It's All In!

We've been having consistent night time temperatures in the upper 40s and lower 50s, so I decided it was time to plant the rest of my vegetables.  But first, I had to remove the overwintered spinach and parsnips.  I had planted the parsnips in September, knowing that they really wouldn't amount to anything.  And I was right.  I saved four to put in my next pot of stock.  Most of them were the size of small, very long carrots. 

I planted four tomato plants and six peppers.

I planted two black zucchini and two Cube of Butter yellow squash. 

I planted five types of melons and one hill of butternut squash in the area where we took out three raised beds.

Lastly, I sowed another row of carrots and a row of gourmet blend beets.

The strawberries are loaded with fruit.  Now we just need some nice warm weather to ripen them.

Super Rutabaga!

Today I pulled my first rutabaga, to add to the soup stock pot.  I don't think the others are this big.  It must have hit a concentration of fertilizer. But even so, it wasn't at all tough or woody.

The last of the three beds has been taken out.  I pulled out the remaining beets and carrots. Now I just have to figure out how to remove the asparagus.  Even with a shovel, I can't budge it.  Maybe after we get some rain it will be easier.

I've transplanted all the dahlias into the bed the tomatoes had been in.  This will be a bed for cutting flowers.  Next spring I'll put in lots of annuals.

And the parsnips have finally all sprouted.

Winter Greens

I've sown some winter greens in the holes in the garden beds.  In the bed where the squash was, I planted parsnips, kale, lettuce, and spinach on September 26.  All but the parsnips are up.

 Lettuce:

Kale:

On September 29, I sowed arugula in another bed. It is also up.

I've started taking out the asparagus bed, but the roots of the plants are huge.  There's no way to get the plants out in one piece.  I'll just have to chop them out in pieces.

On another note, the stink bugs have gone into hibernation mode big time.  We're killing many dozen on the house every day. 

Lots of Happenings

The battle of the stink bugs continues.  They have started in on the beans, so I've pulled out the bush beans a bit early.  The pole beans are still there, although we haven't picked any yet.  I'm trying to keep them clear of the little beasts.  Here is where the bush beans were.  I've now sown some kohlrabi.

And here is where the bush beans are, along with lots of stink bugs.  I'm hoping they'll all bake, and then in a few days I can dump them into the yard waste.

My plan for next year is to grow only bush beans, maybe three small plantings, and cover them with netting. 

The black zucchini is not looking good.  The leaves are turning yellow and drying.  I would say maybe they aren't getting enough water, but the yellow squash is very healthy.

In the last couple of days I've started rutabagas and parsnips in the bed where I harvested the garlic.  I've also started several more rows of carrots and four six packs of kohlrabi.  I've finally picked some ripe tomatoes (Stupice) and there are lots of peppers.  There are also a couple of Japanese aubergines that look ready. 

The Beckyberries and boysenberries are finished, and the blueberries are winding down.  They all ripened earlier than usual with the heat we've had. 

State of the Garden

We had a (partly) sunny day, so I went out to see what things looked like and do a little more cleanup.

I pulled the remaining broccoli, kale and chard plants.  They were mostly mush, with little chance of recovery.  I left the spinach and some mache and lettuce that's under a cover.

The carrots that I left in the ground had totally frozen on top, but are surprisingly good in the ground.   I pulled some and left the rest for now.  They do better in the ground than out. By the way, the 'Merida' carrots I planted to overwinter came up but never amounted to anything.

I dug up all the remaining parsnips.  The ones from the first planting are huge, much too big to use.  But the second planting are a more reasonable size.  Again, the tops were totally dead, but the roots were fine.

I did a little weeding, mostly among the blueberries, and the garden looks pretty respectable.

My two little citrus trees look pretty bad.  The lemon is almost completely leafless.

The mandarin looks a little better. 

Both of these were protected with plastic down into the 20s, then in the garage below that. The catalog says they're hardy to the mid-20s.  We'll just have to wait to see if they come back.

Aftermath

The snow has finally gone so I went out to survey the damage.  Many things are done.  The mizuna, chard, and lettuce that were uncovered did not survive, but the kale looks o.k.

 It looks like the spinach may be o.k, but not the tatsoi.

I think the winter broccoli will make it, as well as the parsnips, although the tops look bad.

The biggest surprise is the bed I covered.  I had expected the mache to survive, but the leaf lettuce looks pretty good, too.

Cold Coming

With the forecast of very cold weather in the next few days, I decided I'd better cover the bed of lettuce to see if it will survive.

I also dug another row of carrots and put them in a bucket in the garage, along with a few parsnips.   The carrots are a nice size, the parsnips are huge.

Sweet Potatoes (again)

When I went to 13th Street Nursery yesterday, I found that they had sweet potato plants in 4" pots.  So I bought five.  Actually, I bought four and got one really pathetic Georgia Jet free.

I planted them this afternoon is a trench, to be filled in as they grow.

I also sowed two more rows of parsnips (four total now) and some basil in the bed under the bedroom window.  I never have enough basil.

Lost of Firsts

Today the first rose, Lillian Austin, opened.

 Also first blossoms on the peas.

 The lemon daylily opened today.

And all the cistus in the front yard are in bloom.

 The salad greens that I planted on May 7 are all up, as are the beans.

Today I added compost, all-purpose fertilizer and 5 cups of fish bone meal to the sweet potato bed.  I then dug a trench down the center and put IRT plastic over the top.  I received the plants yesterday, but they are a bit bedraggled, so I put them in a glass of water to recover.

The tomatoes, peppers and eggplants are all in pots in the cold frame.  They're ready to go in but we're due for a couple of cool days with rain, so I think I'll keep them under cover for now.  I planted the squash in two large pots on the deck, also four cucumber plants with a cage around them.  The melon starts are just about setting-out size. 

Oh, and the parsnips have finally come up.  But alas, no asparagus yet.

The older lemon cypress has died suddenly, maybe from drying out when it was hot.  We've decided to find a home somewhere else for the newer one.  Too fussy. 

The pots on the deck are starting to look really nice. 

Busy Days

We've had a wonderful couple of days.  Lots of sun and up to 80 degrees today.  Tomorrow we start heading back to normal, with rain to come. But for now, it's been great.  We even had breakfast outside this morning.

I've  now sowed dill and chervil outside, started all my melons, cucumbers and squash, and sowed parsnips in the carrot and beet bed.  The peas are looking great, having finally found the trellis. 

Today I went to Terra Gardens nursery and bought a bunch of plants for the deck.  I got a windmill palm, a Eureka lemon, some red geraniums, and several other things for pots.

I also found some larger artichokes to replace the puny ones I had planted.  They were being devoured by slugs.