2016 SFG in Brooks, Ga

yolos wrote:

Nice, Yolos! I'd say with all you had to put up with it's an amazing harvest.

20 cukes in one weekend? Oiy...I should be so blessed.
CC

sanderson wrote:I think you meant Frass.

You're right, sanderson.  At least I got the right answer even though I wrote frazz. 
I must have been thinking of Jazz.   It's OK. I'm OK. Honest.

I finally almost finished with a project for this season.  I wanted to freeze a variety of veggies to be used in Vegetable Soup this winter.  I harvested and froze everything needed except the lima beans are just coming in too slowly.  

So I froze small portions of all my veggies I grew this summer and blanched and put individually in Food Saver bags.  Then took all the individual bags and put them in 1 - 1/2 gallon bags ready to just dump into some water this winter to make veggie soup.  Two separate bags full of smaller bags of veggies.  All from my garden except the celery and onions.  Each large bag contains the following:

Tomatoes - 2-1/2 cups
Potatoes - 2+ cups
Carrots - 2-1/2 cups
Lima Beans - still waiting to harvest
Corn - 1-1/3 cup
Celery - 3/4 cup (purchased)
Onions - 3/4 cup (purchased)
Rattlesnake Beans - 1-2/3 cup
Cowpeas - 3/4 cup
Fava Beans - 1 cup


Individual Food Saver bags of various veggies


One large 1-1/2 gallon bag with all the individual bags inside.

What a great idea, Yolos. I should have done that with my pitiful handful of asparagus beans. I will definitely remember this for next time. 

Great idea!

That's a terrific idea, Yolos!

AtlantaMarie wrote:That's a terrific idea, Yolos!

Thanks folks.  As I was trying to find freezer space for all these veggies, I thought about how AM would probably have dehydrated them but that would have been too much trouble to make sure they were all properly dried.

LOL! Not necessarily. We love our "coffin" freezer too. It's filled to the brim right now!

My buckwheat cover crop that I planted 8/13 is fully flowering and ready to cut down and incorporate into the soil.  But the honeybees are loving it so I will wait until time to plant my mustard covercrop before turning the buckwheat under.


The honeybees are all over the buckwheat flowers.

VERY nice!

Why are you not letting them seed, Yolos? I think I'd have to, lol! Then buckwheat pancakes, etc....

AtlantaMarie wrote:VERY nice!

Why are you not letting them seed, Yolos?  I think I'd have to, lol!  Then buckwheat pancakes, etc....

Takes forever to get them too seed.  They are not drought tolerant and not frost tolerant.  They get tall and tend to collapse if overhead watered.  And, I am going to try and plant turnips in all the beds that I do not replace.  I am going to let about a 2 ft by 2 ft area set seed so I can use them as micro-green seeds this winter and to seed some cover crop next summer.

My Edamame harvest was kind of pitiful this year.  I planted 8 squares of Edamame on 6/26 and harvested today.  As you can see below, after they were shelled, it is only about a cup.  But I did plant them between some tall growing tomatoes and they did not get much nutrients or water through out the summer.  So I guess I can't complain too much.

Garden Update - 10/02/16

My heat loving plants are almost history.  I still have Sweet Potatoes growing and still climbing the trellis and also out on the ground.


My sole surviving tomato plant that was planted in the spring.  A Juliet Grape tomato which is 3/4 dead put still pumping out tomatoes.


Lima Beans look about dead but they are also still producing enough to keep them going as long as possible.
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Planted some late fall tomatoes that have a lot of green tomatoes setting on.  My average 1st frost is about 10/28 so I may have to do some season extending if they do not start turning.  I am now trying to plant veggies in pots to keep from getting southern Blight.



Also some English Shell Peas planted in pots.


A 2 ft x 20 ft bed outside of the regular garden planted with English Shell Peas.


My cover crop/ green manure.  Buckwheat cut down and then incorporated in a 4 x 8 bed.  Now ready to plant the Mustard Greens to help rid the garden of the southern blight.


And finally my non-sfg bed - 4 x 32 feet.  Prepped and planted with Mighty Mustard to also try to get rid of the southern Blight.


I have not planted a full complement of fall veggies this year.  I am now ready to start taking apart my old SFG beds and hauling off the soil.  I will rebuild the beds and add new MM.  That should get rid of the southern blight in those beds.

I don't envy your future project!!

Sweet Potato Harvest 10/10/16

I had a great crop of sweet potatoes this year.  I planted them in a 2 x 8 bed, approx 18 inches apart on 5/22 and harvested on 10/10.  I could have let them grow until just before the first frost (10/28) but an ant hill set up residence in the bed and I wanted to get them out of the bed before the ants took over the whole bed.  These are Beauregard Sweet Potatoes from purchased Bonnie slips.

Here is a picture of the bed just before I harvested.  This is an 8 foot tall 3/4 inch EMT trellis.  One trellis on each side of the bed with nylon netting.


A picture of the Sweet Potatoes growing under ground.  I removed the dirt from around the potatoes to show those who have never grown them what they look like growing under ground.


Got a slew of sweet potatoes.  Will have to find some willing friends to take some of them off my hands.




The largest was just over 7 pounds.  I have never tried to cook one this large.



I divided the harvest into small, medium and large piles.  This is a small pile of the ones that I consider the right size for eating.  Have many more bigger ones and a small pile of smaller ones.

Wow that is amazing yolos. Thanks for sharing the photos.

wow that is amazing thanks for sharing :>)

Nice haul!  Yum!

 Amazing!  I'm wondering if it is time to harvest here.   The leaves are still mostly green with no sign of the growing vines slowing down.

Yolos, Would you also post your reply under Sweet Potatoes. Good little tutorial.

GoodNESS, Yolos! NICE harvest!

Update on my Tomatoes 10/18/16

My sole surviving tomato from this Spring.  Seed started 2/14 and planted in the garden on 3/30.  A Juliet Grape tomato.  This is the longest I have ever been able to keep my spring planted tomato alive.  6-7 months.  Missing all the leaves on the bottom but it is still producing and flowering.


And my purchased Bonnie tomatoes transplanted into the garden on 8/21.  The Celebrity tomatoes are almost ready to start turning color.  They better hurry or I will have to cover to prevent frost damage.  First frost is about 10/28.

Cover crop update 10/23/16

My Mighty Mustard is growing fairly well in the first beds I planted.  In the last 4 beds, the seedlings are just peeking out.  I am following Little Jo's suggestion to plant Mustard in some of the beds to help eradicate the Southern Blight.  So far, I planted my 4 x 32 foot bed, a 4 x 8 bed, a 2 x 8 foot bed, and three 3 x 8 foot beds.  For the rest of the garden, I will be removing the beds and MM and redoing these beds completely.  The wood is decaying and ready to be replaced so I am also going to raise them off the ground to keep out the roots.  I am going to replace the MM because of the Southern Blight.

Here is a picture of some of the beds with the Mustard growing.  It is pretty green and looks nice when I walk out to the garden.  The first picture is the 4 x 8 bed and the 2nd picture is the 4 x 32 bed.  These have modified MM so it would be hard to replace the soil so I am trying to use the Mustard to bio fumigate the bed.

Today's harvest.  Juliet Grape tomatoes planted in April and Heat Wave tomatoes planted mid August.


Strike variety of English Shell Peas.


My planting of Strike peas.    A 2 foot by 20 foot bed.  This is the first fall that my peas have been real plentiful.  I purposely planted Strike peas because the DTM is 45 days.  We have such a short fall that it is hard to get pole peas to mature between the heat of summer and before the first frost.


I took LittleJo's advice and planted Mustard in all the beds that I won't be replacing this winter in order to try to get rid of Southern Blight.  You can see where some animal decided to dig around in all the beds.  I finally put up a short fence to keep the rascal out.  Now I have to figure out how to operate my Trail Camera so I can find what is doing the damage.

My 4 x 32 foot bed of Mustard.


My 4 x 8 bed of Mustard.  You can see where the animal dug up the bed.  It must be looking for grubs or worms.  I now have a short fence around the bed to keep out the animal.


My three 3 x 8 foot beds of Mustard.


I just planted a 2 x 6 foot bed of Fava Beans.  But they are not the variety that will withstand extreme cold so I ordered some Aqua Dolce Fava beans from Victory Seeds today so I will also plant those when the arrive.

yolos ... Super nice garden. Thanks for the photos.

Yolos, The digging looks like why I had in the winter squash box. I don't know for sure if it was an opossum or rat after the worms. I did snap-trap a rat one night and no more digging. I did make a chicken wire cage over it so no cat would get hurt.