The weather finally warmed up! It was about 66° this afternoon and the soil in the bed where the peas grow, (we know a field…in summer peas grow there) I hear Orson Welles’s voice echoing across the garden, but I digress.
The soil was a little wet, but quite workable as this bed has a lot of sand in the soil. The planting is Burpee Oregon Sugar Pod II, hope they are better than the Alaskan Peas I bought from Terroir last year. I planted the full length of the trellis.
In the west end of the front part of the bed, I planted two rows of Easter Egg Radishes. I’ll plant more in April. I bought the peas on Amazon and got a bag of 300. I just didn’t feel like driving to Home Depot for a package of seeds.
This is a month earlier than I planted peas last year, due to bad weather last year and good weather this year.
The far west raised bed where I will plant lettuce and carrots was still too wet to plant. I might have to wait a week or so depending on the weather.
The days are getting longer and the holiday chaos is winding down so it is time to start thinking Spring! I placed my seed order today with Terroir Seeds in Arizona. Here’s the list:
Slow Bolting Cilantro Wild Italian Arugula Pak Choi Lazy Housewife Pole Beans Zappallo de Tronco Squash Crystal Apple Cucumber True Lemon Cucumber Easter Egg Radishes Clemson Spineless 80 Okra Red Burgundy Okra
The Zappallo de Tronco Squash is a new one for me. It can be used as summer squash or a short storage winter squash. It is supposed to be very flavorful and resistant to squash bugs. I also ordered Okra since I couldn’t find plants last year. The slow bolting cilantro needs partial shade, so maybe I’ll grow it in pots.
I also went on Etsy and ordered: Peruvian Black Mint Mashed Potato Squash.
I’ll buy the snow peas seeds locally since the variety from Terroir was not good.
Some early thoughts on the layout – I’ll work sand and compost into the front of the bed where the peas and beans are and see if I can grow a decent radish crop. I am planning to plant the okra in front of the back fence, as it can be an ornamental hedge also. Maybe I’ll add more raised beds there. I need to maybe put the eggplant in the second bed so that it is likely to get more water. I have room along the barn for a row of something, maybe bell peppers? I’ll rotate the Zucchini in front of the Roma tomatoes, and plant the Zappallo in the north end of the bed next to the firepit. I’ll have celery root in that bed also.
Overhead of the fall garden after spreading peat moss and mushroom compost and rototilling it in.
It was almost 60° today. I put down peat moss and mushroom compost a week or so ago and rototilled it in. Most of the cleanup is done. I’ll finish in the next couple of days. I am hoping that this drone shot will be helpful in planning the garden next spring.
We made good use of the herbs over Thanksgiving, using lots of Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary, We didn’t use the thyme. (Sorry Art and Paul) It is a joy to walk out in the early winter and still have fresh herbs. Benedicamus Domino!
I pulled up most of the garden the past week. I froze some bags of Poblano, Hungarian and sweet peppers. Tomato cages and stakes are put away. But, there still are a few more things out there. The temperature is going down to 26° tonight, so I thought it a good idea to harvest the celery root. I got one nice large root and a bunch of small ones. I’ll plant it again next year, but I need to give it more room. It doesn’t seem to need much care, just space.
Celery root or Celeriac harvest.
Also, as I was looking at the parsley, I found some “not parsley.” It’s either celery or celeriac that got mixed up with the parsley at Goebbert’s. So I harvested it, also. The stalks are very flavorful if it is celeriac and it will be well-cooked since it is going into the Thanksgiving stuffing. Should be amazing.
Celery or celeriac stalks. Not sure which, but it is going into the stuffing!
There is a frost coming tonight and we’ll have frosts and freezes for the next 5 days, so today is the day to pull up the garden. I harvested all of the remaining peppers, tomatillos, beets, red onions, and a few odds and ends.
Final major harvest of the year.
I left the Celery root in as that is supposed to improve in flavor after frosts. There is still some kale and swiss chard. Of course, there are a lot of herbs. There is also a lot of mint, but I don’t remember how that handles frost. I’ll find out soon. I should probably freeze some of that for “weed water” and tea.
There are lots of green tomatoes, and green cherry tomatoes, but there is nothing I can do with them.
The mint garden has really done well. The cucumbers are done for the year, though.
We’ve had about 4 inches of rain the past week, but temperatures have remained warm. Fall is late this year. Usually, we are at peak color by now, but the trees are just starting to turn.
Most of the heirloom tomatoes are done, but the Early Girl II and the Champions still have a bit of life left. They probably would have done much better if I had watered them a lot more. I will probably cut back on heirlooms a bit next year and plant a few more hybrids.
There are still tomatillos coming. I gave most of them to RT and one bunch to Fr. Rodolfo, I just haven’t had time to use them.
Cucumbers are done. The lemon ones did poorly. They produced nice plants with lots of blossoms, but little fruit ripened. I got them in about a month late, which was likely the problem. We had a good crop of zucchini. The first two hills are dead, but the one I planted later is still green.
Cherry tomatoes by the deck and in the container garden are still producing. They benefitted greatly from the liquid fertilizer and adequate watering.
Cherry tomatoes are still doing well. I think the watering and fertilizing made all of the difference. The potted patio tomato is still doing very well.
Peppers are all still doing well and I need to freeze some as most are turning red.
I still have beets to be pulled and the celery root looks like it will have some nice usable roots. I think it will need more room next year. The parsley that I planted late is really nice, I think I might freeze some. It’s probably time to start using the kale and swiss chard, too.
Looking from mid-garden toward the house. Everything is starting to wind down.The mint is spreading at an alarming rate. I’ve been too busy to use much of it though.
I am extremely happy with the way the mint garden turned out, even though I didn’t use much of the mint. I am hoping that there will still be time to do some taste testing.
Ingredients for Roasted Tomato Soup in the pan and ready to be roasted in the oven.
The garden is starting to wind down. I’ve been giving away the more perfect tomatoes and had a bunch that was bruised, cracked, or had other bad spots, so it was soup time. This is the second batch this season. My friend Danielle had this recipe on her blog and it is simplicity itself. This is my slightly modified version of the recipe.
8-10 medium sized tomatoes quartered 1 onion quartered 5 whole cloves of garlic skins removed 1 large roughly chopped sweet red pepper 1 roughly chopped hot pepper (if desired) A bunch of fresh sage leaves (about 20 leaves) Fresh or dried thyme and/or oregano to taste Salt and pepper to taste 3 tablespoons olive oil
Put them all in an oven-safe pan and rub with the olive oil until coated. Then roast them at 425°F for 25 or 30 minutes until the tomatoes start giving up their juice and the onions start browning.
While the vegetables are roasting, cook some pasta. The original recipe called for tortellini, but I used 8 oz. (dry) of whole wheat macaroni.
When the vegetables have been roasted, add a cup of milk and a cup or more of grated sharp cheddar cheese and puree with an immersion blender. Adjust the seasoning to your taste and add the cooked pasta. Serve with chopped basil on top.
Well, here we go into September. As usual, I’ve backed off on garden care as other priorities and mosquitoes have kept me away. We had the Honey locust tree removed a couple of weeks ago and Greg’s crew did a superb job of removing the tree that was mostly hanging over the garden. Only a little minor damage.
It has been a very dry summer. We had storms and 2 1/2 inches of rain the second week of August, and that has about been it. The second storm after we returned from St. Louis knocked power out for about 13 hours and trashed my editing computer. After a couple of days of messing around, I replaced the P/S to no avail. Then I needed to replace the MOBO and that fixed it. With that all of the software updates, I lost a couple of weeks of gardening, and then it was one thing after another.
August 6th, 2021 Harvest
Tomatoes over the old compost did well. I had moved the Champion and Early Girl there this year from their previous spot next to the Horseradish and they were falling over from tomatoes. I took about ten pounds to the Project Hope food pantry on August 7th and they have been abundant ever since, even with me giving a lot away. The tomatoes next to the Horseradish are barely alive. It’s the same pattern as last year, even though I had worked a lot of compost into that last row. I looked up if Horseradish could be causing the problem, but most of the effects of having horseradish around are beneficial.
The zucchini has been very productive as have been the peppers. My seven Jalapeno plants aren’t enough. Shishito peppers have been prolific, but most of them are hot this year. Strange. They are again from Bonnie Plants.
The eggplants failed again, I harvested just two small ones. I think they didn’t get enough water. After the peas failed I planted Lazy Housewife pole beans which came up quickly and were starting their climb up the trellis when they were eaten to the ground, likely by rabbits, even though they were fenced in. I guess I need to redo my fencing.
The broccoli bore well all summer, I should have picked it in a more timely manner, though. The tomatillos started bearing near the end of August and they are doing very well.
I never got to staking the blackberries which bore relatively well. The early ones that were overripe were loaded with Picnic Beetles, so picking was a slow process. As more got ripe the Picnic Beetles seemed to go away. But because they weren’t staked, they were difficult to get into and many were near the ground. It would be good if I did may staking this fall after cleanup. Cucumbers are doing well even though they got in late. The lemon cukes are just starting to bear. I won’t need a potted cucumber next year, but two potted tomatoes would be better.
The potted plants were looking yellow and bad, but one shot of fertilizer really greened them up. I need to make watering easier and need to do and need to do better at picking and watering come August.
I didn’t keep up with the Herb gardens very well because of the time spent constructing the mint garden. I definitely need to learn more about growing basil. I spent lots on plants with multiple replantings and the crop was horrible.
Here’s what I found. Basil likes well-drained, moist soil. I probably need to prepare the soil to a greater depth with lots of compost. I should water and fertilize more often.
Summer breakfast, August 27th, 2021. This is my morning breakfast most summer days – Whole-Grain Toast, Olive Oil Mayo, and Trader Joe’s Mexican Street Corn seasoning. Gold Medal Heirloom tomatoes, today.
