wrapping up the summer..getting ready for the fall :)

[LindsayArthurRTR]

I'm getting the garden cleaned up this week so that I can do some fall plantings. Getting seeds started tonight. I've got crowder peas, red-cored chantenay carrots, turnips, beets, cabbage, collard greens, mustard greens, more radishes, tarragon, flatleaf parsley, and cilantro.

Thinking about trying some celery, broccoli, and cauliflower, I have some romanesco seed left over, might try them and see how they do!!!

As for the summer garden...I would officially call it DONE! The only thing left still doing anything are the jalapenos and the pole beans in the 3 sisters bed, and they are all flowers and no beans! They are growing like a flowing blanket of green covering the remains of the 3 sister's. Reminds me of Kudzu. Wish some of those flowers would turn to fresh beans

The tomatoes have finally given in to blight. There are a few straggly stems reaching for the sky, but nothing to get excited over, they wont produce before first frost.

The squashbugs even took over my baby watermelons... They were the last of the cucurbits.

I still have some radishes that are bolting. Nothing worth eating though.

I Still have lots of stevia, but I don't know what to do with it. And lots of basil. Gonna make pesto with that and freeze it in little baggies to use throughout the winter.

Even through the drought, temps up to 105 degrees, water restrictions, and now torrential downpours, it has still been a fabulous year!!! AND my first fully organic year to boot. Even though I had several near meltdowns, I have OVERCOME!!!! I stayed completely pesticide and chemical free, overcame my fears of squishing bugs, and shared a bountiful harvest with family, friends and the local soup kitchen. I preserved a great deal also. I've learned so much. Thanks to all of y'all, too! It has been a GREAT summer!!!

And now... ON TO FALL!!!

[gixxerific]

Good to hear you are looking to the future. I am in the same boat. Though I still have some tomatoes going I have been pulling a few here and there. I still have sweet potatoes, beans, cucumbers (barely), peppers chard and some lettuce going.

I did plant a bunch of seed a few weeks back, mostly lettuce and arugula and spinach. But the majority has yet to be seen. Could be the warm weather or slugs, grasshoppers etc.

I have a few things going inside that I wanted to plant today but probably tomorrow, we have been cleaning the house like mad for a party tomorrow.

I do have peas coming up but I didn't plant a whole lot of them yet. Heck I still have some tomato volunteers that I am going to let go the distance to see where the get. Right now they are about 6 inches or so.

Sounds like you had a better summer than me. Let's hope for a better fall.

[gumbo2176]

Glad to hear of your success with the garden. I've also got some holdovers from summer, mainly Okra, 4 eggplants and some late summer yard long and Kentucky Wonder beans. I recently put in some tomatoes, brussels sprouts, broccoli, Armenian cucumbers and soy beans for edamame. I'll have to wait a couple more weeks for daily temps. to go down several more degrees before I put in the leafy stuff. I'm afraid if they come in soon, the heat will kill them before they get established.

I too, am looking forward to the fall garden.

[LindsayArthurRTR]

I've also got some holdovers from summer, mainly Okra,

I do still have okra, but work has been CRAZY!!! (and I got lazy, too ) I haven't picked the okra in at least 2 weeks, and it has pretty much dried up. I still have a few pods that are green but most of them are grossly gigantic and way too woody to eat. I bet if I picked them all, in a few days I would have new pods. I could save the seeds too from the ones I pick, so they wouldn't be a total waste I kinda just got tired of eating it...I pickled some too. Maybe I'll just pick it all tomorrow and leave it go till frost.

I did have a great first organic summer! Of course my grandparents did give me very nice dirt to work with. They had a garden in this spot for nearly 40 years It had a nice 10 year rest before I turned this year. The neighbor behind us (who has lived there forever, too) told me one day that my papa had a load of cotton seed mill tilled into it the last year they were able to care for a garden. When we broke ground this year, it was covered densely in red clover. The dirt was RICH and dark and chock full O' worms. To say the least we hada little help from the grandfolks (I miss them so much...)

[applestar]

Sounds like you're garden was a real success! I love the change-over season (I'm bored with the stuff that's been growing ).

Did some clean up in the garden myself today. Although I'm actually doing something really crazy. I'm going ahead with the no-till Fukuoka/Stout/Hazelip method. I'm also going to stick pretty strictly to the crop rotation concept.

Designated beds have been overseeded with radishes, Oats and clover. Others with leafy mustards, and some with mescluns/brassicas. Mulched with spent foliage/tops of what had been growing there.

As the summer garden winds down, next week will be Vetch, Triticale, and hopefully overwintering Spinach in the bed that is being equipped to be covered. Then Rye the week after that, and finally Spelt the week after that.... then rice harvest and mid-October Garlic.

We shall see....

[Hispoptart]

wish we could get ready for fall, but seems as if we just go from summer to winter, no in between, 88 degrees today but forcasted at 34 tonight and only a high of 65 tomorrow. summer is gone

[rainbowgardener]

Congratulations on your great garden year, Lindsay.

I am in process of shutting down my garden, too, earlier than usual, because of the drought. I still have swiss chard going strong (LOVE that stuff! nothing bothers it and it just goes and goes) and basil and bell peppers. I may pull the bell peppers pretty soon, I doubt more of them will ripen up, though they are covered in peppers now.

I'm going to start turning some more of the basil into pesto.

Planted garlic and onions and peas (earlier I had planted lettuce, spinach, broccoli, but it was too hot and dry and none of the seeds sprouted)

We are having weird transitional weather. 93 a few days ago, 45 night before last, 93 again tomorrow.... We are having 30 to 40 degree swings between night time lows and daytime highs... STILL NO RAIN!!

[garden5]

The only things I have removed, so far, are the squash, which had been killed by the SVB, anyway. The toms are looking pretty ragged, but they are still producing so I'm leaving them in. The peppers are still doing OK as well.

I did put in some bush beans and peas for a fall crop.

[supagirl277]

Ya i just cleaned up my garden too. I need to find out what I can do in my garden now, cause I want to do at least something haha. My cantelope is almost starting to get little cantelope, but I'm worried about them. Morning glory took over my garden... >:(

[LindsayArthurRTR]

Amazingly, we only had 1 morning glory grow in the garden and it was on the cucumber and pea trellis. It was so beautiful, that I couldn't destroy it. Plus, it was attracting all kinds of good guys.

Got the winter bed totally tilled and I'm going to mulch it with the spoiled hay that I got at the end of spring. It is thoroughly rotted now, and it doesn't have anymore sprouts coming out of it, so I think I'm safe as far as wheat seeds. I flipped it prolly a dozen times during the season.

I still need to move my trellis gonna do some snow peas as well. Gonna get the rest of the seeds started tomorrow!

Got a whole BOX of apples from the Apple Festival down the road. Getting busy with apple sauce, and apple butter. Maybe even jelly.

I want to try my hand at making my own pectin with all the skins and cores, too Can you preserve pectin for future use?

[rkunsaw]

I haven't had much room for fall crops yet,but I do have 24 cabbage plants that are growing really well and two short rows of crowder peas.The early crowder peas have started a new life too.Oh yeah, one row of rutabagas too.
The cabbage will be used mostly for kraut.

[Ozark Lady]

I am cleaning out two failed beds at the moment.
And moving the Egyptian onions, my goodness, they even multiply underground, I have a 5 gallon bucket of the bottoms... is there any use for these, other than establishing a new planting? Shallots? Cooking?

I am transitioning to a 4 season garden, and so I am cleaning the old one, I am removing the Egyptian onions, and tulips, daffodils etc, that are interplanted with the vegetables. And plan to replant them, at the edges of the beds, where they still confuse bugs, but stay out of the way of veggies and grain harvest.

I have several beds that the timbers are coming loose, so I have no choice but remove enough soil to repair them. Especially before winter with its freeze and thaw heaving going on.

My peppers never did make even one pepper, but the plants still look good and healthy. So, I am not giving up on them, I still have 2 months, maybe 3 before they will get killed.

My tomatoes are on second wind. I may get more than one tomato per week out of them, yet! I have some in full bloom, some that have green tomatoes, and we picked 2 OSU that were ripe, yesterday. That one has been a trooper through all this drought.

This week is: Get the henhouse and barn cleaned and repaired, repair the beds, and get some sheet composting going on there. Oh and I need to move the duck tractors to other buggy beds!

I will also be checking the odd sheds for windows to build some cold frames. I already have the cages for tunnels, I just need to find a good way to attach the plastic to it for winter growing.

I got zip from the garden, and basically gave up, other than watering the tomatoes, peppers, tobacco, fruit trees, and strawberries.

I am over my apathy, and I am mad... that darn garden is going to do something! So I am going to clean it all up, remove perennials, and relocate them. Then enrich, enrich, enrich to replace what was baked out. And get this thing going again for fall, winter and early spring.

The forest garden performed admirably, as did the wild plants. So, we will be looking for areas to prepare for growing in 2011. But, I think that we need to fence it to keep the deer and their deer ticks at bay. I don't mind the deer, if they didn't have ticks!

This will be the last clean out of the barn and henhouse, for the year.
I let the hay accumulate, and start decomposing, the warmth of the natural compost heap will help the animals stay warmer, and have soft place to lay down.

I also have peach tree and english walnuts growing in containers this year, and they have gotten good sized, so I need to dig them a place to grow, and enrich it, get it ready for when they go dormant and I can move them to a permanent location.

Do they have tap roots that I need to be careful of?

I hope it isn't too late for me to shake off the apathy and get some transplants for fall growing going! Last year, I picked the last of my tomatoes the day after Thanksgiving, and according to the weather thing, we are not scheduled to get frost till November.

Embarking on a strange new world of growing (winter) and will be trying lots of new plants and processes... like grain growing, cover crops etc.

I feel like I anticipated summer, got ready, and it didn't happen, so I want a garden season!

[gixxerific]

Ol leaving those few tomatoes hanging on is what I'm doing. Though it seems I keep taking out more and more. I'm leaving the ones with 30% or more life to them just to see if I can get something.

Lettuce seeding went bust, could be the weather, could be hoppers, slugs, ?. Getting reedy to go again with that as well as get some starters going, I will have lettuce this fall!!!!!!

Brussels sprout transplants are going backwards not forwards.

Still more plans in the works, I just pulled one side of my cuke's and plan on putting more peas there. But we are expecting 2-3 inches of rain tomorrow so nothing is going in now, hopefully this weekend.

It aint over yet that is all I have to say.

[LindsayArthurRTR]

Gix, why don't you spread some DE around?

[gixxerific]

Gix, why don't you spread some DE around?

I did and the next day it rained plus I was trying to keep the soil moist for germination. Really I think the main factor was heat. Though the hoppers are everywhere.

I have a bunch of weeds (purslane, is that a weed?) and basil (tomatoes too, go figure) popping up in said places. I will give another go I have a ton of seed, so as long as I have seed I will be planting.