Its About Over

[jal_ut]

Went out and looked through the garden. Found some red tomatoes, some cucumbers, a zucchini, and a few ears of corn.
There is still a few onion bulbs. I guess the next thing is to drag out the tiller and till it all in and let it snow?

[digitS']

Three mornings in the thirties last week. Frost on a high roof only about 50yards from the big veggie garden on two of those mornings.

I stopped at a park about 200 yards from the little veggie garden on one of those mornings. There was frost on the lawn there!

It was only 40°f this morning but a little rain is supposed to be coming in overnight. After that, a warming spell has been promised by the Weather Service!

Hey! We might make it to October and, for sure, Fall ... tomorrow .

A good picking of beans came of the mid-July planting. I don't know what their hangup was! I have never missed on a second sowing, mid-July ... except maybe that time when it froze in August, but I don't remember much from that time other than the disappointment.

Still picking sweetcorn. Yes, I have a new-to-me SV4058NV white onion. (I wish they would come up with a more "appetizing" name than SV4058NV. Shoot.) Anyway, most of them are still upright. It's okay. Maybe it indicates a good storage variety .

Some of the pumpkins are still green ... there are some nice, although green, tomatoes ... some on vines with no ripe fruit yet! I better not be inviting those varieties back .

Steve

[PaulF]

It is coming to an end for the season soon. Ten of the thirty tomato plants will get pulled in the next few days. The green beans and cucumbers are gone. Still we are getting twenty or thirty tomatoes per day and should continue that until frost. Nothing in the foreseeable future but this is Nebraska...it may freeze tomorrow. 90s predicted through next week.

[jal_ut]

Some of my pumpkins are still green. The corn is all done. I pulled all the onions. Tonight it decided to rain like heck, and a little black and white critter decided he wanted to make my garage his safe haven.

[digitS']

I neglected to mention the late cabbage and the plantings of greens.

Even the first sowing of Verde de Taglio chard is holding up but the 2nd planting of chard in July is also nicely available. Whether it might survive a move into the greenhouse remains to be seen.

There is plenty of bok choy ... I don't know how many times I sowed that seed - April, May, July, & August. The August bok choy looks like it can be transplanted and should be available for December stir-fries. That final sowing of seed is kinda tricky and very dependent on late season weather. Too much warmth right now might make for too much growth to hold up to transplanting. Mid-August gave me little confidence until right now that it would even grow enough but, obviously, early and mid during August hedges my bets on stir-fries.

Soon, I'll be sprinkling seed in a greenhouse bed for February and March bok choy. Getting it outta the way in March, I'll need the furnace on for all those tender, warm-season plant starts in 2017 ...

Steve

[jal_ut]

Have a tree loaded with plums. Picked a bucketful and am cooking them down to make juice. There are some apples that need to be picked too.

[jal_ut]

Rained all afternoon then the sun came out and with it a rainbow.

[Meatburner]

Double rainbow! Very beautiful!!

[gumbo2176]

And here I am still seeing 90+ degree temperatures for at least a few more days, then they are saying the mid to upper 80's for a while. I put in some fall stuff and am having to water twice a day just to keep them from wilting into the soil.

I am going to wait until mid October before planting lettuce, kale, chard and other salad greens since they are pretty delicate in the beginning, but I do have cucumbers, pole beans and some hot pepper plants that are thriving right now and can't wait until the cucs and beans start coming in. They are climbing my trellises like crazy right now and full of flowers, so it shouldn't be long.

This is getting to be the time of year I really enjoy getting out into the garden. It just needs to get down into the 70's or lower daily and it will be ideal.

[Taiji]

Here the squashes are mostly picked; getting lots of end of the season tomatoes. Corn is done here too. Still pulling some beets and huge turnips. Have a winter crop of chard and kale going. Am working my way thru the garden fluffing the beds up and planting cover crops. (clover, winter rye, annual rye)

James, in the beautiful picture of the rainbow, was just curious, what is the green in the farmer's fields in the distance? Would that be alfalfa, or winter wheat?

[jal_ut]

Alfalfa.

Just walked through the garden. There are some tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, pumpkins, squash, and one cantaloupe left. I saw that there had been an ear or three of corn left, that some critter pulled down and demolished.

[bobbyg]

Nice to be here in CA, it is supposed to be 100deg tomorrow.

[imafan26]

Nice to be in Hawaii, but not now. Rain and tropical storms skirting around us, the mosquitoes are out, the nights are muggy so the termites and ants are swarming. August and September are the hottest months of the year. The stores have Halloween and Christmas decorations up at the same time, but it really doesn't feel like Christmas yet. I will be glad to see this mugginess go anytime now.

[jal_ut]

Clear Blue skies, 57 degrees, just a very mild breeze, What a beautiful day to be out enjoying autumn. The fall colors are coming on the maples up on the mountain. The bees are flying, but I don't see many blossoms for them to work.

[jal_ut]

Today clear blue skies, a bit breezy, I went out and planted the garlic. Let 'er snow!

[digitS']

Snowing at the ski resort here, James.

I'm at 2,000 feet. The resort is at 4,100 feet.

Still no hard frost! Most vines have died from age and cold weather. The tomato plants look like they have been hit with a blow torch. Late planting of green beans are green and the last planting of sweet corn is still ripening corn on the cob!

Steve

[pow wow]

It's 6am and -2 C/28.4F here in Calgary.

[jal_ut]

My home sits right at 5000 ft elevation. There are tall mountains on 3 sides of me within from one mile to 7 miles. To the North is a big valley. We got our killing frost about September 11 this year. Then it moderated, but things like tomatoes, cucumbers, squash were gone with that frost. I usually get around 105 days frost free. So I have to plant crops that can make it in that much time.

Ya never know though, one year I got frozen out on July 5.

[digitS']

We have had those 28°f frosts, about a week ago. Lots of rain and wind, since.

Canadian gardening in the prairie provinces must be tough.

Your season is shorter than mine, James. Early frost. (Is a July frost "early" or "late?") It froze one year in August. I felt cheated! It wasn't just frost but, as usual, cool weather continued so even plants that survived couldn't grow. Sometimes! It warms after a killing frost.

The old rule of thumb (Humboldt's law) is that each thousand feet of altitude equals 3.5 degrees (250 miles) of latitude. My gardens here could be placed above 6,000 feet in New Mexico. Actually, the forests around Durango sure look like the forests around here!

That law isn't much of a law ... there are other factors like weather patterns. For example, parts of New Mexico experience a monsoon season. Before the spring growing season can really get started here, sunshine and high pressure has to force the coastal "June Gloom" back over the Cascades!

It would be nice just to turn the dial and be in control of the climate. Maybe the best thing to do is to not foul things up too much locally - in each of our own corners of the world.

Steve

[jal_ut]

Quote digitS': "Your season is shorter than mine, James. Early frost. (Is a July frost "early" or "late?") "

A frost here in July is just a freak event. It just doesn't happen ........ well almost never. When those summer thunder storms pull out it always cools off as it clears up, but usually we are frost free for about 105 days from late May till about September 6 ...... give or take.

As noted earlier, I have seen frost every month of the year here in the Valley. Not much you can do about the weather, "cept live with it.

[applestar]

I'm curious -- is it the same kind of conditions that create hail that can cause those summer frosts way up there in the clouds?

[jal_ut]

Sorry applestar I don't have the answer to your question.

Today: 44 degrees and sunny. I walked out and looked where I had planted garlic. None coming up yet. Nothin to do really out in the yard, so I came in and mixed some bread. It is rising as I write this.

[gumbo2176]

Can't beat the smell of bread baking in the oven. Now you've got me wanting to head to the kitchen and mix up a batch of dough and take advantage of my fresh basil in the yard and make a couple of basil infused loaves of bread.

Like I don't already have enough to do-----LOL

[digitS']

Here are the afternoon highs and morning lows over the next few days at Alamosa, Colorado (population 8,700):

66°f/26°
69°/25°
69°/31°
67°/36°

Temperature swings of 40°!

You might notice that the temperatures are a little closer together on the 4th day. That's because some clouds and moisture move in with a 10% chance of snow.

By the way, Alamosa is at 37° North latitude. It's south of any point in New Jersey. At 7,500 feet, it is high.

Especially in arid locations, evaporative cooling from any surface moisture can be significant.

Steve

[jal_ut]

Today, Pickin apples.

[applestar]

Yummy-looking bread!

[jal_ut]

Sunday Oct 23, 50 degrees F, mostly sunny with some high scattered clouds. Still see no garlic coming up.

Four years ago we had this on this date!

[jal_ut]

57 degrees, partly cloudy. No breeze. I have tilled the plot, planted garlic and spinach, picked the apples, the wife mowed the lawn one last time. Sliced some of the apples and dried them. Nothin much to do in the yard now till it snows and we have to get out the snow shovel. Guess I'll sit here on my butt and play on the computer?

[jal_ut]

This morning overcast, calm, 40 degrees F, we had a bit of rain overnight but not raining at the moment.

[jal_ut]

I don't have a green house and I refuse to garden in the house, so until April no gardening here. So what does a gardener do from now till April?

[digitS']

So what does a gardener do from now till April?

Seed catalogs .

Some gardeners take real good care of their tools. I'm not one of them. I'm gonna bring Rogue the Rototiller out for one bed and one path, tomorrow. Then, I'll hose down Rogue and little Tilly and allow them to dry in the afternoon sun ... at least, I hope there is afternoon sun.

I've got fuel treatment for the winter for the first time ever. I was looking at a manual and even the machine manufacturers recommend its use. That's it! I do a lube job and air filter change in the spring and may change a spark plug. Hand tool last well enough ... I try not to be too hard on them .

I need to get a gardening book back to the library. This was the wrong time to check it out. As the weather begins to warm and my enthusiasm needs to heat up, actual plans for work can come together. Notice how the plants in the seed catalogs look so nice! I don't have to do a thing other than turn the pages and try to remember their names. It will all be so easy!!!

Steve

[Taiji]

I don't have a green house and I refuse to garden in the house, so until April no gardening here. So what does a gardener do from now till April?

You could maybe plant some sort of cover crop for the winter? The annual rye that I plant grows a tremendous root ball that I turn in with a spading fork. If you till though, it would probably make the tilling much more difficult having to tear through that thick root system. And then, your garden is always so productive anyway, maybe it's just not really necessary for you! Of course, once you get it planted there's not much to do then anyway so you're back to square one.

I almost like my cover cropping as much as the vegetable growing. (well maybe not quite that much!) But, around here, it's always so pleasing to the eye to have an oasis of green to look at. I almost caused a little strife between my neighbor and his wife who looked over and saw my green beds. She then wanted him to plant some grass at their place and he said no way! Too much work, too much water. This year, I have beds of yellow clover, crimson clover, annual rye and winter rye.

[jal_ut]

Ya, my cover crop here at 5000 ft elevation ..... is a blanket of snow.

[jal_ut]

Sunset

[ButterflyLady29]

I don't have a green house and I refuse to garden in the house, so until April no gardening here. So what does a gardener do from now till April?

Clean house, round up gardening supplies, make chore lists, watch movies, play solitaire, work a second job. Or, take more naps and just sit around eating cake and cookies (home made of course) and whine about how deep the snow is.

[jal_ut]

The reservoir from where I get my irrigation water.

[jal_ut]

Beautiful day here. 57 degrees F and clear blue skies. No snow yet. The bees came out and flew.

[jal_ut]

My fall planted spinach has germinated. The fall planted garlic has not done anything yet. Today 39
degrees and mostly clear skies. No snow yet. I have got the apples picked. Wife mowed the lawn. The wind blew the leaves away. Guess I'll just sit here on my butt and play on the internet?

[applestar]

Post more pictures! ...please?

[jal_ut]

These two pictures were taken from my yard looking out toward the East. Gives you an idea of the area I live in. I live in a small community, and the city limits line comes through my lot so part of my lot is in the city and part is in the county. You can see the beehives in the picture? Any way it is nice to have part of the lot in the county so I don't have to obey city ordinances about beekeeping in the city.