It is the last business day of the month. We are about to say so long to the month of October and hello to November. Talk about time flying–this month sure has.
Yes, I know, I have been lax in my writing for the past few weeks.
Blame it on the weather. Blame it on my work. Blame it on my laziness. There is more than enough blame to go around.
I have not forgotten about my garden. Plenty is still going on out in the backyard. It is not nearly as exciting or as busy as April (but then what is?)
- We continue to have greens on the table, and plenty in the SFG boxes. There are onions and herbs that we are still producing. We should have a little bounty left into November (maybe December) if the weather cooperates.
- The hoop house will go up this weekend, weather permitting.
- Some new SFG boxes went in last week. I have the wood for the rest of my projects, but will need to purchase some more vermiculite to fill the rest of the boxes.
- 2010 garlic has been planted. Strawberries are doing well and should do fine through the winter under straw.
- Wildflower beds are in the process of being cut back and cleaned up after multiple frosts.
- There is a pumpkin display in the front yard to carry us into the next month. I believe that I have the largest pumpkin in a yard display anywhere in the county–it just wasn’t county fair material.
- Fall colors have been vibrant, and the grass hasn’t been. I am betting on one last mow of the yard this year, and we can start again in March/April.
Hope that your fall is going well…
After my trip to Denver, all kinds of things have happened in my life and in the garden. I am catching up, at least from this point on a Tuesday.
Weather comments:
This has been a period of cool and rain that I have not experienced for some time.
Since September 15, I have dumped over 12 inches of rain out of my gauge. We have had two frosts, and my water buckets iced over the past two days. The temperatures will get up into the 70′s tomorrow, and we are having a gorgeous fall day in the mid-60′s today–the past few nights have been frigid.
It appears that we will have warmer days for the next 10 days or so, and I will get my fall/winter garden projects done before more winter-like weather sets in.
Garden notes:
All of the tender plants are gone. We harvested the last of the peppers, basil and winter squash on Sunday. The frost got the pumpkin vines on Monday morning, and I am left with one big pumpkin about 80 pounds and 3 pumpkins that are about 10 pounds each. We are hoping that the smaller pumpkins will yield some nice seeds to dry, and maybe some fruit for pumpkin soup. We are not sure what we will find in the big one.
We have plenty of hardy crops that are plugging along- Swiss chard, kale, mustard, turnips and lettuces that are doing well. Many of the herbs that are in the boxes/planters are perennials–rosemary, lemon balm, tarragon, chives, peppermint, thyme, sage and parsley. I am planning to mulch them over the winter.
I didn’t get my garlic planted yet, but it will go in the next few days. I had great success with last fall’s planting, and look forward to another year. My Italian wife has already gone through everything we harvested this summer (and she admits that she gave a bunch away as well). I will be planting a bed that should give us 4 dozen bulbs next summer.
The hoop house will go up this weekend, and I will experiment with some indoor crops this winter–we’ll see what the weather brings.
I have been out of town much of the week. On Tuesday I flew into Denver for a conference dealing with crime victims with disabilities. I flew back to NC on Saturday. I spent a bit of time in the garden on Saturday afternoon, not much this afternoon, and I have plans for tomorrow afternoon if the weather holds.
Some reports:
- We had some very cold nights this past week. One night dipped to below 40 degrees. The grass barely grew in the past week. The garden is showing signs of cold weather.
- The big pumpkin was not ready for the fair. It was way too mis-colored on one side. It did not get much heavier than 70 pounds, but it is still the biggest pumpkin I have ever grown. It will make a nice jack-o-lantern or yard ornament for the fall.
- The tomato vines are officially spent, as are the cucumbers. Fall crops like kale, chard, lettuce, etc. are looking great.
- The strawberries are looking great and are even putting out some late, stray blooms. I am plucking all of the blooms and looking forward to next summer.
- It is time to get the hoop house up, take down trellises and start preparing for the winter.
After a few days of rain–my rain gauge registered over 4 inches on Saturday (that’s 10 inches total for the past week–wow!)–the sun came out and it was a must to get out in the yard…
I cut the grass. It was wet and I really should have waited a few days, but then I am headed out of town on Tuesday. There was no way that I was going to miss mowing for a week after 10 inches of rain…
I planted some of my SFG boxes with fall crops. I will finish them off next weekend and hope for a few weeks before a hard frost (By the way, we have projected low 40′s weather this coming week–can you say chilly?).
I emptied my rain barrels so that they can refill…they had a little bit of algae in them and need to be emptied every month or so…It only takes about about .75 inches of rain to save 110 gallons of water with my system. We should get that in the coming week or so. (Do the math–how many gallons could I have saved if I had all of my gutters outfitted with barrels and caught all ten inches of rain?–Answer: over 5000 gallons)
Tomorrow is a work day…hope you have had a good weekend.