Mid-Atl - Nov 2017 - Warming Up AGAIN?

Maryland (just south of Baltimore) - Zone 7b

Today we're expecting a high of 73. Tomorrow - 77. "Just" 59 on Saturday then back into the low-70s. The lows the entire time will dip no lower than the high 40s.

My cherry tomatoes are still going strong.

sfg4uKim wrote:Maryland (just south of Baltimore) - Zone 7b

Today we're expecting a high of 73. Tomorrow - 77. "Just" 59 on Saturday then back into the low-70s. The lows the entire time will dip no lower than the high 40s.

My cherry tomatoes are still going strong.

Central Pennsylvania - Zone 6a, but probably in a 5b microclimate

I'm envious of your cherry tomatoes! It's been warmer than usual here, but several frosts and a freeze (weather station recorded a low of 23*F in the backyard) means no more tomato plants for me for the season. The peppers on the porch are still mostly alive because I've been covering them. And the pepper in a 7-gallon bucket that got to retreat to the garage is flowering!

Today and tomorrow look nice, except for the rain. More bouts of rain forecast over the next week, and likely frost Friday and Tuesday. The greens and brassicas are enjoying the weather.

Things to do:
- Get zebra-grass hoops on the winter beds, and cover with new AgFabric
- Cut... off... the heads of some of the kale?  It's taller than the hoops and this in the way of covering the bed.
- Harvest and enjoy frost-kissed Brussels sprouts
- Bioassay the lovely, very aged/composted horse manure I just picked up (that's fancy talk for see if peas can sprout in it after it's been mixed with potting media, to make sure it isn't contaminated with one of the long-lasting herbicides)
 - Top off the beds with composts
 - ?Empty the tumbler compost and use it as top dressing
 - Clear the weeds in the landscape beds, use the landscape grass leaves to mulch the fallow beds
 - Start winter greens inside for transplanting out?
 - Plant garlic, cover bed with tulle (invasive Allium leaf miners are here)
 - Harvest the Jerusalem artichokes (add compost to the bed, replant)
 - Harvest the Chinese artichokes (crosnes)
 - Move plant containers to the garage to protect them from freeze/thaw damage
 - Move mint and lemon balm containers from the deck to under hoop cover
 - Keep track of the weather and bring the saffron and pepper in if frost threatens
 - Mulch and cover the strawberry bed mess
 - Dehydrate hot peppers
 - Label and store dry beans

Busy busy busy

sfg4uKim wrote:Busy busy busy

+1

Done:
- Cut the head off one kale (it was traumatic for both of us.)
- Bioassay is set up. I need to see true leaves before making a final conclusion, but it's looking promising!
- Sowed winter greens inside for transplanting out. May be too late for this, but I'll find out!
- Moved the plant containers to the garage to protect them from freeze/thaw damage
- Moved the mint and lemon balm containers from the deck to under hoop covers
- Weeded around the strawberry patch, put up wire fencing, and covered the strawberry plants with a few inches of straw.

Mostly done:
- Put zebra-grass hoops in, covered with AgFabric; Bed7 needs more hoops before I can call this done.
 - Keep track of the weather and bring the saffron and pepper in if frost threatens < this is ongoing, but at some point I either need to get a growlight for the pepper, or give up.
 - Label and store dry beans - just three small piles left!

Started:
- Harvested one round of Brussels sprouts - roasted, devoured, delicious! I hope the cold-protection on the plants was enough that I can get more.
 - Did a tiny amount of weeding in the landscape bed, cut down 1/3 of the tall landscape grass
 - Covered the garlic bed with tulle, selected garlic bulbs/cloves for planting...

Not started:
 - Top off the beds < Waiting on the bioassay results before I use the horse manure; where I put that affects what I will put elsewhere
 - ?Empty the tumbler compost and use it as top dressing
 - Harvest the Jerusalem artichokes (add compost to the bed, replant)
 - Harvest the Chinese artichokes (crosnes)
 - Dehydrate hot peppers

The beheaded kale overflowing my sink:

Half of it got turned into Portuguese Kale Soup.

You got a lot done. Good for you.

Wow Beetles!  Love it!  (Not kale, wish I did...). Why?  I love cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, radishes....kale!!!!!

I think kale has less sugar than the others. So there is less to balance the green/bitterness. It looks like collards have less sugar than the others you listed, but more than kale. Maybe try collards? Very easy to grow (but take up a lot of squares - 4 - once they get big, stick them on a corner if your paths are wide enough to edge past them.) I've seen articles saying they are just as nutritious as kale or more so -- depending on how you measure such things. I do prefer the flavor of collards over kale, but I like diversity so I grow both. Green Flash (from Renee's Garden seeds) has done well for me, as have Champion transplants I purchased. Ole Timey Blue has disappointed, both I grew were runts.

Beetles, your kale photo made me   !

I've never heard of Green Flash collards.  I'll be on the look out for it since I think our climates are similar.  Collards have a very high calcium content which was the main reason I started growing it.  These old bones need all the help they can get.  But this year the slugs ate the teenage plants right down to the stems.  Never had that happen before.

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:I think kale has less sugar than the others. So there is less to balance the green/bitterness. It looks like collards have less sugar than the others you listed, but more than kale. Maybe try collards? Very easy to grow (but take up a lot of squares - 4 - once they get big, stick them on a corner if your paths are wide enough to edge past them.) I've seen articles saying they are just as nutritious as kale or more so -- depending on how you measure such things. I do prefer the flavor of collards over kale, but I like diversity so I grow both. Green Flash (from Renee's Garden seeds) has done well for me, as have Champion transplants I purchased. Ole Timey Blue has disappointed, both I grew were runts.

So collards are completely different than mustard greens?  I have had collard greens when I lived in Nashville, they made them with bacon and stuff.  Very yummy, but not healthy at all.  They did the same with mixed greens which included mustard greens.

SR - I would say collards are definitely different than mustard greens. Sweeter, and I think the texture is nicer. I like them steamed and then briefly sauteed with some garlic, salt, and pepper.
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CC - That kale might be from the seeds you sent me! I planted that square way early for fun (so it was poorly labeled if at all), and planning to harvest them young, before the summer, if they did ok... but I couldn't do it, they were just doing too well to kill them.
I had a tough time in one of my brassica beds with slugs/sow bugs. Some plants down to the stems, others got nibbled enough they just never grew up. I got very little out of that bed this year.
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Today is around 43*F, but windy. Gusts of a little above 20mph, so some windchill. Full sun one minute, full clouds the next. Surprise morning rain got my gardening sweatshirt wet, so maybe I will stay in the rest of today. 

Done:
- Zebra-grass hoops are in and the beds are covered to varying degrees
- Harvested the Chinese artichokes (crosnes). ANSFG had lower yields than OSFG, but larger tubers.
- Dehydrated the hot peppers - Delicious!
- Labeled and stored the dry beans

Mostly done:
 - Keep track of the weather and bring the saffron and pepper in if frost threatens < ongoing
 - Music garlic cloves are in, bed has tulle (needs more clips, keeps blowing open);
      still have 4 squares of other garlic varieties to sow, they are already soaked overnight, but I feel like they'd benefit from a little longer (most anyhow, there are two that are way ahead of the rest)
 - Harvested the Jerusalem artichokes; waiting on the bioassay before adding compost to the bed and replanting

Started:
- Brussels sprouts - They have been invited to a Thanksgiving dinner so this is stalled for a week.
- Weeding in the landscape bed... no progress since last post

Not started:
 - Top off the beds < Waiting on the bioassay results (Saturday is the minimum 2 weeks since sowing for that)
 - ?Empty the tumbler compost and use it as top dressing

I carefully peel my cloves before planting, so I can see and reject ones like this:

Inside one of the zebra-grass hoop'd winter beds:


Hm, though my red grid-yarn is intact and taut, it's lost a lot of its visibility. This is its third year, so maybe I should replace it in the spring.

SR, I ordered garlic and found some cloves like your discards. In fact, some were worse.

Regarding the red string, no need to replace if you still see it. I found out my green string (hemp?) disintegrated faster than the plain white cotton string that is up year around.

It's frustrating paying good money for bad cloves, though I know they can't tell what's under the peel. I think I got rid of the little brown pimple problem! But they still sometimes have that whatever in the photo... I guess it's some sort of fungus. It's probably native and was already in the beds, but I'd rather plant really healthy looking cloves.

I have plain white cotton string holding my front garden gate closed, and twine elsewhere - and yes, the string holds up better than the twine, which sometimes doesn't even get all the way through one season. The yarn works as a grid for multiple seasons, but only holds up a little better than the twine when used 'structurally.'
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Done:
- The garlic cloves are all planted, tucked in under a few inches of zebra grass leaves, and I ordered more binder clips, and snap clamps, for keeping the tulle tight.
- Keep track of the weather for the pepper/saffron - I'm done with that: I've ordered an LED grow light panel so the pepper can go live somewhere other than the middle of my living room. (And the musho plant can yield my laundry room back to me.)  And the saffron got a PVC 'house' with Agfabric so they should be fine for most of the rest of the winter. Too dark to take photos now.
 - Bioassay showed no signs of herbicides, so I added compost to the bed, replanted five Jerusalem artichokes, and mulched the bed with fall leaves
- Brussels sprouts - brought a bowl to Thanksgiving dinner. There are still some out there, but I feel I accomplished the goal of getting most of them eaten.

Mostly done:
 - I've topped off most of the beds with compost or composted manure (horse or Black Kow.) I can't actually finish this until spring because I'm winter gardening and there are plants in the way.
 - I emptied the tumbler compost (should get a photo of that, too) and got it into the garden, but it's just in a pile on top of a bed. The bed I actually want to use it in has plants in the way.

Started:
- Weeding in the landscape bed... I made a little more progress since last post. If it was SFG I'd know how much, and could work square by square.

Thanksgiving Brussels sprouts:

Using these instructions:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/tipsandtricks/the-secret-to-the-best-brussels-sprouts-ever/ar-AAuw3wh

Beetles, are those your Brussels sprouts?

sanderson wrote:Beetles, are those your Brussels sprouts?  

Yup! I started them inside all the way back on February 9th.
...and in less than 3 months I get to start again. I was much happier with this year's yield than last year's, but I'm still not sure whether I'll buy a new packet of seeds when this one runs out. They take up so much time-space compared to most plants.