Potatoes

Today I planted a single row of potatoes in one of the beds. I planted one russet, just to try it, and the rest were yellow, I hope Yukon gold. 

The peppers and aubergines that I started ten days ago are up and out in the greenhouse. The lettuce and spinach are up, but no chard yet.

First Frost

Two nights ago we had our first frost, although the temperature only got down to 36. But with the colder temperatures coming, I pulled out most of the summer vegetable garden. 

I sliced and froze all the bell peppers, except for four, which I'll stuff for a couple of dinners. The zucchini had a few small fruits on it, so we'll have those soon. I have several jars of shredded zucchini in the freezer for zucchini bread. I have several aubergines, which I'll probably make into more ratatouille. 

When a substantial rain storm was predicted a couple of weeks ago, I picked all the tomatoes, mostly San Marzanos, which had any color on them. I put them in the guest room to ripen. I now have enough tomato soup for nine lunches, plus two trays of roasted tomatoes, with garlic, basil, and olive oil. I'm planning to use them on pizza, or maybe as a pasta topping. I had also canned 26 pints of cut up tomatoes. 

We still have lots of things in the garden for winter. I have a row of kohlrabi, a row of beets, a row of chard, and two rows of spinach. One bed has cabbage, Chinese cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower, several plants of each. I have about twenty bok choy plants, plus a few short rows of mache, arugula, and Ethiopian kale. And I have a row of turnips and rutabagas. There is still some lettuce, but I don't expect that to last much longer. I planted a few snap peas at the end of the strawberry bed. They probably won't produce anything until next spring. And of course, there are still several rows of carrots.

I got just four delicata squash, which was a bit disappointing. Next year I'll grow a vining one instead of the bush variety. I also have three small 'Honey Nut' squash, which may or may not make it. They're still not ready to pick. Again, next year I'll do a full size butternut vine.

Status of Fall Garden

The fall brassicas have been moved into the potato bed, with a net cover over them. They're growing nicely now.

In the box with the leeks I've planted some rainbow chard and sowed some spinach. They're all small, but coming along. 

We've had some really hot weather (and now lots of wildfire smoke!) The tomatoes are happy. I picked 4 1/2 pounds yesterday and canned them today (3 jars plus a smaller one). The melons are getting close. They also love the heat. 

I pulled out all the cranberry beans that were planted among the tomatoes. The other dry beans aren't ready to pull yet. 

Still More Fall Planting

I've sown rutabagas and turnips for fall and winter harvest. I'm not sure if we really like them, so I didn't put in too many. I still have to find a place for spinach.

Going on the advice of Craig Lehollier, the Tomato Guy, I dug up four of my pepper plants that weren't doing much and put them in five gallon plastic pots. We'll see how they do.

We're very close to having our first Stupice tomato. And I picked all the remaining Ubileen pears. They've been falling and have been eaten by squirrels. I assumed the squirrels caused them to fall, but I checked and they are ready to pick. There aren't may of them (twelve), but they're huge.

Starting seeds

Today I started a bunch of things for the garden: Tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, and chard.

The green onions and leeks that have been out in the greenhouse are doing well. They'll be ready to set out in the garden soon.

I also sowed pak choi and spinach in the garden.

Feels Like Spring

I know it isn't close to being Spring, but the last week or so has given us a taste of things to come. We had several days of highs close to 60 and sunny. We even had lunch on the deck a few days ago.

Update on overwintered vegetables:
My fall plantings of lettuce and spinach are still there, and we've eaten many meals of them. However, we've had a fairly mild winter, so I won't expect that to happen every year. I still have some carrots left, mostly big split ones, but they're still good. The bok choi was good for a while, but it has now bolted. I left the plant to flower, hoping to entice some early bees. And we have seen one.

After some major pruning, the pear and peach trees seem to be fine and are close to blooming. With them being short now, I'm hoping to be able to hand pollenate them.


I started green onions and leeks indoors, and now they are in my greenhouse. Three days ago I sowed snap peas, but they aren't up yet.

Winter Garden

With our recent decision to sell our cottage in Tucson and stay home this winter, I've decided to try to plant some winter vegetables. It's a bit late, but I thought I'd try anyway, just in case we have a delayed winter.

I sowed mesclun mix lettuce, Red Kitten and Matador spinach, mache, and more bok choi and kohlrabi.

Autumn in the Garden

Things are coming along nicely out in the garden.  After a month of rain nearly every day, totaling over eleven inches, we've had some really pleasant weather so far in November.  The greens in the garden are looking really good.  They're growing, but slowly.


The Romaine lettuce, what's left of it, is getting close to harvesting size.

I picked a few of these tiny pink spinach leaves (Red Kitten) to put in our salad last night.

 

 

 The chard is still too small to pick, but I've been picking the kale for a couple of weeks now.

Even though the carrots have gotten really big, they're still very tasty.  This one was planted in June.  I roasted it yesterday, and it was really good.

More Salad Greens

I've planted another bed of salad fixings for over the winter.  From the right side there's Red Sails and Garnet Oakleaf lettuce and arugula; Red Kitten and Bloomsdale spinach; Evergreen bunching onions; purslane; and a double row of mache.  I'm not sure if all those things will do well, but it's worth a try.

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.

Off and Running

We've had two nice days in a row, so I was able to get most of the vegetable garden started. 

I planted Yukon Gold potatoes, and one bed with spinach, a few beets, and chard.  I immediately covered that bed with netting to keep the leaf miners out (I hope!).

I also sowed one bed with kale, lettuce, and arugula.  I also sowed some basil in that bed.  And I started carrots in the bed that still has some leeks and chard from last year. 

I transplanted the seedling leeks into the herb bed, although they seem really tiny.

Just about everything has started to bloom or leaf out.  The early blueberries are in full bloom, as are the peach and nectarine.  The apples and pears are a little behind, but coming. 

We're seeing several stink bugs a day, including in the house.  I even saw a young light green one. Sigh.

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. 

The Battle Continues...

I've now taken out the pole beans.  They were being badly damaged and there was no way to reach the upper vines.  The last stand seems to be the cucumbers, which we have been patrolling religiously. 

The bean bed has been planted with more kohlrabi, a row of beets, and a row of spinach.  I've removed the largest planting of basil (I had delusions of making pesto) and planted a short row of chard in the space.  I found stink bugs in the basil. 

I've found an occasional stink bug under the netting in the tomatoes and the peppers, but so far the damage is minimal. 

Gloriosa

Today I turned over the pot that had the two gloriosa lilies in them.  I was happy to find a double bulb in each one.  They broke in half, so next year I should have four plants.  I've put them in the garage for now to dry. 

I also dug up two sweet potato vines.  The tubers aren't very impressive, but I'll try to plant them next spring and see how they do.

The two mandarins look like they are starting to turn orange.  They have a slight yellow tinge.

As for the winter crops, the broccoli and cabbage are doing well.  There are some small heads coming on the broccoli, and the cabbage is ready to cut any time.  The kale could be bigger.  One harvest will pretty much finish them off.  The spinach is still tiny, so next year I need to plant it about a month earlier.  And the last planting of carrots is very small.  Maybe they'll grow in the spring.  The ones I planted on August 15 are a bit small, but useable.

'

More Cleanup

With the rain and cooler weather, the tomatoes were looking sad, so I've pulled them out.  I also pulled the peppers and aubergines.  And the old strawberry bed has also been cleaned out.  I dug in a bag of dry leaves in each one.  Those are the only beds that are empty right now.

The Beckyberries were already becoming too dense, so I trimmed all side shoots up to the where they were tied to the wires.  At some point I'll have to let a few new shoots develop.

We decided that we were not really enjoying the various blackberries out in front, so those have been removed.  The raspberries are still there.

The spinach that I planted a week ago is up.  I hope it has time to grow before it gets really cold.

Garlic Time

Today I planted a row of garlic, after fertilizing the whole bed.  Later there will also be onions and leeks.

I've also planted some Olympia spinach in the old green bean bed.  It's pretty late, but with the weather still being warm (83 today!) I decided to give it a try.

The stink bugs are out in force again.  I've mentioned them to several other gardeners, and I'm beginning to think that they have been drawn to my vegetables. 

Berries Galore

We're  back from our trip and the berries are really coming.  While we were gone, the Marionberries

and Prime-Ark blackberries have started ripening.  They're both very tasty.  The Prime Ark is the everbearing one.

We have more raspberries than we can eat, and I've frozen enough, so I'm going to juice a bowl of them to freeze for later use.

The leaf miner battle has become interesting.  The chard is gorgeous and perfect under the netting.  But the miners have switched to the beets, and boy, have they made a mess.  Obviously next year I'll have to put nets over the beets, too, as well as spinach.

Big Garden Day

We've had nice weather, but rain is returning soon, so today seemed like a good day to really get the garden in shape.


The tomatoes were getting big, so out they went.  I put black plastic around the bottoms of the cages for a little added heat.  I cut up trash bags lengthwise, one bag for every two cages.

 The peppers and aubergines went out, under cover of a plastic tunnel, open on the ends.

I also planted bush beans, a bed with five different dry beans, summer squash, and more carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach and kale.

Garden Leftovers

As I was out pulling weeds I noticed that I still had some carrots in the ground.  I dug some up and they looked pretty good.  There's also a long row of spinach that has overwintered beautifully.  So dinner today was grilled chicken, carrots (with store-bought asparagus), a spinach and herb salad and homemade bread.

It's good to be home.

Pizza Night

Tonight I went out to the garden and found enough spinach to put on a pizza.  I picked just about every leaf, so I guess that's the end of it.

The pizza was just white sauce, garlic, some cheese, and the spinach.