Second Year SFG in Canada

Foggy morning here in Ottawa.


The fog is starting to lift off the SFG.





These cherry toms are dripping wet from the heavy dew and fog.





I harvested a cabbage and left the root in the ground. The cabbage has started to make a comeback.





This basil plant is huge. Need to decide what to do with it ... pesto ... drying ... ?

That basil plant is a beauty, TD.  Use some fresh, dry some, pick a bunch and put it in a vase on the kitchen counter top, it will last a few days.

When is your first frost date?  It would be a pity to get it all frostbitten, but that will be the same fate for all the tender plants.

Kelejan wrote:That basil plant is a beauty, TD.  Use some fresh, dry some, pick a bunch and put it in a vase on the kitchen counter top, it will last a few days.

When is your first frost date?  It would be a pity to get it all frostbitten, but that will be the same fate for all the tender plants.

October 5 is the average first frost date here in Ottawa. Just over two weeks away but it could happen earlier. I've got to start harvesting, etc. but this week is very busy for me.

My basil plant is definitely trying to take over the world. Next year it goes in a large container. In the sfg it takes up 4 squares. I wanted to trim off the blossoms again this morning, but the honeybees said "Nuthin' doin', Girlfriend -- we're workin' here!" 

Pesto and freeze!  It will taste so fresh and expensive in January!  Lol!

Just to keep my "diary" up to date ... I picked the very last of the cucumbers today. When I have time I'll pull out the vines. Overall the cucumber plants (especially the Early Russian) did well and are worth considering for future years.

Great pictures TD. I enjoyed them all. For your basil I suggest blending it with oil and putting it in ice cubes. Dried basil isn't very flavorful.

Mimi2 wrote:Great pictures TD. I enjoyed them all. For your basil I suggest blending it with oil and putting it in ice cubes. Dried basil isn't very flavorful.

Thanks Mimi.

Mimi2 wrote:Great pictures TD. I enjoyed them all. For your basil I suggest blending it with oil and putting it in ice cubes. Dried basil isn't very flavorful.

I made 2 attempts to prune the blossoms from my basil plant, but the bees were at work there both times. I asked Hubby about it and he said he has a year's supply, thanks to my previous harvesting, so the bees can have the rest of it.

countrynaturals wrote:

Mimi2 wrote:Great pictures TD. I enjoyed them all. For your basil I suggest blending it with oil and putting it in ice cubes. Dried basil isn't very flavorful.

I made 2 attempts to prune the blossoms from my basil plant, but the bees were at work there both times. I asked Hubby about it and he said he has a year's supply, thanks to my previous harvesting, so the bees can have the rest of it.

Now you tell me, Mimi. :-(  I dried mine  a couple of days ago.  I wonder if I can pinch some from my friend Persis.  She is not home yet and I am still watering her pot(ted) plants.  I can tell her that plant died.

Kelejan wrote:I wonder if I can pinch some from my friend Persis.  She is not home yet and I am still watering her pot(ted) plants.  I can tell her that plant died.

The sun is much lower in the sky now and is casting long shadows from the house into the backyard.

sanderson wrote:

Kelejan wrote:I wonder if I can pinch some from my friend Persis.  She is not home yet and I am still watering her pot(ted) plants.  I can tell her that plant died.

I'm a little too late I think, sanderson.  Went round today and the basil is definitely past its best.  A few weeks ago I had trimmed the flowers off but I think that was a bit late for it to make many more leaves.

TD. Yes, the sun is sinking faster and faster.  Another four or six weeks then I will not be getting any sun in my garden until February week.

I must start thinking of getting indoor gardening lights etc. to grow sprouts to keep my supply of fresh greens coming. If I keep the lights on in my living room I think it will cheer me up in the winter.  I do that with my AeroGarden, but that is such a small thing although I think it is better for herbs.  Perhaps I can pop over to Australia instead.

"I must start thinking of getting indoor gardening lights etc. to grow sprouts to keep my supply of fresh greens coming. If I keep the lights on in my living room I think it will cheer me up in the winter. "

That's what my winter inside garden does for me. I have a dwarf Meyer lemon tree that produces the most fragrant blossoms in the winter. I decorate my garden for Christmas and knit cozies for my containers.

Kelejan wrote:
I'm a little too late I think, sanderson.  Went round today and the basil is definitely past its best. 

Oh shoot...I'm glad you said that. I need to bring mine in soon.
CC

With very cool (3C) overnight temperatures coming my way for the next few days, I decided to harvest a few things from the SFG:

• 8 lb of very green Big Beef Tomatoes
  
• 2 lb of green Roma Tomatoes
  
• 2 lb of Eggplant (some quite small)
  
• 1 lb of mixed yellow wax and purple bush beans
  
• Some Banana Peppers
  
• Some Jalapeno Peppers
  
• Some Cayenne Peppers
  
• 1.5 lb of Multiplier Onions (not in photo)
  

A few???

Beautiful!

Gorgeous harvest, TD!  Fried green tomatoes in the future?

CapeCoddess wrote:  A few???

Beautiful!

I know, CC, it's all relative.  To me that would be a huge harvest.

Nice!

As I mentioned on another thread, I dropped my trusty Canon A620 camera and it is no longer working properly. After some fiddling I have managed to download the photos that I took before dropping it.

These photos are not from the SFG but from other parts of the garden.



Here is a potato plant that Mrs TD grew from an "eye" she cut from a store bought potato.




And here is what she got from the potato plant.




We decided to find out what was growing in the jungle behind the compost bins and here is what we found after pruning the plants.  I had planted left over big beef and roma tomato transplants in that area in the spring and then just let them go wild.




The same area taken from a different angle.




These ripe red tomatoes were found hidden on the tomato plants behind the compost bins.




Harvested some more tomatillos.





I aerated the compost bin that was starting to cool off.  Rather than turning it I pushed a broom stick down into it in several places and pushed new material into the holes.  Because the level had already dropped by about 6 inches (in only 3 days) I reloaded the top with straw, leaves and green plant material cut from the jungle behind the bin.




These beautiful nasturtiums are growing in the strawberry SFG bed.

Fun!  I love free veggies!  I gotta tend to my compost pile so I can use some of my straw bale from my friends!  

Time to replenish, anyways.

I harvested my one and only honeydew melon from the SFG.  It's just slightly larger than a big orange.  How pathetic is that?

I never get big winter squashes or melons...when I can get them to grow at all. I think my season just isn't long enough.

TD, Sakatas Sweet melons that I got from Pinetree were little honeydew type melons, but I had at least 10 or 12 of them before mid-September. I had 2 plants in MM.  They are an Asian melon, but taste like honeydew, with an edible rind.  I have seeds if you wanna give them a try.  PM me if you want some seeds.  I grew them up vertical supports.  They kinda went crazy too...LOL