Lower South - fall/winter gardens

Here are pictures of the beds I planted in Sep. The collards, kale and broccoli almost got decimated by caterpillers until the BT finally took effect.

The experimental indoor salad bed. Mixed lettuce growing well and spinach which took forever and 2 sowings to germinate. Some cilantro volunteered in the spinach bed. Brought these indoors right after the first frost last weekend. Note the worm hilton under the table.




The garlic tub planted 11/8


Swiss chard left from summer and newly sprouted spinach. 2 pepper plants still hanging on.


Lettuce, Kale and radishes.


The collard bed with a few kale plants


The broccoli bed also has a few kale plants and some radishes


lettuce moved to the greenhouse a the day before Sandy came through. planted late Sep


Spinach planted the same time as the lettuce and then replanted 2 weeks later finally coming up. Moved to green house before Sandy.



Three mustard plants that survived the summer with some lettuce just sprouting underneath.


an extra broccoli plant and some extra kale plants put into former tomato buckets. And the Mums that I moved from the porch before Sandy blew through.


Seems like the plants should be further along, but I'm taking what I can get and hoping. By clipping just the outer leaves, I should have enough collards for just me for Thanksgiving.

How are the rest of you in the lower south doing?

Kay

Hi Kay,

Looks like you have a lot more going than me as I just got started in this hobby at the later part of this summer and spent most of my time and energy building my garden areas.

I did get some collards, garlic and shallots in last month and they are all doing pretty well. I put 18 collards in a 4X4, that I will transform to a strawberry bed next spring. The collards have been kept covered by a tulle frame and are doing quite well as you can see from the picture. I look forward to cooking a nice batch of these for our Thanksgiving guests this year. The garlic and shallots of course won't be ready for harvest until next summer and seem to be doing well in their earthbox environments. I can't wait until Spring so I can plant my table top SFG and watch it come to life.

Here is my fall garden:

Cauliflower planted 9/1/12.


Swiss Chard planted 9/1/12


Broccoli planted 9/1/12


45 day Cabbage planted 9/1/12


Kholabi planted 8/1/12


Small hoop house planted 10/15/12 with fall veggies, 1st row Romaine Lettuce, 2nd row Buttercrunch Lettuce, 3rd row Kale, 4th row Brussel Sprouts. The two plant stands inside the hoop house are there so when the temperature drops I can add a sheet over the veggies under the plastic.


Sugar Snap Peas planted 8/18/12


Strawberries (fuzzy) planted 6/2/12


Large temporary hoop house with summer veggies trying to hang in there - tomatoes, squash, cucumber, blackeyed peas all planted in pots so I could move them under cover.


And last, my humongous live oak tree shedding all the leaves I need for my compost pile.

yolos wrote:Here is my fall garden:

Cauliflower planted 9/1/12.


Swiss Chard planted 9/1/12


Broccoli planted 9/1/12


45 day Cabbage planted 9/1/12


Kholabi planted 8/1/12


Small hoop house planted 10/15/12 with fall veggies, 1st row Romaine Lettuce, 2nd row Buttercrunch Lettuce, 3rd row Kale, 4th row Brussel Sprouts. The two plant stands inside the hoop house are there so when the temperature drops I can add a sheet over the veggies under the plastic.


Sugar Snap Peas planted 8/18/12


Strawberries (fuzzy) planted 6/2/12


Large temporary hoop house with summer veggies trying to hang in there - tomatoes, squash, cucumber, blackeyed peas all planted in pots so I could move them under cover.


And last, my humongous live oak tree shedding all the leaves I need for my compost pile.

Wow...your garden is amazing. I'm so jealous! I planted WAY before you. My plants are 2"-4" tall with 3-6 leaves. Good for you. Looks like I have a lot of work to do....

Wow! You are well ahead of me. None of my cole crops are ready, although they look nice.

We had a touch of frost the past week. Sweet potatoes and Caribbean squash are done. I had picked the squash the day before, and am in process of digging the taters, which have made a nice crop.

Tomatoes, peppers and Irish potatoes all survived the frost. I had picked all the peppers the day before, but they are loaded with blossoms. Maybe we can get a few more. Eggplant and okra are still alive, but seem to have just petered out.

This is my favorite gardening season. Everything is so green, and there are few pests - especially the gnats which are mostly gone. And it's pleasant to do the physical part of it. I've been having back problems, so my physical endeavors have been somewhat curtailed, but it's better and I'm getting back into it as fast as I dare.

Everyone's veggies are gorgeous! I need to move!

SG, what are you using as mulch? Is that grass?

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:Everyone's veggies are gorgeous! I need to move!

SG, what are you using as mulch? Is that grass?

CC

CC...it's not my garden, it's from a quote. I WISH it was mine lol. I still continue to struggle with plants growing. They come up, then stop. Hoping for a solution. Congrats on the wonderful looking gardens!!

Its wonderful to see green growing in the south. Its times like this I want to make the move from Maine. My garden is asleep for winter except for Swiss chard, kale and parsnips. All the rest have been long harvested. The herb pots are all indoors so I can have fresh herbs a few extra months.
Good luck and enjoy all the growing you can manage your lucky southeners. I envy you.
I love seeing the photos.

quiltbea wrote:Its wonderful to see green growing in the south. Its times like this I want to make the move from Maine. My garden is asleep for winter except for Swiss chard, kale and parsnips. All the rest have been long harvested. The herb pots are all indoors so I can have fresh herbs a few extra months.
Good luck and enjoy all the growing you can manage your lucky southeners. I envy you.
I love seeing the photos.

We are very blessed that we have a wonderful and long growing season. Our area is considered one of the best in the world for agriculture!

bnoles wrote:

I've having pest issues and was advised to put tulle over my SFG and I'm inspired by yours! Did you build your own? do you have any advise for me trying to build my own tulle cage?

Nymiko wrote:

I've having pest issues and was advised to put tulle over my SFG and I'm inspired by yours! Did you build your own? do you have any advise for me trying to build my own tulle cage?[/quote]

Hi Nymiko,

The tulle cage solved any insect problems I may have had. You can see it in the background of my picture above. It was very easy to build from 3/4" pvc pipe and elbows. Very inexpensive also.... probably about $25 total including the tulle.

You will need 8 ea 3 way elbows, 8 ea 3 way T's and 24 each 3/4" PCV pipes 2' long. Just a matter of cutting the pipe and fitting it all together. I used 1" PVC pipe pieces I had laying around as scrap to make clamps and cut them about 3 inches long and then cut length wise a little more than half the diameter. Sand the edges a little to keep the sharp parts from tearing the tulle. You can pretty much use any kind of clamp to hold the tulle to the frame if you don't want to fool with making your own.

Pretty simple project and only took probably an hour or less to build.

bnoles wrote:

The tulle cage solved any insect problems I may have had. You can see it in the background of my picture above. It was very easy to build from 3/4" pvc pipe and elbows. Very inexpensive also.... probably about $25 total including the tulle.

You will need 8 ea 3 way elbows, 8 ea 3 way T's and 24 each 3/4" PCV pipes 2' long. Just a matter of cutting the pipe and fitting it all together. I used 1" PVC pipe pieces I had laying around as scrap to make clamps and cut them about 3 inches long and then cut length wise a little more than half the diameter. Sand the edges a little to keep the sharp parts from tearing the tulle. You can pretty much use any kind of clamp to hold the tulle to the frame if you don't want to fool with making your own.

Pretty simple project and only took probably an hour or less to build.

thank you!

Yolos -
Picture perfect pictures! Wow - great Job!

Thanks Llama momma - I was not real clear on the planting information I provided. I did plant everything on the dates I had in the post, BUT, many of the things I planted were actually transplants.

For instance, the Broccoli planted on 9/1/12 were transplants. All the nurseries around here said you could not direct sow the seeds and be able to harvest the broccoli before winter set in. So, I planted 18 transplants and harvested my first head on 10/28 and my last head on 11/9.

I did run a couple of tests to see if I could direct sow the Broccoli in the garden. So, I planted 4 broccoli seeds on 7/27, I planted 4 more broccoli seeds on 8/3, I planted 4 more seeds on 8/11 and on 8/18 I planted my final 4 seeds. Only one of the 16 seeds I planted in August even has a head. One of the very last seeds planted on 8/18 has a small head about the size of a marble. None of the other plants have any heads. I guess it is just too hot in Atlanta to plant broccoli by seed. Even though I used shade cloth in August, the plants just didn't want to grow in that heat.

I have harvested all of the broccoli transplants planted on 9/1/12. Therefore, for other middle Georgia growers out there, that is a good starting time but I think you can also transplant a little later and still get broccoli in the fall. Next year I will try planting the transplants starting around 9/1 and continuing every week for four weeks. Therefore, all of my broccoli will not ripen at the same time, I hope.