New England September 2014

Ooh, nice cabbage. Lyndeeloo, how did you keep the cabbage worm off it? Those are such nice looking heads. I tried cabbage once but the loopers got to it and I didn't try it again. Fermenting cabbage sounds like something new and interesting to learn.

Look guys! I picked dried beans this afternoon!



(Sorry for the blurry - one of these days...)

I planted 8 squares as a trial this summer and they worked out great. They were so fun to shell and see what color was inside. Next summer I'm going to plant a ton more because they keep really well and they make such great soups. 

Also, last night I cut open the biggest, best watermelon (the other 2 were small and so-so) and it was delicious. It was tough keeping the vine alive long enough to produce a good sized small watermelon, but that one was really good. 

Also picked an eggplant today and put it in the dinner's spaghetti sauce. There are another 2-3 eggplants out there.

Now that we had our one hit of frost, the weather warms up, as usual. It's so worth it to cover on the early frost because after that you get a lot more growing time. My cucumbers totally bit the dust in that frost, I miss them. 

Still getting a handful of green beans every few days, the cherry tomatoes continue to turn red. The weeds in the garden right now are pretty heavily asters, which the bees are desperate about since it's about the last thing available for them, so I'm not doing any weeding yet.

sanderson wrote:Lyndeeloo,  When did you plant the seeds or seedlings?  They are beautiful.

Hi Sanderson! Some I bought and some I started indoors. I planted the end of May but they seemed to take a long time to really get going. Seems like it took forever for them to form heads, then all of a sudden I could see little cabbages forming. They were easy to grow and required no attention. Once in a while I'd pull off the yellow leaves underneath. I planted some purple cabbage too, they are still small but look and taste great in slaw.

Hi NHG! I covered the bed with cicada netting and not a worm on them at all! I am very pleased with how they turned out. A definite for next year. I also planted black beans this year and was thrilled with the result. Will do those again, I like the idea of having the dried beans in the pantry.

Lyndeeloo - I guess cabbages don't need pollination, like lettuce. Never thought of keeping them perpetually covered. Good clue.

Does anyone know if you can save watermelon seeds? I have a million of them from my watermelon but wasn't sure if it was one of those cross-pollination things.

Cool beans!  One day I'll have the space for those.

Ate a Super Beefsteak today.  Been waiting all summer for one of those...and it was SO worth it! Only one more ripening.  

I gave a friend 2 ground cherry seedlings back in spring and he's been giving me baggies full of the ftuits all summer.  My 5 plants have only given me a handful.  I'm blaming the weather because I know it's not the plants.
We're supposed to get over an inch of rain tomorrow...  ...so I didn't water today.

Jeopardy time!  Nite all...

CC

Late blight has started to take a toll. I harvested 25 pounds of mostly green tomatoes and disassembled my tomato trellises this morning. All the tomato plants are getting chopped up and tossed into the compost heap.

Ahoy fruitees...Walshevak posted in her fig thread & that reminded me that I needed to plant my cutting-sprouted figs, so I did it just now during lunch since it's overcast & drizzly out. 

In last years squash garden, up against the rhodie hedge & facing SE:   Maybe some year the winter squash will grow up it. 


The other one is up against the SW side of house:
Got my fingers crossed, but come late fall I'll stick a few more trimmed pieces from the big potted mother plant into a bucket of compost in case it doesn't work.  That's what I did last year & these 2 babies are the result!

CC

I harvested and ate for dinner my first Mikado turnips. They were very tasty so I just sowed some more in the beds that I removed the tomato plants from. Also sowed some bok choy and rapini, I'm not really holding out too much hope for them, but I thought I would give it a whirl.

Were the turnip greens good also?

CapeCoddess wrote:Were the turnip greens good also?

they went into compost as they were riddled with holes from the late cabbage worms.
mikado turnips

CC, Do you have any concerns that the figs may be a little too close to the foundation? Their roots can be a little invasive.

camprn wrote:Late blight has started to take a toll. I harvested 25 pounds of mostly green tomatoes and disassembled  my tomato trellises this morning. All the tomato plants are getting chopped up and tossed into the compost heap.

Camprn, you put plants that have blight in your compost? I'm getting reading to take down my plants this weekend, but I was hesitant about that.

GardenGroupie wrote:

camprn wrote:Late blight has started to take a toll. I harvested 25 pounds of mostly green tomatoes and disassembled  my tomato trellises this morning. All the tomato plants are getting chopped up and tossed into the compost heap.

Camprn, you put plants that have blight in your compost? I'm getting reading to take down my plants this weekend, but I was hesitant about that.

Yes. IT is late in the season and any nearby tomato plants will either likely already be infected or done with production. The late blight fungus only survives on living tissue. The vines will die and not be a viable host for the survival of the late blight.
A very informative FAQ:
http://www.longislandhort.cornell.edu/vegpath/lbfaq.pdf

camprn wrote:

GardenGroupie wrote:

camprn wrote:Late blight has started to take a toll. I harvested 25 pounds of mostly green tomatoes and disassembled  my tomato trellises this morning. All the tomato plants are getting chopped up and tossed into the compost heap.

Camprn, you put plants that have blight in your compost? I'm getting reading to take down my plants this weekend, but I was hesitant about that.

Yes. IT is late in the season and any nearby tomato plants will either likely already be infected or done with production. The late blight fungus only survives on living tissue. The vines will die and not be a viable host for the survival of the late blight.
A very informative FAQ:
http://www.longislandhort.cornell.edu/vegpath/lbfaq.pdf

Camprn - that was an excellent article on late blight.  If you ever see an article that comprehensive on early blight I would love to read it.  I searched the Cornell website but could not find anything that good.

In case this question comes up again, I think it's safe to save the watermelon seeds and plant next year because there were no other types of watermelon grown. Cross-pollination might occur if you have more than one type of watermelon, but I don't think I'll have to worry about that.

One of these sugar baby watermelons contains more seeds than you could ever use... Still trying perfect growing of watermelons, because each vine only produced one watermelon.

Has anyone in this region had any luck with cantaloupe, or sweet potatoes? Sure would love to grow sweet potatoes. I do believe they can be grown here, but slips don't arrive till I believe mid-June, and then they need a lot of degree days. Scary.

yolos wrote:

camprn wrote:

GardenGroupie wrote:

camprn wrote:Late blight has started to take a toll. I harvested 25 pounds of mostly green tomatoes and disassembled  my tomato trellises this morning. All the tomato plants are getting chopped up and tossed into the compost heap.

Camprn, you put plants that have blight in your compost? I'm getting reading to take down my plants this weekend, but I was hesitant about that.

Yes. IT is late in the season and any nearby tomato plants will either likely already be infected or done with production. The late blight fungus only survives on living tissue. The vines will die and not be a viable host for the survival of the late blight.
A very informative FAQ:
http://www.longislandhort.cornell.edu/vegpath/lbfaq.pdf

Camprn - that was an excellent article on late blight.  If you ever see an article that comprehensive on early blight I would love to read it.  I searched the Cornell website but could not find anything that good.

Oki DOki, I'll keep my eyes peeled!

sanderson wrote:CC,  Do you have any concerns that the figs may be a little too close to the foundation?  Their roots can be a little invasive

I read somewhere that putting it near the foundation would be like part of the 'boxed in hole' that it's suggested a fig be planted in. 


On the left side of the baby fig is a group of shasta daisies and if you've ever tried to pull them up...well, that would be another side of the 'box'.  A third side is the lawn. 

I may have a problem with the one behind the squash garden as there are no barriers except builders sand on all 4 sides of the hole of compost I made for it.  We'll see.  If there's a problem down the line, I have no qualms about pulling things up and moving them or tossing them. 


CC

Some early blight info.
http://www.extension.org/pages/29878/early-blight-management-for-organic-tomato-production#.VCWbBPldWSo


http://extension.umaine.edu/ipm/ipddl/publications/5087e/

http://buckshort.blogspot.com/2009/09/can-i-compost-those-diseased-tomato.html

Very strange. I took on a new job a few weeks ago and my garden was going straight to hell in hand basket. I had a La Roma III that stopped growing in July (as typically expected from a determinate variety). I wasn't too thrilled with the yield or quality. Today I went out to look at my dying plants and that little fool of a plant had started growing again. Go figure!!!

I did, however, get a very nice carrot yield and quality. I was surprised as I was whining here a few weeks ago about forked, alien looking things that resembled carrots. My next pick was a very nice surprise. I'll try and post pics later. 

Nice weekend coming up! Time for apple sauce.

GardenGroupie....Some determinates will bloom again later and if the season was longer, you'd get another harvest of fruits.
I planted 3 Oregon Spring tomatoes one year (they are an early crop) that did great and I was going to remove them, but got busy with other things and left them growing.  In late Sept they were producing blossoms again and by Oct I had tiny green tomatoes growing.  If only my season had been another month longer, I'd have had nearly ripe fruit I could harvest and allow to ripen on the kitchen counter.
You might try planting a determinate in a pot and when the season comes to an end, bring the plant indoors so the greens can ripen.  That, too, works.  Been there, done that.  I don't know if all deters rebloom, but I know Oregon Springs do.

Better Bush does too. The second and third blooms can be pretty good, too. They tend to have more fruit than the first, but maybe that has to do with our weather conditions. The first round comes when the summer is so hot that most of the blossoms are dropping off.

quiltbea wrote:GardenGroupie....Some determinates will bloom again later and if the season was longer, you'd get another harvest of fruits.
I planted 3 Oregon Spring tomatoes one year (they are an early crop) that did great and I was going to remove them, but got busy with other things and left them growing.  In late Sept they were producing blossoms again and by Oct I had tiny green tomatoes growing.  If only my season had been another month longer, I'd have had nearly ripe fruit I could harvest and allow to ripen on the kitchen counter.
You might try planting a determinate in a pot and when the season comes to an end, bring the plant indoors so the greens can ripen.  That, too, works.  Been there, done that.  I don't know if all deters rebloom, but I know Oregon Springs do.

Thanks Quiltbea. Unfortunately, I'm not able to bring plants inside. I have cats that eat anything green and can't even have house plants. Our first frost is due in a few weeks, so whatever fruit it bares will get cut up and straight to the compost bin. As a determinate, it should have been one of the first the yield, but it was the last. My Yellow Taxis, on the other hand, produced early with good yield. Very nice tomato with a reliable shape and taste.

Marc Iverson wrote:Better Bush does too.  The second and third blooms can be pretty good, too.  They tend to have more fruit than the first, but maybe that has to do with our weather conditions.  The first round comes when the summer is so hot that most of the blossoms are dropping off.

Yeah, but I think it might too late in the season for a second bath as the frost will be hitting hear soon and took forever for tomatoes to ripen. I loose hours of sun in September, because of where my garden is situated. I've now got about six good hours of direct sunlight.

GardenGroupie wrote:Thanks Quiltbea. Unfortunately, I'm not able to bring plants inside. I have cats that eat anything green and can't even have house plants. Our first frost is due in a few weeks, so whatever fruit it bares will get cut up and straight to the compost bin.

Shame to waste those, when you could make such a good chutney out of them, fry them up, or give them to someone who likes green tomatoes. My green tomatoes were a treasure last year, and I wanted to grow some extra plants just for the green ones this year(but my first round of tomato plants died).

I have about 2 dzn green tomatoes left to ripen. What doesn't ripen by first frost, will be picked and then laid out flat in a box and stuck in the corner of the living room to ripen. This works perfectly.

I also potted up a small volunteer tomato plant, parsley & collards as well as planted some ginger root for the indoor winter garden. Potting up kale, lettuce and basil will be next but not yet. I can still bucket the basil over during cold spells.

Today's harvest:


Dang...I do believe I getting a bit of a sunburn on these white legs out here...76 and not a cloud in the sky. Sposed to be hotter tomorrow. The cukes, tomatoes and peppers are loving this.

CC

CC - What do you mean by potting up kale? Do you pull it from the garden, keeping roots and soil intact, and transplant it into a pot and bring it indoors?