Mid-Atl - Oct 2017 - How's the weather there?

OOPS! A little late for October.

How's the weather where you are in the Mid-Atlantic? It's still warm here. It rained a bit today but that just made it steamy and humid.

How's it affecting your fall/winter garden? Yesterday I harvested peas, turnips, radishes, arugula. Little butternut squash is still going strong from the summer garden as are the cherry tomatoes and pappers.

The weather has been see-sawing - lows that are too cold for the summer vegetables, and highs that the fall/winter plants don't appreciate. There was no warning on the Weather Underground site for my first frost, so I had to go out in the morning and salvage tomatoes for sauce to put in the freezer. There was frost again the following night. The effect was patchy, so while the squash and tomato plants are mostly dead, the pepper plants only lost their tops - I was shocked but grateful that the peppers themselves seem fine. My beans are nearly done, but some survived where my brassica agfabric cover accidentally flipped over onto them!

I haven't gotten many of my fall greens in. Too hot, too much other stuff going on, and now I have a cold. I tried to plant a half dozen different things, but most didn't germinate (or something happened to the seedlings.) I must say I greatly prefer starting seeds inside where I can keep an eye on them. I have too many scattered squares to remember to check freshly sown squares every day, and even if I do remember, the re-sowing over and over just doesn't work for me. The turnip and rutabegas I transplanted were still there last I checked, but they don't seem very big. I just haven't been able to replicate the success I had with those my first year. But in spite of my complaints, there's more good than bad.

The spring planted kales and collards are happy and I expect to have lots for the winter. I have volunteer greens coming up here and there in the garden - mache, mustard, edible chrysanthemum, rocket, even a few lettuces. The shell pea plants have many flowers and are filling out their first pods. I got my saffron bulbs planted. I know where I'm putting my garlic, already have the additional compost and mulch I need, and weighed last year's squares garlic so I can use it for seed without losing data. There are leeks all over the garden on the edges of the boxes. I didn't do a good job of blanching them up like I did last year (edges don't work well for that - back to full squares next year...) but I'm sure they will still taste fine. My other root vegetables (celeriac, parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes, crosnes, spring carrots) are out there finishing up their growth. I have healthy lettuce and beet seedlings ready to be transplanted. A napa cabbage seedling and a tatsoi seedling, too. I have lots of parsley. I think I'll get a radicchio head or two after all -- those were another plant the groundhog damaged and I was't sure would amount to anything.

Getting cooler now and leaves have definitely turned

floyd1440 wrote:Getting cooler now and leaves have definitely turned

Floyd!!!!  Hey there!  

Been almost a year! Moved to a new house, downsizing, and won’t have my garden built this spring BUT sold my house to my son and will garden next year over there. Plus I have child labor with 2 grandchildren

Only 1.5 miles away!

Been almost a year! Moved to a new house, downsizing, and won’t have my garden built this spring BUT sold my house to my son and will garden next year over there. Plus I have child labor with 2 grandchildren

Only 1.5 miles away!