the season is done.

[DriftlessRoots]

Except for a brussels sprouts plant we left standing the season is definitely over for us. Last weekend we harvested anything left and cleared the plot for next year since we're going out of town tomorrow for a couple of weeks. Normally October would be a leisurely cleanup. When we get back it's garlic planting time. Already planning out next year's garden. 2022 was kind of a disappointing year for some things but great for others--par for the course. It was also the year of the arrival of bindweed. That will be impossible to eradicate because our community garden bed is surrounded on 3 sides by gardeners with a more relaxed philosophy toward weeding than we have. But we've always survived and eaten well.

Coincidentally I was craving buckwheat pancakes yesterday. I'll have to act on that when we get home.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

"gardeners with a more relaxed philosophy toward weeding than we have"

Heh! Diplomatically put. Next up here is lifting Elephant Ears (today) and then the Cannas.

Looks like yer leaving at the right time with temps plunging early next week.

Despite Parsley and Kale stragglers hanging on, when the Garlic's in I breathe a sigh of relief...tempered with knowing the season is over...

The Gotch

[rxkeith]

we have some of that white stuff today.

still have cabbage, beets, carrots, and kale, collards, kallards in the garden.

garlic still needs to be planted. i was going to do that wednesday when it was nice, and sunny, and high 60s, but i got called
in to work. now, its nuthin but wet, and cool for the next few days. i planted it mid november last year on account of a long warm
fall season. me thinks i better get the garlic in this month or i might be sorry. rooster the horse says early winter this year.


keith

[Sue_CT]

No frost here yet. Temps down to 40s at night but still 60s during the day, peppers still growing in pots on the patio and in the herb garden. Tomatoes are done. Need to get out there and pull those dead plants. No garlic going in this year, I never got to buy any with all the medical stuff going on and not knowing if I will be up to gardening next spring. But that is ok, I have lots of tomato seeds and I can take as It comes. If I only had the ability to do limited planting it would be my tomatoes and some peppers in pots and a few herbs anyway. This was a very strange year with huge changes in my life. You never know what is aroung the corner.

[JRinPA]

Still have good tomatoes, peppers sweet and hot, carrots, parnsips, turnips, spinach, daikon, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower (better hurry up), brussels sprouts, and beets beets beets.

Far from done here, to be honest. The last couple days I dug up the sweet potatoes and got those beds turned around for next year. Picked rhubarb tonight. I think I'm going to buy my peat moss early. I use a big bag each year for seed starting, that I buy in spring. Instead I'll buy it now and try keeping the beets in the cellar, about 55 over winter, trimmed down and covered in peat moss.

[karstopography]

I took out all but two pepper plants yesterday. A loaded with peppers tabasco pepper and an Aji Cristal with several ripening peppers are all that remain of the forty something pepper plants set out in March. Froze another gallon zip bag of mostly poblano and Anaheim types from the plants I dug up. Still Sun Drying a few more various peppers. There were unripe peppers remaining on most of the plants I removed, but overall, I felt it was better to get going on the fall cool season planting than try and squeeze out a few more peppers over the next few weeks. The two remaining peppers are not in the way of getting the beds ready to put in new stuff.

Removed all the okra plants and piled up the pods to continue drying. Removed 98% of the basil. All these debris plus the peppers went into the burn pile.

What remains in the various beds are two enormous black beauty eggplant each with 7 or 8 eggplant at various levels of ripeness, a bed and a half of bush beans just getting into high production, two set out in February tomato plants with around 15 or 20 tomatoes at various sizes, plus a ton of tomato blossoms, and a couple of patches of blooming marigolds. The tomatoes I’ll let remain as long as they look good and there’s tomatoes on them. Looking real promising for November tomatoes. I see leaving the beans in for another month or so or until they don’t look like a winner anymore, whichever comes first, I anticipate putting garlic and or onions into the main bean bed once the beans quit.

Then there’s beds with the recently planted cabbage, kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, celery, and fennel. Today with be an add compost into and fork the now vacant raised beds, prepare areas to seed lettuce, arugula, mustard and various other cool season vegetables.

Sometime between now and the end of January I’ll build another cedar raised bed for potatoes to get planted around February 1st.

I’ll be getting some good exercise later today.

[JRinPA]

I forgot eggplant. Just made eggplant parm last week. Should have another one or two pans worth ready by now. Each year I wonder how effective serious overwintering of eggplant and sweet peppers would be here. It seems like they last a long time into fall but take forever to get going in the summer.

[greenthumbomaha]

A hard freeze is coming on Monday eve thru Tuesday am. We had a few close calls with temps reaching the mid 20's , but not cold long enough to do much damage. Mind you it was in the 80's forever and hit 90 recently and then snap, down to 25. A few tips of the tomatoes were singed, but they kept on producing. I panicked and pulled a few boxes of greenies when the first frost advisory was posted due to time crunch harvesting and moving pots of flowers, but left a bunch of hybrids which are still viable. The weather people are sure this time it will be the end of the growing season.I and everyone else here is ready after the long hot season. Still it will be hard saying goodbye to the huge buds on the dahlias which are so close to opening but not meant to be.

- Lisa

[bower]

It's too warm here for October. Even the nights for the next week are over 50F/10C. I've been getting little bits of cleanup and bed prep done when we get some cool hours in the morning. But the minute it goes over 10C I'm getting stung or bitten by one thing or another. Deer flies, wasps. Can't believe I just got stung again today, and I was barely over the last one.
I almost got the first beds of garlic in today, but now I think I'll wait until next weekend.

[GoDawgs]

The only things left from summer are a couple of pepper plants, one eggplant, two tomato plants, a late planted dwarf cuke, a half bed of Provider beans and the bed of field peas. We are to have our first of three frosty mornings on Wednesday morning. On Tuesday we'll pull all of the remaining peppers and the two eggplants that I tagged for seed collection. The beans have a lot of babies hanging on them and will have frost cover over them just to see if they survive. If not, oh well. It's time to say goodbye.

There are two buckets with MMMM sample bush beans Blue Ribbon and Jumbo. The pods haven't started drying down yet so those two buckets will come in the house for two nights and instead of returning to the garden, they will resume life on the front porch where I can keep an eye on them as they're both loaded with beans.

The Danial Burson tomato has a few last greenies as does the Fish Lake Oxheart. Burson was a mid summer start for late tomatoes but Fish Lake was a spring start and is still hanging in there with five anti-squirrel-sock-covered tomatoes. Its persistence has won it a place in next year's lineup! It makes in early summer and fall, both times when it's not so hot out there.

The field peas will have cover over them against the frost so they can finish making if they decide they want to.

We're going to try and figure out how to protect the dwarf cuke. It was late planted for fall and is now loaded with babies. It's in a pot with a tomato cage around it but has not only entwined itself in the cage but also in several neighboring cages. LOL!

Today I planted out the Texas Grano onions and that's the official end of fall planting. Onward with the already planted fall brassicas and radishes!

[rxkeith]

you might want to check those beans that are in buckets. any moisture on those beans will get mold production on
the pods. better to spread them out on a flat sheet pan or plant tray near a window, but not necessarily direct sun,
and turn them so both sides dry. i cannot bring wet beans into the house to dry. within three days they will be covered
in mold. seeds inside may be ok sometimes if shucked out soon enough and left to dry. many end up getting pitched.
i am always trying to get those last seeds for saving, and its at a bad time of the year. days of rain make everything
outside thoroughly wet. wet isn't good for seed saving.


keith

[GoDawgs]

you might want to check those beans that are in buckets. any moisture on those beans will get mold production on
the pods. better to spread them out on a flat sheet pan or plant tray near a window, but not necessarily direct sun,
and turn them so both sides dry. i cannot bring wet beans into the house to dry. within three days they will be covered
in mold. seeds inside may be ok sometimes if shucked out soon enough and left to dry. many end up getting pitched.
i am always trying to get those last seeds for saving, and its at a bad time of the year. days of rain make everything
outside thoroughly wet. wet isn't good for seed saving.


keith

The beans "in buckets" are plants growing in buckets. I haven't pulled any pods yet as they haven't started drying yet.
I usually lay them on paper plates on my light stand to finish drying. But that's good information to know.

[bjbebs]

Hope to get through 1 more chilly night. Calling for 27deg. Last night saw 32 with a few other mid 30 nights. Covered the small fruited Maglia Rosa last night. Nothing else has been protected. The garden sits near a shallow, dark bottomed lake. Holds enough heat to keep air temps a few deg. higher. Calling for 70 plus by Sat. Always picking something in November but usually not tomatoes. That pumpkin shaped pepper is Kambuzi, from Africa. It can handle a lot of cold.

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[Tormahto]

"gardeners with a more relaxed philosophy toward weeding than we have"

Heh! Diplomatically put. Next up here is lifting Elephant Ears (today) and then the Cannas.

Looks like yer leaving at the right time with temps plunging early next week.

Despite Parsley and Kale stragglers hanging on, when the Garlic's in I breathe a sigh of relief...tempered with knowing the season is over...

The Gotch

The only lifting of Elephant Ears that I do, is the powdered sugar kind at the state fair.

I'm down to the last of the SunGolds and (taking a risk that there won't be a killing frost tonight) lots of green onions from the Egyptian Walking ones.

[JRinPA]

Wow SE PA and Georgia getting first at frosts the same time? This is the first night it really feels cold and low wind so I'm sure we'll get frost. I just picked a row of peppers, 4 grocery bags of spinach, all the decent tomatoes, eggplant...cut the hot pepper plants and hung them, picked all the jalapenos this morning.

I covered another row of peppers and the brussels sprouts. The two rows of peppers between the tomatoes at the comm garden are on their own. The deer were surrounding the comm garden when I got there tonight...they could get in if they really want to.

I guess I should go cover the peas in the back yard.

[JRinPA]

We had a pretty hard frost here - the exposed jalapeno plants (picked clean) really got zapped when I looked this morning. I got as many tomatoes in as looked decent, 3-1/2 1020 trays, and am currently on open faced tomato sandwich #10. They are not mid August tomatoes but they have a lot of tang and are nice and firm. The majority will go for another batch of roasted sauce.

I had direct seeded the spinach after the 1st potato row came out, mid-August. Drip tape right over the seeds to get some germinated in that hot-dry. Germination was still spotty (old seed too) but it came out really nice. When I picked yesterday I left the roots in and tore off most of the good leaves yesterday for making creamed spinach and freezing some. This past spring I noticed my couple feet of fall spinach had nice leaves again in end of Feb or early March. It had overwinter with agribon laid over it. I'm going to try that again, on this larger scale.

This was the spinach last week. Kolibri? hybrid, seed from 2018 I think. Creamed spinach, oh yeah!

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I picked one row of those peppers yesterday evening before the frost, and covered the other row, but I imagine they got zapped. I just left the red beets in as well. I don't have time or energy to get them in right now. Sounds like it is supposed to warm a bit after tomorrow night. This is the kind of cold snap we often get early, and then it is often possible to keep the gardens going a week or three later if you really want to take the time.

[Sue_CT]

Never went out and checked the peppers today. It is going down into the 30s again tonight, so I will check them tomorrow. Why celebrate that they survived last night only to pull them out tomorrow, lol. I just left the towels on top. The Poblano has a whole bunch of peppers on it and I would like to let them get as large as possible before picking and pulling the plant so I can use them for Chili Relleno. I froze individual servings one time and it worked out really well. Nothing better than a fully prepared homemade meal whenever you need it.

[Tormahto]

We had a pretty hard frost here - the exposed jalapeno plants (picked clean) really got zapped when I looked this morning. I got as many tomatoes in as looked decent, 3-1/2 1020 trays, and am currently on open faced tomato sandwich #10. They are not mid August tomatoes but they have a lot of tang and are nice and firm. The majority will go for another batch of roasted sauce.

I had direct seeded the spinach after the 1st potato row came out, mid-August. Drip tape right over the seeds to get some germinated in that hot-dry. Germination was still spotty (old seed too) but it came out really nice. When I picked yesterday I left the roots in and tore off most of the good leaves yesterday for making creamed spinach and freezing some. This past spring I noticed my couple feet of fall spinach had nice leaves again in end of Feb or early March. It had overwinter with agribon laid over it. I'm going to try that again, on this larger scale.

This was the spinach last week. Kolibri? hybrid, seed from 2018 I think. Creamed spinach, oh yeah!
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I picked one row of those peppers yesterday evening before the frost, and covered the other row, but I imagine they got zapped. I just left the red beets in as well. I don't have time or energy to get them in right now. Sounds like it is supposed to warm a bit after tomorrow night. This is the kind of cold snap we often get early, and then it is often possible to keep the gardens going a week or three later if you really want to take the time.

Direct seeding spinach in mid-August? If I densely sowed a 20 foot row, perhaps I'd get 1 plant.

[JRinPA]

It was hot but that drip tape was the key. The way I have it set, I bilge pump it for a few minutes and shut it off, then it will siphon more slowly and it really wets it gradually over a few hours.
Pretty sure what I did was rake and level the row, added some compost, raked and leveled again, wet it down good, board walked it (my weight on some plywood), dibbled, seeded with soaked seed, and then pinned the drip tape right over the dibble rows. Then stayed at it daily with a wet down and/or drip tape until I saw sprouts. The bean poles were still up for evening shade and the weeds came on hard after it started raining here. But I weeded it pretty well once and a little bit more a second time.
One advantage I have with direct seeding is the big packs of seed I buy - pretty sure the spinach was an 8oz bag and it was like $6-$7 at the farm supply back then. Still I know I was running low of the soaked seed on the back stretch and that led to some bare gaps. Wet seed is a pain to get down evenly. I never got around to soaking more and filling it in. I've been doing the boil water, cool to 135f, then add seed to water and let it cool. I picked up that tip this year for pepper seeds and it seems to work for other hard seeds.

[Shule]

I started my garden cleanup, today. The frost killed the plants on Monday and Tuesday (the plants closer to the house lasted longer). The garbage can is full, and apparently has a big cracked hole in it. A full garbage can means I cleaned up about 11 or 12 plants (Roma VF x 3, Snacker_ x 3-4, Galapagos Island x 1, Cherokee Yellow Perfection Peach cross x 1, Carolina Yellow x 2, wonderberry x 1, weeds x ?, and maybe a small amount of other stuff).

I discovered that I missed harvesting a whole bunch of big unripe tomatoes on Carolina Yellow. It looks like it was pretty prolific.

Our fireplace has been polished.