September 2013, New England

No storms or rain here...just a little drizzle this morning.

I think everything had a growth spurt during that 2 day 'heat' wave we had (got up to hi 70s here).

The snow peas, sugar snap peas and bush beans I planted for fall are all starting to produce already:


The last bush bean planting has sprouted behind the previous one:

These Beefsteaks are so good that I'm going to grow them again next year along with Supersonics and Sungolds, but not the Brandywines or Sweet 100's: 
But check out how they are ripening after the bottom 2...what's with that???  Will the bottom 2 ripen?

My cucs are succumbing to blight, PM & who knows what else but I may get a few like these little ones to pickle or snack on:

Peppers & tomatillos still green.  All my greens are still producing by the bucket loads.  Like last year my spinach stinks, but the lettuce is doing well.  All the corn stalks have tassels now but no cobs.  I'm concluding that cabbage moth gets confused by basil plants and will be using more of those spread thru out next year. 

OH, I doused the kohlrabi seedlings with the Borax & water solution when I did the beets & broccoli the other day per Mels instruction in the Answer Book.  I'm thinking  maybe they need some boron to ball up and since broccoli is in the same family this may work.  Forever hopeful.

CC

CapeC.....Good for you, getting a few bits of harvest.  
We got nearly 2 inches of rain since Wed nite late and t-storms that felt so close the earth shook.  I'm glad our 2 dogs do not have thunder issues, or they'd have been basket cases.  Its still gray out there.
I've picked some Indigo Rose and Wapsipinicon (yellow) tomatoes from my flower beds.  That's the only place where they are still producing for me.  I should have enuf by tomorrow for another round of roasting in the oven when its a bit cooler.

And I forgot to mention that after using the baby aspirin/water solution on the cherry tomatoes with blight beginning of this week, it stopped the blight!  That's twice now!  It's so nice that I have another chance at the green toms to ripen before frost.

CC

Beautiful, CC! And I love your avatar!

Your boxes look so clean and tidy! You should see mine right now. Ee gads. Next summer there will not be one overgrown or weed or volunteer tomato plants suffocating the place! Next year I will be brutal.

And good for you, fall planting! I don't even have space to plant, altho I could pull up the peas that have been dead for a month or 2.

I picked a boatload of eggplants this evening, those have done well, they're like giants, must be all the composted materials in those beds. And the peppers are starting to take off, I've picked several small ones as I've needed for cooking, so none have gotten huge, but there are a ton of tiny ones and blossoms, oh well. Slugs are getting to the tomatoes, I have some but not a ton. Squished a bunch of cabbage worms in our wet weather today - yuck. And I might get another green bean or 2. Oh, and next year, not as many cherry tomatoes. You have to pick about a million to make something with them. One large tomato goes a longer way.

But glad for all the rain, and now it's going to be sunny but cooler. Today I sketched out next summer's garden and I'm getting ready.

We got 6 inches of rain in about four and a half hours yesterday. water management was a top priority.

Several days ago I picked a huge bunch of kale. I knew there were cabbage worms on it so I filled the sink half full of water and added half a cup of vinegar and let the kale sit in this bath for about half an hour and all the baby cabbage worms fell off into the sink full of water. 

The cabbage worms devastated my broccoli, as usual. Next summer I'm also doing daily inspections! Esp. for cabbage worms and those pesty squash bugs/vine borers. I hate those things.

I was walking past the garden this morning and happened to see a yellow jacket take down a cabbage worm! It was a pretty big one too - the yellow jacket wrestled it off the leaf, it fell to the ground, and I only watched a couple minutes as the yellow jacket hovered all over it.

I didn't know yellow jackets would do that! We have 2 good sized yellow jacket nests in the chicken coop eve - glad we never got around to spraying them!

Ha...that's excellent, NHG!

I can't get my kohlrabi to grow. I planted it Aug 3rd and it's just sitting there:

I had the same problem last fall. Supposed to be 60 days to harvest and I'm kinda doubting that. Any one else have luck with them? Any helpful hints or secrets I should know about?

CC

At least 60 days from transplant I would think.
http://myfolia.com/plants/1097-kohl-rabi-brassica-oleracea-gongylodes-group/varieties/10242-early-white-vienna

my fall kohlrabi were slow last year as well. I think perhaps you planted late, will get some later or you're a wee bit impatient... or a combination of all three. LOL

It's still living, which means it's still growing.......


Mosquitoes are most unrelenting this afternoon, but I still got the spinach transplanted!  

Yeah, maybe all 3  ...altho I did plant kohlrabi earlier this fall than last as I got nuttin' but the same spindly sprouts last year.  Then they wintered over and started to bulb up in spring but were like wood.  I read the if they don't grow fast than wood will be the result.  So today I watered them with fish emulsion & topped off with compost to see if that helps.  

Matter of fact I topped off a lot of squares - peppers, peas, bean babies, a few toms, spinach, chard, collards.  

Hey, speaking of spinach, mine is actually shrinking!  I think it's withering away into nothingness and will probably pop up again to become my best grower next spring, just like last year. I guess over time you get to know the cycles of your garden and it won't change for naught.

Soup pot's calling...back to the kitchen.

CC

Hmm. Scattered frost warning tonight. I'm not going to cover everything, but I wonder if the warm ground will protect the plants this one time. I mean, less than a week ago we had the a/c running for 90+ temps.

If we do have a frost, it will sure be an early first frost.

Wow, that's a dramatic temp difference!

Climate change is morphing into climate confused.

NHGardener wrote:Hmm. Scattered frost warning tonight....

If we do have a frost, it will sure be an early first frost.

Ay yi yi.  It better not come here.  I just planted out the last of my lettuce babies this morning, about 20 of them, and they aren't under cover. 

CC

You seem to have a different weather pattern than we do, CC.

I see NOAA is still predicting patchy frost, 37F.

Meh. What are the chances it'll patch here....

I'm busting out the tarps.

So my inner calendar must be off, because from what I've read this is about when first frost hits this area. Is that right, camprn?

Nooooo... summer can't be over yet.....

Yes indeed, summer is coming to a close. The Autumnal equinox is Sunday, 9/22/14. I will rapidly get tired of trying to cover my 8 foot tall tomato plants and I have to finish stowing the wood pellets in the basement. The time is nigh for clearing the beds, cleaning up the yard before all the leaves fall and making another monster compost pile. Average date for first killing frost is 9/22 for my neighborhood.

Yup, had to scrape the windshield at 6:30 a.m., so they were right. Tonight looks like more of the same, but my beds with the trellises and spread out are just too much to tarp. At glance, nothing was brown and wilted over this morning, we'll see how it goes.

Anyone know a geodome company? I want to dome our entire place here and extend summer 12 months of the year....

I used to live in a dome. Round houses are cool!

NHGardener wrote:Yup, had to scrape the windshield at 6:30 a.m., so they were right. Tonight looks like more of the same, but my beds with the trellises and spread out are just too much to tarp. At glance, nothing was brown and wilted over this morning, we'll see how it goes.

Anyone know a geodome company? I want to dome our entire place here and extend summer 12 months of the year....

LOL!

Put me on the list if you find one that can do my whole front & back yards plus the house & garage.

As to the frost, it was pretty substantial up my way.  It got my spaghetti squash, cukes, some of the "molly mishap" crookneck yellow ridged squash (but the one fruit I left to ripen in order to collect seeds still looks OK), and here and there a few leaves on most of everything else.   I did cover the toms up, but it's just too much to try to get everything under cover at this stage of the game.  I think I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

How did everyone else's gardens do?

Nothing last night here but tonite is supposed to go down to the low 40's. 

Something weird is going on with the maters in the area tho.  They seem to be getting squishy on the vine whether they are green or red or a mix.  I'd been hearing about it for the past week but just had my first one yesterday - a yummy beefsteak I'd been waiting on.  It had soft spots, some a little black, here and there that appeared overnight.  Anyone ever hear of that?

CC

It could be Anthracnose or Blight. It sounds like anthracnose.

For us, tonight is the last deep chill for the next week.
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=42.943355168255806&lon=-72.29312896728516#.UjjTZMZwquI

My tomatoes are doing that too! I even pick them early so I get to them before the slugs do. Then I put them on the counter, and before you know it, they have soft & squishy parts. This has not been the best year for tomatoes for me.

The plastic bag that covers a ton of wood pellets makes an awesome frost prevention cover for the garden.