, especially the tomatoes and cucumbers.  Squash was ravaged my SVBs, I got a few.  Late start hurt my melons.  But I did get a few.

What went well or not so much?  What's on tap for what remains of the season?

Not in your neck of the woods, but we have severe wind warnings coming for the next couple of days, which brings the very real threat of wildfires, so your whirlwind comment hit a bulls-eye out here.

countrynaturals wrote:

Scorpio Rising wrote:Just like that it's October, SFGers!  Whirlwind (literally for some of us here is the States) summer.  Record breaking termperatures, rain for days, just an interesting ride weather wise.  It took it's toll on my harvest for sure, especially the tomatoes and cucumbers.  Squash was ravaged my SVBs, I got a few.  Late start hurt my melons.  But I did get a few.

What went well or not so much?  What's on tap for what remains of the season?

Not in your neck of the woods, but we have severe wind warnings coming for the next couple of days, which brings the very real threat of wildfires, so your whirlwind comment hit a bulls-eye out here.

Right, CN, we escaped the bulk of the disasterous weather.  I know many have had a super tough year....weather-wise!

ok.. 5b.. here.. when should I plant the garlic?  I need to get something to mulch around the pots with still.. 

TIA

nrstooge wrote:ok.. 5b.. here.. when should I plant the garlic?  I need to get something to mulch around the pots with still.. 

TIA

When is your last frost, nrstooge?  Here I plant after Halloween.  Try getting some straw bales from TSC or Rural King.

Average first frost is Oct 15 and last is April 15 .. first time garlic planter here in Iowa 

nrstooge wrote:Average first frost is Oct 15 and last is April 15 .. first time garlic planter here in Iowa 

I think after Halloween is good for you too.  Our average first frost is also 10/15.  Try to get some hardneck, not the kind from the grocery.  The variety should be hardy.  It is everywhere online.  I get mine from Pinetree, but all the seed companies have it!

countrynaturals wrote:

Scorpio Rising wrote:Just like that it's October, SFGers!  Whirlwind (literally for some of us here is the States) summer.  Record breaking termperatures, rain for days, just an interesting ride weather wise.  It took it's toll on my harvest for sure, especially the tomatoes and cucumbers.  Squash was ravaged my SVBs, I got a few.  Late start hurt my melons.  But I did get a few.

What went well or not so much?  What's on tap for what remains of the season?

Not in your neck of the woods, but we have severe wind warnings coming for the next couple of days, which brings the very real threat of wildfires, so your whirlwind comment hit a bulls-eye out here.

Oh we don't need that at all!  Stay safe, CN!

Scorpio Rising wrote:

countrynaturals wrote:

Scorpio Rising wrote:Just like that it's October, SFGers!  Whirlwind (literally for some of us here is the States) summer.  Record breaking termperatures, rain for days, just an interesting ride weather wise.  It took it's toll on my harvest for sure, especially the tomatoes and cucumbers.  Squash was ravaged my SVBs, I got a few.  Late start hurt my melons.  But I did get a few.

What went well or not so much?  What's on tap for what remains of the season?

Not in your neck of the woods, but we have severe wind warnings coming for the next couple of days, which brings the very real threat of wildfires, so your whirlwind comment hit a bulls-eye out here.

Oh we don't need that at all!  Stay safe, CN!

Thanks, Scorpio. We aren't clear yet, but I think the advisory ends tonight.

 Yay!

OK, so just spent a few hours in the SFG for clean up.  Harvested some peppers, volunteer ground cherries from last years' location, a couple weirdly shaped cukes, and one square of Yukon Gold potatoes.  

Weeded 2 out of 3 beds, pulled everything but peppers and a couple ground cherry plants.  Also left some Swiss Chard after hard prune of damaged leaves.  Maybe I will get some leaves from those.  Also have 3 more SF of Yukon Golds to get.  

Still need to do my tomato bed....yikes.    Also south annex needs cleaned too, but that's a quickie!

Getting ready to rain on me here, I believe after a pretty nice weekend.

We did get some rain.  Still unseasonably warm, even at night, but no complaints from me!   Will finish clean out this Saturday, and set my sights on the (swallows audibly). The garage.....

Got it done today, at least in the SFGs!  Pulled all grasses, maters done.  Got stung by a sluggish yellow jacket in the process....

All that remains are some pepper plants, Swiss Chard, 4 squares of Yukon Gold to dig and some volunteer ground cherries still going.  

Still need to deal with the compost pile.  It is overgrown and neglected.  A pretty productive day here!  

Weather was gorgeous!  I can’t believe this fall!!!

Still mowing grass (WHY??????) as it is growing!  Swiss Chard is still happening, a few peppers.  And I need to dig the tater!

I know things are slowing down, but what are you guys thinking??  I for one am going to have to hand copy with pen on an actual paper calendar my Fall garden!  August !!!!  Whyyyyy do I never ever do it right?   

If it's any consolation, I didn't do it right either. I didn't do all of what I'd planned; bunch of stuff didn't germinate, volunteers did. I had to go out today and scribble which squares actually had something in them so I could figure out where to put my transplants. Ended up with a totally different plan.

That sluggish yellow jacket's sister nearly came in the house with the sheets I've been tossing over the porch peppers. There was a tense moment.

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:If it's any consolation, I didn't do it right either. I didn't do all of what I'd planned; bunch of stuff didn't germinate, volunteers did. I had to go out today and scribble which squares actually had something in them so I could figure out where to put my transplants. Ended up with a totally different plan.

That sluggish yellow jacket's sister nearly came in the house with the sheets I've been tossing over the porch peppers. There was a tense moment.

I have never done Fall right....it still seems so, summer.  In August, ya know???  I am here to tell ya, I am gonna write it in actual pen and paper on my calendar.  I seem to obey the master family calendar.  

I ignore Skippy’s reminders, Mother Earth News reminder that come reliably in my email.....why?

Oh man, I sat outside for lunch at work and  yesterday, for about 10 minutes!  Every yellow jacket in the area beamed in on my steak kebab leftovers!!! They were super slow and clingy....  Moved inside to finish lunch!

Got my South Annex cleaned out.  Dug up taters, not a great yield, but I again planted  late after spring leaves...will not do that again!

Harvested some jalapeño peppers, Swiss chard along with the Yukon Gold.  Also grabbed a few ground cherries.  

About done out there.  Still warm today, but we have rain coming in.  And seasonable temps, colder.

Our new place has a smaller greenhouse or hoop house.  I am pretty sure I am way behind in getting it started for winter but think I'll give it a whirl anyway.  Hubby helped me measure the two beds and we came up with 70"+ and 37".  There are two beds with the walkway between them.  .

Anyone else in Zone 5A with a solar greenhouse?

DorothyG wrote:Our new place has a smaller greenhouse or hoop house.  I am pretty sure I am way behind in getting it started for winter but think I'll give it a whirl anyway.  Hubby helped me measure the two beds and we came up with 70"+ and 37".  There are two beds with the walkway between them.  .

Anyone else in Zone 5A with a solar greenhouse?

Nice!  I would love to try a season extender of some type!  Keep us posted, DorothyG!  Yeah, I think you can definitely get some things going, what are you looking at starting?

In the move, which is not completed, I lost my stash of garden seed.  All were open pollinated seeds.     I did a quick order for more and they came Saturday.  I have buttercrunch lettuce, head lettuce, spinach (3 kinds), radishes (2 kinds), carrots (3 kinds) and Tom Thumb peas.  They sent a complimentary packet of another kind of pea that does require a trellis.  Probably won't do a trellis during the winter.  The only one I am real confident in is the Tom Thumb peas.  

Any advice, thoughts, knowledge, practical experience, or just plain old "I tried that once" is welcome.  It's all a learning experience for me.

DorothyG wrote:In the move, which is not completed, I lost my stash of garden seed.  All were open pollinated seeds.     I did a quick order for more and they came Saturday.  I have buttercrunch lettuce, head lettuce, spinach (3 kinds), radishes (2 kinds), carrots (3 kinds) and Tom Thumb peas.  They sent a complimentary packet of another kind of pea that does require a trellis.  Probably won't do a trellis during the winter.  The only one I am real confident in is the Tom Thumb peas.  

Any advice, thoughts, knowledge, practical experience, or just plain old "I tried that once" is welcome.  It's all a learning experience for me.

Hi Dorothy!

I'm over in a 6a (but maybe 5b due to microclimate) section of Pennsylvania and last year I did some winter gardening in a make-shift low-low tunnel. I was very happy with how it worked out, and my plan is to expand to additional beds this year. I thought I was very behind, but based on when I took my photos last year, not as bad as I thought. Winter gardening without heating is more of creating a living outdoor refrigerator in the late fall than actually growing vegetables in the winter. The plants don't grow very much over the winter because there is less light (less energy.)  I have photos and comments over in this thread, scroll to the bottom of page 2 of the thread to find my first post there:
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t18737p25-winter-gardens-photos

There is a book on Winter Gardening by Eliot Coleman that I have found useful, and also, the Mother of a Hubbard web pages, like this one: http://www.motherofahubbard.com/persephone/
It looks like in Columbia, MO Persephone days start mid-November.

I love to see what winter can bring, it is surprising to me that anything can live!  Can’t wait to see what happens!

I'm hoping to find time to work in the greenhouse in the next three days.  I will try to take some pictures and get them posted.  Posting pics isn't something I do much of but I so enjoy seeing others pics.  Trying to get better at that.

"I'm over in a 6a (but maybe 5b due to microclimate)...." BeetlesPerSqFt

Beetles, depending on which USDA map I look at I could be anything from 5a to 6b.  On the 2012 map going by the low temps for the winter I would be in Zone 6b, 0 to -5 but going by the 1990 USDA map I would be 5a or 5b.  At our old place we were for sure in a microclimate with the way we were situated between the hills, the trees surrounding us, and the creek behind us.  We were 1/4 mile from town and 1/2 mile from the school.  We would be about 5 degrees colder in the winter than at the school on any given morning.  In the summer the humidity was a killer.  The hills and trees blocked most of the breeze.


Just this morning I left our new place with no frost what so ever and a a gentle breeze.  Drove 14 miles to the old place only to find frost on the grass, roof, and deck.  Not a bit of a breeze there.  If nothing else it will keep me busy keeping records of my gardening trials and errors here for a couple of years.

DorothyG, just so glad you are on here!!!

Yeah, zones are a moving target but it gets us a reference.  Lots of variables though as you point out.

Walked out to survey the few remaining plants I have in the boxes.  Peppers are done for.  3 nights at or below freezing have finished them.  I pulled all I could before those nights came.  Swiss chard still kickin’, some better than others.  Ground cherries dead. Few fruits still available for harvesting off the bed.  Other than that, all over here!

What about you guys?

I am going to be bulking up a couple beds and putting my garlic in probably next weekend.