N&C Midwest: November/December 2020

November 1st already, and winter is quickly approaching.  Yesterday our Red Maple was beautiful with its crimson red leaves, and today a windstorm with gusts up to 50 mph has cleaned the tree of its leaves. The raised beds are all cleaned and heavily mulched for the winter, except for a couple beds that have a cover crop of tillage radishes. Planning for the spring....

Yes, it was a beautiful day, with summer-like weather. We set a new record high temp for this date, in fact.

Got a surprise load of fall leaves delivered today.  Some time ago I had a conversation with a friend who runs a lawn maintenance business about the value of fall leaves in the garden. Today he called to ask if I would like a load of leaves for the gardens, and of course I said I would love them.  He showed up with a large dump truck with a cover on it, and asked where he could dump them.  I asked him how much there was, and he said the truck holds 20 yards, and it was full. He said he had a contract to vacuum the leaves from the country club, and his vacuum shreds the leaves as it picks them up so it was a pretty dense load. I had him dump it on my Back to Eden garden, which is in need of more wood chips. I can't believe the size of that pile of leaves! If I decided to just spread them of the top of the section where they are, they would be about 8" to 10" thick. Not sure what that would do to the back to eden concept, though.

Never have had more leaves than I had use for!

SR, the good news is that diseases that affect trees do not affect vegetable plants. So, even if the Maple leaves have a disease, they won't affect the garden plants.

Rutgers University Extension office did a good document on all of the nutrients in the fall leaves, which is available in a PDF document:

https://sustainable-farming.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Municipal_Leaves_Plant_Nutrients_Available_FS824_1998.pdf

Had heavy rainstorms move through the area yesterday, with wind gusts that were clocked at 66 mph.  Kept an eye on the cold frame, which is supposed to be rated to withstand wind to 70 mph, and it did not have any problems.  But, 3 of the 6 Dinosaur Kale in an adjoining bed broke off during one of the strongest storms. That will reduce our harvest of kale, but their season is about over anyway.

Harvested what is probably the last of the Dinosaur Kale yesterday, and made a delicious batch of Zuppa Toscana Soup for dinner. The kale is super sweet this time of the year, after it has frosted a couple times, and makes a great soup.

First snowfall of the winter today, with almost enough snow to cover the ground.  I'm ready for Spring any time now!