New England: October 2013

This weather ROCKS!  And the week ahead looks beauteous!

Wednesday
Partly Cloudy
75° F | 50° F

Thursday
Partly Cloudy
73° F | 50° F

Friday
Chance of Rain
72° F | 52° F

Saturday
Partly Cloudy
68° F | 50° F

Sunday
72° F | 50° F
Partly Cloudy
40% chance of precipitation

The cool weather crops are so happy after a bout of 60's through Sept.  In this 6 x 3 box I have collards x 3 sqs, carrots x 2, spinach x 2, Detroit Red beets, Black Seeded Simpson lettuce x 2, pak choi, Fordhook chard x 2, dwarf kale x 2, cabbage and buttercrunch lettuce x 2.

The toms are ripening up faster than we can use them.  Here are a bunch of Super Sonics:
There are about 20 more of those in different stages of ripening, along with several heirloom & lots of cherries.  They've all been beheaded and first frost for my area is Nov 10th so the race is on.  

I pulled out a row of spent bush beans this morning to allow a 2nd planting behind them to get more sun. They don't have any buds yet so I'm pushing it, I know, but it's an experiment.

The snow & sugar snap peas are prolific, but I won't grow snow peas anymore.  Next to the sugar snap they are bland.

I have one daikon forming.  All the others dog legged, as did my breakfast radishes, so I'm not sure what they'll do.

Still nada from the kohlrabi but I figure at least I can eat the leaves later.  The cucs are about done in from the PM, but I keep trying to get the tiny ones to plump up before I pull them out.  It's not working.  There's still one finished butternut squash left on the vine growing up the rhodi hedge and one more forming.  

And the corn...well, that's just a total surprise!  It looks like 3 ears are forming when I expected none.  I'm guessing they will be wormie but it was an experiment planting them on July 4th so I had no expectations.  Now that I know I can fit in late or succession crops I'll be more careful about pests.

All in all, I'm a happy gardener right now.  The trials & tribulations of these first 2 seasons were fantastic learning experiences.  And now we head into the 3rd season...

Anyone else still going in the garden?

CC

We have RAIN!!!  It's so purdy!  
 


Probably not enough for our drought conditions but still...

So glad I took the row covers off the SFGs this morning.

CC

Your row covers don't let water through?

CC -  I'm happy for ya!  

Marc Iverson wrote:Your row covers don't let water through?

Some maybe. But when I've watched it, it beads up and rolls off. We've had so little rain that I want it ALL. Only 1/3 inch this time.   Guess I'll be out there watering this weekend. Seems I've had to water twice a week all this year. My water bill was ridiculous.

CC

This morning I noticed that my carrot tops are hanging over a baby collards square, so I pulled the 2 bushiest ones on the edge out:

 
I'm totally blown away by the size of the carrot, but is that other thing a Queen Anne Lace? I figured they were probably infiltrating but didn't know how to tell...

CC

I made  a good trade today. 2 pounds of honey for a flowering shiitake log.  

Fantastic. I just Googled and learned something new today!

CapeCoddess wrote:
All in all, I'm a happy gardener right now.  The trials & tribulations of these first 2 seasons were fantastic learning experiences.  And now we head into the 3rd season...

Anyone else still going in the garden?

CC

Your garden looks great!! It really turned out to be worth all the work and worry.

I'm surprised, but my garden is still producing nicely. I picked the most beautiful head of cauliflower on Friday. The broccoli is still producing florets and the tomato plants are loaded with fruit. I have onions that are still growing, peppers on the plants and my second planting of carrots are doing nicely.

I started to pull out some of the plants but didn't have the heart to take more than the cucumber plants that were completely dried up because things are still growing due to this nice weather we are having. Now we are getting some rain as well.

sanderson wrote:Fantastic.  I just Googled and learned something new today!

what did you learn?

Cape, you sure are having some warmer weather.  We're into the 60s now with nites in the 40s.  Still no frost here which is surprising.
Your garden is lookin' good.  Keep up the good work.
The only thing I got from my garden today were some Swiss chard leaves and fresh basil and then there was my last rose of summer...

She's a Gertrude Jeckyll and smells divine.

Camp,  I would have studied if I had known there was going to be a test!!    I meant that I can nod with wisdom if the subject is ever brought up in polite company!  This is what I remember.

1. Well, shitake log is a real phrase.

2. These mushrooms naturally grow on a type of tree in China, Korea and Japan.

3. Logs are placed around trees with mushrooms so the spores will fall on the logs and grow.

4. They have been eaten and used as medicine there for centuries.

5. Someone found a way to grow them commercially in the US.

QB, your rose is perfect! And breathtaking! Thanks for sharing it.

Camp, how pretty is that log??? It looks like someone put holes in it then maybe sprinkled in some spores? Is that how it's done?

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:QB, your rose is perfect!  And breathtaking! Thanks for sharing it.

Camp, how pretty is that log???  It looks like someone put holes in it then maybe sprinkled in some spores?  Is that how it's done?  

CC

Sort of. He drilled small holes then used small dowel sections that have been inoculated with the mycelium as plugs in the holes. The plug then get covered with bees wax. After the mycelium has grown enough in the log it starts to fruit and then I have shiitake with my supper. YUM!


The rose is beautiful. I would like to grow some.

ruit?  
Heading for Wiki...

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:ruit?  
Heading for Wiki...

CC

oh for pete's sake! Dang fingers!! 
You know I am a terrible typist that never corrects errors, LOL, I fixed it, the word is fruit.

camprn wrote:

CapeCoddess wrote:ruit?  
Heading for Wiki...

CC

oh for pete's sake! Dang fingers!! 
You know I am a terrible typist that never corrects errors, LOL, I fixed it, the word is fruit.

OMG!  That's so funny!  No wonder I couldn't get the definitions to make sense...


Cloudy, drizzly, windy, balmy weather here today.  I transplanted about 10 baby pak choi that were under the big one I harvested yesterday.  Now the slug battle begins. 
 

CC

Still going...



I've been dosing these kohlrabi with nitrogen to increase the leaf size since it won't ball up.  It's working:

Parsnips on the right doing well.  Romaine & buttercrunch at the top left. On the lower left is the potted Roma that I'm taking inside for the winter.  It has lots of flowers and already has a little tom on it.  I'm not sure if I should remove them when I take it inside or leave them.
What would you do?

Kale & collards still going.  I just topped them with compost for the winter:

I'm leaving one of each colored pepper on the plants til over-ripe in order to save the seeds.  Is that how you do it?

Of course it's not all pretty.  This bed is kind of a catch all for pine needles, a diner for slugs and a dig for squirrels apparently.  I planted some extra pak choi at the rear the other day.  The carrots are from seeds I kept throwing in around carrot week but I don't think any colored ones are growing.  The broccoli across the front is probably going to be used for the leaves since there is hide nor hair of any flowers.  On the right not shown are sugar snap peas & a sucker cherry tom, both producing very well for as windblown as they are.  The left side has been readied for garlic:


The perennial gardens are blooming up a storm - blanket flowers, many different mums, Nippon daisies, gaura, calamentha, asters, etc.  Ending with a flower for you:
Perennial mum with no name.

How's it going for you in the midst of October?

CC

What beautiful flowers! Good luck on your overwintering(?) tomato!

CapeC....Your garden is doing really well.
I picked a couple of eggplant today and more tomatoes which were actually growing in the veggie garden regardless of the blight on the plants.  Their last breath of summer I'm thinking.  Salad for me tonite with some potted leaf lettuce.
Swiss chard is lovely and there are some peppers still going strong.  The Zinnias are gorgeous right now.  It seems there's still life in the garden even with our drop in temps to 30* the other night.  I guess it didn't last long enuf to matter and now nites are back in the 40s since.
As for bringing in your crops, I'd leave the fruits on them.  It never hurts mine when they come indoors.  Good luck.

Your Fall garden looks amazing - I hope I might be able to catch you this coming week - I sent you a PM - and look forward to connecting.

Do you remember the Violet Queen purple cauliflower I harvested about 3 weeks ago?  Well, this is what I found today....

There's a new head forming.  I was amazed.  A new purple stalk is growing out of the side of the first stalk.

I still have bees around.  My marigolds are getting buzzing visitors today on several of the flowers.  They are working very slowly, obviously trying to get all the pollen they possibly can before winter.

The only tomatoes I can pick now are these Wapsipinicons (today's harvest), and some Indigo Rose tomatoes.  The flavor of these I find to be very blah so I'll not grow them again.  I'd rather have other yellows that are much tastier.
More Swiss chard for dinner tonite but I'm still waiting for a few frosts before I harvest some parsnips.
Expectings 40s nites and low 60s days for about a week more so no frost in sight.

QB, that cauliflower of yours is my favorite kind of plant - plant it, leave it and be amazed. 

Well, we got hit with an unpredicted frost last night.  I kept hearing in my mind, 'bring in the winter Roma, throw the row cover over the garden', but did I head those warnings?  Nooooo...I listened to the weather reports of mid 40's instead.   It went to 34. So I now understand how important a gardeners instincts are.

My main concern is with the Black Simpson/romaine/buttercrunch lettuces, the ripe tomatoes & peppers, the not-sure how-to-know-when-it's-ready corn, the bok choi and the beans & peas.  I'm hoping the MM was warm enough to keep everything alive but I guess I won't really know if anything was affected until wilting begins later. 

At least I can start harvesting the parsnips & daikon now, right?  <<<<< silver lining

CC

This is the year of the garden that won't end! We had a couple early frosts but nothing since then so everything is just chugging along. Tomatoes keep ripening, eggplants keep getting picked, and I thought my pepper patch was a bust earlier this summer, but now there are lots of peppers out there, so they just needed more time. Even the broccoli is putting out new little heads.

I'm waiting for a good freeze to come so I can finally clean up the garden. I have enough garlic bulbs to plant a 4 x 8 bed, but I can't do that until the tomatoes are gone! Garlic planting should be done by early November.

CC, I picked a carrot today (the only one) that looks like your photo. I replanted the carrots twice, but either the garden vole or birds must've gotten to the seeds - next year they're under agrabon.

camprn, I made an oyster log over the summer. But your shrooms, having already started, is a bonus! I don't know if mine was damp enough all summer, but we'll see, it takes about a year. I see mushrooms all OVER the yard this year and I wonder which ones are edible and which aren't. (won't try them, of course)

Kind of eery how it's not frosting...

NHGardener wrote:This is the year of the garden that won't end! We had a couple early frosts but nothing since then so everything is just chugging along. Tomatoes keep ripening, eggplants keep getting picked, and I thought my pepper patch was a bust earlier this summer, but now there are lots of peppers out there, so they just needed more time. Even the broccoli is putting out new little heads.

I'm waiting for a good freeze to come so I can finally clean up the garden. I have enough garlic bulbs to plant a 4 x 8 bed, but I can't do that until the tomatoes are gone! Garlic planting should be done by early November.

CC, I picked a carrot today (the only one) that looks like your photo. I replanted the carrots twice, but either the garden vole or birds must've gotten to the seeds - next year they're under agrabon.

camprn, I made an oyster log over the summer. But your shrooms, having already started, is a bonus! I don't know if mine was damp enough all summer, but we'll see, it takes about a year. I see mushrooms all OVER the yard this year and I wonder which ones are edible and which aren't. (won't try them, of course)

Kind of eery how it's not frosting...

My feeling is we're going to get hammered. Think I may just order two more tons of pellets.