PNW: Fall garden planning - do you know your first frost date?

FamilyGardening, Your fall garden looks fantastic! Slugs have been chewing down the tops of the parsnips here. Your peas make me envious, I grow them in the spring but didn't plant any for fall, and I am regretting it after seeing yours.
Lettuce, radish, kale and spinach are all coming along well. My timing on the fall beets was better this year and I should have a nice fall crop.

happycamper......sorry to hear about the slugs ....they sure did give us a run for our money too!!....they have eaten ton's in our garden....i dont mind if they nibble here and there....but...i hate it when they get to new seedlings ....i think ours are getting sneaky ....they are hiding down deep into the lettuce....cant find them until we cut some lettuce.... bring it into the house to wash....and....there they are floating in the water YUCK!

im excited to see how your beets turn out.....still havent picked ours yet....they seemed kinda stalled there for awhile until the weather cooled down.....this is our second year trying to grow some....havent had much of anything yet.....seems like beets and carrots we have trouble with....

sounds like your fall garden is doing well happycamper...yah!

hugs
rose

its October wow the summer went by fast!

how is the fall gardening going with everyone?...

we have major growth going on under the hoops with our cole crops



broc's are forming heads



have picked lettuce twice and its ready again



dog kennel of cole crops



we are still getting beans



fall sugar snap peas almost ready to harvest


going to keep the carrots in the box until they get a nip of frost



moved 2 of our pepper plants that were out side along with 3 sucker tomatoes into the green house along with the basil and the other two pepper plants that have been in the green house the all summer ....the differnce in size is amazing....the two dark green plants that are in the very back left and right corner are the plants from out side....then you have a tomato sucker in the middle back and 2 other tomato suckers to the left....you can also see the basil in the middle down front....the other three plants are the peppers that stayed in the green house....they are producing the same amount of fruit but the plants are not as tall, lush and green as the ones that stayed outside up against the house for the summer....all five peppers are putting on new fruit



fall strawberries



beets in the middle of our beans....they look like they may have a beet under ther ....we have tried to grow them before and it was all top with tiny roots.....they have been in the ground for a long time....



hugs
rose

Love the new use for the dog kennel!
GG

GG ...i know right

those were left over seedlings that we just couldnt throw out.....so we searched for something to plant them in.....LOL....so far so good!

we also planted in our fire pit LOL.....we use to have fires at night during the summer....not knowing that we are not allowed to have them here in our city.....

well...long story short ....hubby decided to burn some branchs that he had cut from our tree ....on a hot sunny clear day....well...those branches caused a lot of smoke in the air and all of a sudden a fire truck pulled up and told us that fire pits were not allowed....

so we now enjoy our days sitting by our fire pit....watching butteflies, bees and humming birds.....



there in the corner...hubby and i enjoy spending time together...one of the flowers hubby picked out and planted is called hot lips

hugs
rose

Awww, shucks about the fire pit Rose. We can't have one either, and I get so frustrated that EVERY store sells those things, and what would make you think they were illegal to use when they are sold everywhere like that?

I was right about my lettuce making a strong comeback once picked for the first time. Just hard waiting for it to get big enough to pick in the first place! Wish I hadn't been so lazy and had re-sowed all the holes where nothing germinated because then I might actually be getting some salads by now. As it is, I was able to throw five leaves of Red Sails lettuce in with my store bought spinach a couple of weeks ago and can now probably pick ten leaves for my salad today and a few Simpson Elite. I'll work harder on it next spring (I think!).

Rose, everything looks amazing, as usual! Love all the pictures.

Well if anything my gardening (first year) has been a experince [super hard clay] [pill bugs, earwigs, Caterpillars, beetles,{zillion others} and some still unknown to me] [mildew] made a lot of poor choices. A small harvest of Tomatoes, huge harvest of Jalapeno's, Both still producing well. Lost my spaghetti squash {2 grew 1 almost full I think 1 smaller than a baseball} my suger baby Melons are still trying to grow but one of the 3 smaller ones shows signs of mildew . Lost my carrots {might have been the kitten from next door} a great deal of my flowers have died for one reason or another We have had a couple real cold nights, Starting to think about what I can save and whether or not they would be worth the effort I can put some up for the winter in my front bathroom [no sun light but have succeeded before doing that with some flowers], a few on a make-shift table that gets sun 2 times a day through windows an another window that gets morning sun.. Can't afford a Greenhouse yet!

cc: Well my unknown bugs maybe Spittle bug or leaf hopper's either way the are really hard to smash, I clapped one 3 times and it only stunned it temporarily, drowning about the same. Put one in a small container with no air holes and it seemed to live a week.

SARockhill......sorry to hear you are having bug problems and you lost your squash plant and carrots the first few years is learning....thats what i keep telling my self and hubby.....it does get better each year though....thats what we have found....this is our 3rd year gardening....keep us posted on how your indoor gardening goes!

we were attacked by Aphids its been crazy!....not sure where they all came from.....we are still dealing with them....

the fall garden is producing we harvested our first bok choi and had it with beans, onions, sugar snap peas, yellow crook neck squash, all from the garden!

bok choi first harvest we planted a bunch as a trap plant for the bugs and slugs to keep away from our other cole crops.....



our first harvest of fall sugar snap peas and our late planting of beans



lettuce is doing well.....been harvesting more then we can eat so we have been sharing with friends



dog kennel planting of cole crops doing well....

cabbage



brossel sprouts and cauliflower



hoops area of broc's, cauli's, cabbage, bok choi, collard greens, spinach, lettuce and swiss chard doing good...fighting aphids and cabbage worms along with slugs....



collard greens, swiss chard and spinach



we had to pull our 2 spring plantings of brossels sprouts do to APHIDS!



the green house plants are still doing well....tomato suckers, peppers,and basil plants....and we even took a chance and planted some snow peas just to see if we could get them to grow inside the green house....

in the hoop area we replanted more spinach because slugs have been feasting on the first plantings....we also sowed a few more broc's and cauli's to see if we can get them to over winter....we lost a few plants to slugs so we had a few empty squares.....

hugs
rose

the snow peas are up in the green house!

its been non stop rain here for the past week and it seems like its going to continue for the next week.....

our fall broc's are getting some nice size heads on them....i think we should be harvesting some soon

a couple of the new spinach seeds are coming up boy what a year for non spinach....last year we had so much we could not eat all of it.....this year we only have had a few nibbles....i love fresh spinach in salads.....the lettuce is doing great....now come on spinach

the bok choi and collard greens we have been harvesting....the other cole crops like cauli's and cabbage are getting fuller and taller no heads yet.....

the sucker tomato plants are looking cold in the green house...they have that purple look to them.....they do have fruit :drunken: so we shall see...the pepper plants look like they havent done much more then what they were doing last month....they still have a lot of fruit on the plants but havent grown any more or change color .....their still green....very surprised that the basil still is growing and looks great for how cold its been.....we did put some 2liter bottles full of water in with them along with some large stones in hope they would warm up during the day time and give the green house some warmth at night......we are planing on getting some hanging lights soon to help keep the green house warmer.....

we are also going to put the plastic up on the hoop box's because we are worried about all the rain.....we are going to leave the ends open though for now....once it gets a lot colder we will close it up all the way.....

there is still so much to learn about fall and winter gardening here in the PNW we want to know how and what everyone else is doing.......what are you finding thats working for you and whats not......do you have anything growing under hoops? or in a green house?

hugs
rose

todays fall harvest



Broccoli, sugar snap peas, cherry tomatoes, crookneck squash, Jubilee tomato, Cantaloupes, beans and our son's corn on the cob from his three sisters garden wine barrel

brought in more Super Itilian paste tomatoes to finish ripening



cut some fresh flowers too



hugs
rose

FamilyGardening wrote:bok choi first harvest we planted a bunch as a trap plant for the bugs and slugs to keep away from our other cole crops.....

Did this seem to do what you hoped it would? Could you describe more about this?

Thanks

CharlesB wrote:

FamilyGardening wrote:bok choi first harvest we planted a bunch as a trap plant for the bugs and slugs to keep away from our other cole crops.....

Did this seem to do what you hoped it would? Could you describe more about this?

Thanks

we found in the spring plantings that the slugs went first and much harder for the bok choi we planted then the other cole crops like broc, cauli and cabbage that were planted next to them.....those cole crops only had a few nibbles if any.....

we planted the bok choi again for fall crops as a trap plant....and once again the bok choi had most of the slug damage, cabbage worms and some aphids.....we did find a cabbage worm on the collard greens but not as bad as the bok choi had.....

aphids went for the bok choi as well.... but....the aphids went harder for the brossel sprouts....

we didnt have aphids in our spring crops ....we were really hit hard over the summer.....the aphids were all over our corn as well....

we are going to continue to grow bok choi as a companion plant with other cole crops and see if we get the same results.....we love eating bok choi too so we just plant extra for the bug and slugs....

hope that helps
hugs
rose

Your harvest yesterday is amazing, Rose! And thanks for the tip about the planting trap plants. Altho here in my garden they seem to love the collards best. Guess I could companion plant with collards.

Do you put one in each square? Or plant a few at the edges of the box or how does that work?

CC

we planted the bok choi on some of the out side edges of our hoop box's......we also planted lettuce and spinach.....the slugs love the spinach as well.....the spinach and lettuce are sitting side by side....the slugs pretty much has left the lettuce alone.....

we planted the bok choi side by side in the hoop box's.....next time we are going to spit them up a bit more and see if we can get some spinach....in between the bok choi and see if the slugs will go for the bok choi and leave us the spinach

hugs
rose

Oct 29th Fall update

we had a few hours today when the sun was out so we were able to get some things done out in the gardens

SFG box #1.

spring planting of brossel sprouts are coming along....( i never knew it took so long for brossel sprouts to grow )spring planting kale doing well....1 sqaure of fall baby sprouts of kale coming up....we planted 5 squares of garlic and 1 square of onions.....garlic just starting to show.......



SFG box #2

fall planting of sugar snap peas & carrots doing good....took a peak and pulled a couple of carrots ....their coming along....going to wait until after a frost hits to pull up more....



SFG box #3

fall planting of shelling peas doing ok....they are making some peas....havent harvested any yet...and...the spring plantings of fava beans that we cut down and left the roots in the soil are coming up and flowering



Green house:

we planted some seeds today not sure what they will do but its only a few seeds so we shall see we planted some carrots, turnips, onions, spinach, lettuce and transplanted some celery....



fall planting of snow peas



the last two pepper plants.....something has been eating the peppers ...so we lost a bunch of them....



the only tomato plant in the green house



the hoop box's:

cole crops doing great!
we have harvested a couple of broc heads....



some new broc seedlings coming up just planted them a week or so ago....going to see if we can over winter them....



took off the plastic of this hoop box to allow some rain in
lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, bok choi, cabbage, collard greens and lettuce.....all doing well....we just harvest a bunch of it yesterday



the back garden area:

still waiting on the beets



the last two pumpkins



the childrens three sister's wine barrels corn still filling out



our harvest today....



how is fall treating you all?

hugs
rose .....who has dirt under her finger nails

Kudo's to you Rose, for taking advantage of the weather yesterday! 'Twas a lovely evening last night. So sad when I heard the rain start up again at about ten, since I was hoping for one more dry day so I could get some work done outside.

The one complaint I have about our rainy season is that it starts just when the leaves are starting to fall and the annuals and perennials are dying back and need to be cleaned up. The yard and garden is at it's messiest and the weather just doesn't cooperate for clean up. I get jealous when I read of all these people raking and mowing up bags of dry, crunchy leaves. Ours are a wet, matted mess stuck on the lawn, street, driveway and shrubs.

Well, my lettuces and cole crops are still out there. The nights have been warm at my place - in the low fifties - so they are fine. Need to check for slugs. I picked up one of those wireless thermometers at Fred Meyer's on clearance. I put the sensor out on the back fence and can check the current, max, and min. temps from inside. Love it. I'm glad the cabbage moths have finally gone away - my broccoli's took a beating this year.