October 30, 2015

today’s garden work

We certainly are lucky with our fall weather this year. Tee shirt temperature and nice rains. Blue skies and calliope leaf show. Today’s tasks: – Empty eight bags of compost and topsoil into the new garlic bed (why does the soil height always go down in a raised bed?) – Spread and turn under the new amendments. (Got to get s proper garden fork. Don’t know where mine went. I leveled with the side of the shovel.) – Planted 140 cloves of garlic. They filled the bed…

October 29, 2015

looks like a good day for planting garlic

We had a torrential rain storm last night. My fall greens must have loved it. Now it’s drying up and the sun is out. I brought a dozen bags of compost, manure and topsoil down to my garden yesterday. Also, a bale of salt marsh hay. I’m just waiting now for a new version of Photoshop to download (my old one didn’t seem to work with my new Windows 10 OS). Separating the cloves as I wait. Once it’s done, me and the dogs are going to go do some…

October 26, 2015

notes on Skippy’s planting calendar app

– Use app for planning your 2016 garden: A gardener emailed me that she is already using Skippy’s planting calendar app to set up her vegetables for next year (she says: “early but I want an easy place to remember what I want to order”) – Fixed glitch: The app had a glitch with the season transition. It was opening but displaying nothing. We’ve fixed this and an updated version is now available for download at Apple App Store updates. – Android available: We’ve released an android version of the…

October 26, 2015

my new garden fence is being installed

October 22, 2015

my fall harvest

These are vegetables I picked last Saturday, the day before our first frost. I’ll have to post a photo of our watermelon martinis. Carrot or radish martinis are good too. I made a nice chili out of those Black Turtle beans last night. I’ll post that photo soon too.

October 22, 2015

my cucumber experiment – cucumbers are not a fall crop

On August 7 (65 days before my average first frost), I planted several varieties of pickling cukes: Cucumber, Salt and Pepper (49 days), Cucumber, Miniature White (50 days), Cucumber, North Carolina Pickling (60-65 days). This experiment was a last ditch effort since wilt (carried by beetles) killed my summer cucumbers. It seemed this experiment would work, going by the days. The rule of thumb for fall planting is to count back from the average first frost date by the days to harvest, and then add 2 weeks for the “fall…

October 21, 2015

bread and butter pickles

My cucumber harvest failed miserably this year (beetles), so I went by our farmer’s market and bought a big bag of beautiful picking cukes. They smelled so good. Since I’m out of my garden onions already, I got onions. And some enormous red and orange peppers. I followed the recipe for Bread-and-Butter pickles in the book “Food in Jars” by Marisa McClellan (a really nice new canning book). They are delicious! Spicy and crunchy with a bit of sweetness.

October 20, 2015

my garden

Here’s a photo of my vegetable garden now. The frost covers are off and draped over trellises or the fence behind. Looking at this picture reminds me of things that will be happening soon – hopefully before snow cover arrives. Soon we are having a post and rail fence put in around the garden edges. It will be a nicer support for the metal deer fence than the crocked metal pole I have now. I need to take down the tomatoes supports at the left and pull those cornstalks at…

October 20, 2015

preparing the vegetable garden for frost

Here are things that are important to do in a vegetable garden the day before your first frost. – Pick any warm crop veggies left in the garden: things like peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, zucchini, summer squashes, winter squashes and pumpkins. Since these plants will all be killed by even a light frost, they can be pulled and composted now. – For a light freeze (28-32 degrees F), its OK to leave most cold weather crops uncovered. To be on the safe side, I cover my lettuce, bok choi, peas…

October 19, 2015

boring garden tasks?

I was asked the other day about what are the garden tasks I enjoy least. …… I’m not really sure of the answer to that. I suppose many gardeners would say weeding, but that task gets you down close to the plants and let’s you see what’s going on. If it’s a nice day, weeding is just part of being in the garden. Hauling compost to the garden takes a lot of time and strength. And often needs to be done in the early spring when the weather is still…

weeks and counting until my last spring frost