September 2012, New England

Well, the daylight hours are clearly shorter, the evenings cooler and it seems everyone in the natural world is scurrying, in a bit of a hurry to get stores put up up for the cold months.
My peppers and tomatoes are really starting to come in and the beans continue producing quite well. My fingers are still crossed that the Brussel's sprouts will put on some growth to be table ready for Thanksgiving dinner.

This morning I picked and pickled 5 pounds of beans.

Rattlesnake beans packed in jars. Need the caps placed then ready for processing.


This is tonight's harvest that was turned into a kettle of sauce. I'm going to eat some for supper and probably freeze the rest. The cucumbers went into the ongoing brine.

Ooh! The beans are beautiful. Is that regular canning? They look more fresh than what I expected from canned beans. I haven't tried canning yet. I did throw some green beans in a freezer bag in the freezer, but mostly we've just been eating them as they come in.

My garden is getting in gear! Many tomatoes, many still green but getting a few ripe ones daily. Lots of cherry tomatoes too. The eggplants and peppers are still for the most part pretty small so I'm really hoping they keep plugging. There's a zucchini out there getting bigger, and what I thought was a zucchini plant has turned out to be a watermelon plant! I kept thinking - that thing looks weird - must be a winter squash. Ha. I doubt it will ripen before the cold sets in, but it may be close, so we'll see. One late cucumber plant survived, and it has been producing a LOT of cucumbers - and vines - for one plant. Honestly I don't even need more than this one. But next year I'll keep trying to plant a few and trellis them, and maybe put the protectors around them to keep whatever was eating the sprouts off.

Getting ready to plant some garlic soon for next year. Other than that, I haven't really tried winter veggies yet. I do have carrots waiting to be pulled, and most of the potatoes too.

Yay for the rain, finally. We needed it. Looking forward to it getting sunnier and warmer after Isaac passes thru. I heard tomatoes will ripen between 55 and 85 degrees. We're still there.

My raised beds can't grow enough for me, so beyond the 3 new 4 x 8s I have ready for next year, I also made a hugelkultur bed for permanent asparagus. That was a lot of fun, using brush and junk wood from around here.

Hope to expand eventually into the hoops. Haven't made headway there yet, altho I did learn how to make cold frames using greenhouse plastic and wooden frames, which are neat, but more complicated than the hoops, think I'll try the hoops first.

This gardening thing is getting addictive. Very.

NHGardener wrote:Ooh! The beans are beautiful. Is that regular canning? They look more fresh than what I expected from canned beans. I haven't tried canning yet. I did throw some green beans in a freezer bag in the freezer, but mostly we've just been eating them as they come in.

I'm eating a bit of them as they come in but i am really trying to pack the freezer. The initial 6# I planted made 2gallons of frozen french cut beans. I really want one of those filleting machines. The photo shows the fresh beans packed into the jars and the vinegar poured in. This is before canning. Sadly, after cooking the nice purple stripes disappear.

NHGardener wrote:My garden is getting in gear! Many tomatoes, many still green but getting a few ripe ones daily. Lots of cherry tomatoes too. The eggplants and peppers are still for the most part pretty small so I'm really hoping they keep plugging.

WATER! water, water, water and water some more.

NHGardener wrote:Getting ready to plant some garlic soon for next year. Other than that, I haven't really tried winter veggies yet. I do have carrots waiting to be pulled, and most of the potatoes too.

Yeah, I am planning on harvesting my carrots after frost, this will make them sweeter. My plan right now is to put garlic in the last week of October.

NHGardener wrote:This gardening thing is getting addictive. Very.

Wicked!

How are the bees, are you feeding them yet?

I missed the August bee meeting - what are you feeding, pollen patties? I hadn't been aware of that, but maybe it's time. I'm assuming you don't mean sugar syrup, as I believe I've heard that dilutes the honey.

I just visited my beehives and I see FOUR SLUGS at the entrance - about to google to see if that means trouble. I think they will demolish the brood frames if they get in there. HMMM.

NHGardener wrote:I missed the August bee meeting - what are you feeding, pollen patties? I hadn't been aware of that, but maybe it's time. I'm assuming you don't mean sugar syrup, as I believe I've heard that dilutes the honey.

I just visited my beehives and I see FOUR SLUGS at the entrance - about to google to see if that means trouble. I think they will demolish the brood frames if they get in there. HMMM.

The bees wont let the slugs get too far. I have two colonies that I am not planning to take honey from that I am feeding.

I have a nuc that I started in June I am trying to get them to draw some comb in an upper 5 frame medium and the queen was slow before EAS so I started feeding 1:1 syrup and just put a pollen patty on the other day to help with new late summer brood. She is really kicking up laying eggs now. I have a hive that was a nuc I got in June but is now 1 deep and2 mediums, that I discovered wasn't queen right about 2 weeks ago, a lot of emergency queen cells. So I am feeding them 1:1 and put pollen patties on a few days ago. My other two hives are doing well, good brood pattern, happy queens, I am waiting for them to cap off several frames of honey that I want to take and then leave the rest . I will start feeding 2:1 in a week or so, whether I can take honey or not. I really want them to pack in the stores. I have a funny feeling that it's going to be another challenging winter. I am trying to help them get the hives as heavy as possible because I would like to not have to do emergency feeding in January or February.

I will put my mouse guards on in a few weeks after my final inspection for the season.

Do you have a book that they gave you for your class? What is it?

The Beekeeper's Handbook, 4th edition. They say it's good. I usually go to google first tho. But I should look thru it and see what I might be missing.

Where do you order your pollen patties from?

I hope your new hives make it! And sorry about your queen. I guess you left those queen cells undisturbed. They should be able to requeen themselves. So far mine seem to be doing okay. But we did have a bear in the yard the other night. Since then, the dog has been sleeping outside at night, but now that it's raining she won't be, so hopefully the bear already left for greener pastures.

They say leave the honey the first year, so I won't be taking any, but hope not to sugar water them any more, hopefully they can just get pollen patties from here out.

Bees are beautiful. Hope to add another couple hives in the spring if all goes well...

I like the beekeeping for dummies and the backyard beekeeper by Kim Flottum and of course Beesource.
http://www.beesource.com/forums/forum.php
Last year I got my pollen patties from Better bee or Dadant. I bought some from Brushy Mtn. at EAS a few weeks back, to avoid the shipping fee. Don't get the winter patty. The pollen patty is what I bought.
When it arrive it's like a lump of goo. I put it in the fridge to firm up, then separate the patties wrap in wax paper and cut in half, then store them in the deep freeze.

Thx camprn - I've bought them at the bee club meeting but hadn't ordered on my own yet. Don't really want to wait for September's meeting.

How's it going in the New England garden this weekend? I just put up 6 pints of salsa and am working on making some peach pie filling.

As long as the weather holds out, great! Still have a small zucchini and small yellow squash growing (just one each - grr), a lot of green tomatoes, several baby eggplants and growing peppers (found out some of them seem to be some kind of red hot peppers - they're small and round and red and then turn purplish), the green beans are still doing great, the volunteer tomato plants have blossoms, the cucumber vine is on a mission to take over the planet, the strawberries are reproducing like crazy and need to have their runners clipped, my lone sunflower is like Jack's beanstalk and the head has opened but I think it needs more time to mature the seeds...

The cabbage - it might be loose leaf cabbage, I'm not sure, I've never grown it before, bought as transplants - is being pulverized by some kind of green small caterpillar/worm which leaves behind mush green poop gel things. I can't really find the caterpillars tho - I did get 2 off yesterday, they're not fuzzy, they're smooth, but there are certainly more than 2 devastating those plants.

I could really use just 3 more months of summer.

NHGardener wrote:
The cabbage - it might be loose leaf cabbage, I'm not sure, I've never grown it before, bought as transplants - is being pulverized by some kind of green small caterpillar/worm which leaves behind mush green poop gel things. I can't really find the caterpillars tho - I did get 2 off yesterday, they're not fuzzy, they're smooth, but there are certainly more than 2 devastating those plants.

I could really use just 3 more months of summer.

Sounds like cabbage worms - little lime green naked things. BT or Neem will work against them.

I could sure use another 3 months of summer as well - it was 40F this morning!

GG

Ouch - 40? My grandparents were homesteaders in SD - but the southwest part.

Yes, they must be cabbage worms, but they are hard to spot. Have to research about them.

Edit: yup, after a quick google image, that's them alright.

NHGardener wrote:Ouch - 40? My grandparents were homesteaders in SD - but the southwest part.

Yes, they must be cabbage worms, but they are hard to spot. Have to research about them.

Edit: yup, after a quick google image, that's them alright.

If you have Neem, that will take care of them. It will chase off all other bugs as well, but since cabbage does not need a pollinator, I would use the Neem. I LOVE that stuff! It worked well when I injected a dilute solution of it into my Lemon Squash stem to get rid of SVB.

GG

(Yep, 40, and Mon. & Tues. are supposed to be in the 90's. Go figure...)

I squish 'em.

Yup, the 2 I found I fed to the chickens, who have a great appreciation for all things caterpillar.

Does neem hurt bees at all? I've seen it referenced, but I tend to be overly cautious of all things chemical or biological agent.

NHGardener wrote:Yup, the 2 I found I fed to the chickens, who have a great appreciation for all things caterpillar.

Does neem hurt bees at all? I've seen it referenced, but I tend to be overly cautious of all things chemical or biological agent.

My advice is always read and follow the label instructions on the product before use and spot spray. My guess is the bees wont be going near the plants that have no bloom.

NHGardener wrote:Yup, the 2 I found I fed to the chickens, who have a great appreciation for all things caterpillar.

Does neem hurt bees at all? I've seen it referenced, but I tend to be overly cautious of all things chemical or biological agent.

If you spray it indiscriminately on everything, you will chase the bees away or kill them, but if you spray it only on the cabbages you should be fine. Cabbage does not have a flower head for bees to hang out in so no attraction for them. Neem smells SO nasty to some bugs that they will starve themselves rather than eat anything treated with it, for other bugs that do eat the treated leaves, it disrupts their lifecycle (like worms changing to moths or butterflies). Yet it is not poisonous to humans - you can find it in mouthwash and toothpaste as an anti-bacterial agent, and in non-toxic cleaners. Does have a very garlicky smell right out to the bottle! A little goes a LOOOOOOOOONG way.

GG

Since you mentioned the garlic-y odor, is there any possibility that crushed garlic might do the same thing?

I have used a garlic-hot pepper spray that has worked very well. I have never used just garlic, but I do know that garlic alone is effective for chasing off some pests (and neighbors, relatives, friends, pets... )

GG

Goosegirl wrote:I have used a garlic-hot pepper spray that has worked very well. I have never used just garlic, but I do know that garlic alone is effective for chasing off some pests (and neighbors, relatives, friends, pets... )

GG

silly, you forgot vampires.

Pulled 13 pounds of honey of one hive this afternoon. Tomorrow, I am going to plant some spinach and more breakfast radish, I think it is too late for anything else...

My longest bestest friend gave me a 10 Qt. Fagor pressure cooker/canner for birthday. If it passes the Rowena test I will get to canning some beets here pretty quickly.

Woohoo!

camprn wrote:Pulled 13 pounds of honey of one hive this afternoon. Tomorrow, I am going to plant some spinach and more breakfast radish, I think it is too late for anything else...

My longest bestest friend gave me a 10 Qt. Fagor pressure cooker/canner for birthday. If it passes the Rowena test I will get to canning some beets here pretty quickly.

You have good friends

It's supposed to get cold tonight! What are you all doing? Or is there no problem until frost? 40 degrees is cold to me!

WHOA! 41 here for tonight - I hadn't even seen that.

UGH.

I don't think anything has to be done unless it's freezing?