whew,,, worked today, then ran home and hubby and I pulled plastic over the greenhouse frame. Just put some clamp lights in for tonight.
Suppose to get down to 31, but will warm back up tomorrow,,,then 27 tomorrow night! brrrrrrr.
Susan, I can taste those fresh tomatoes now. I have some Myers lemons that I am going to pick before we go to Florida for Thanksgiving. Also some tiny kumquats.
Anybody Planting Fall Vegetables?
I got to Miami last Wednesday night. It's always interesting to see what's growing in the fields as we work our way down from north Georgia to south Florida. There was lots of cotton and greens in S. GA.. It's good to see some of the FL. citrus groves are being replanted after being layed waste from the 2000 citrus canker that destroyed much of Florida's citrus industry. Most of the farmers were not able to financially start again and you still see miles of bare, dead trees. We won't be visiting the Homestead area, which is south of Miami, this time but that's where so much of the squash, beans and tomatoes are grown for the holidays.
Cindy, your beans look beautiful.
Elaine, hope your garden fared the weather. I'm sure the Maypop's summer garden is toast but the cool veggies should be okay. I picked lots of greens, chard, herbs peppers and tomatoes before we left. We have discovered that tomatillo plants die in a freeze but the tomatillos are fine and last for a month or more. I have not grown more than one or two small fruited tomatoes in years but ended up with lots this past summer. The advantage was they far outlasted the large beefsteak and slicers we normally grow. I'll remember that next Spring.
Well, that's my limited garden news.
Laurel
whoohooo, it's raining,, just a little, but we need it badly. And the cold is gone for now.. 80 today.
Looking forward to seeing my mom and aunt's gardens in central Florida.
My brussel sprouts and mustard are coming along nicely. Oh, and found an iris blooming under the zinnias when I pulled them up. My reward for cleaning up the beds.
Elaine, it's mind boggling to think how warm you've been when looking at the temps in N. GA. What with some rain your garden must be looking good. What are Mom and Aunt growing? Do you know?
I picked lots of pak choy and mustard and brought it down. It got cooked yesterday but I've not had a use for it so it will return to Atlanta with us. It's a delicious combination; the mild pak choy and the spicy mustard. I realized at some point that we won't get back to the garden until after TG. I'm disappointed that there won't be any fresh produce from my garden on the table.
yum on the pak choy and mustard. My mom and aunts are growing lettuce and mustard. Not sure what else. We received another inch of rain today and thank goodness didn't get any of the bad weather.
Youngest son is in charge of the Atlanta digs while we are gone and has not reported bad news. Our information access is limited so I don't really know what's up but did get wind of the wind. Hopefully all is well.
Hope nothing bad up that way. Dont' think so.
We made it back to Atlanta and through the onslaught of TG guests. DD is still here. We got to Maypop late yesterday, ran around today and picked the garden this afternoon. There are still tons of veggies! I'll post photos in a day or so.
Enjoying the fruits of my labor. Had fresh lettuce, broccoli and cabbage for Thanksgiving dinner. Tomatoes are up about 2' and loads of plants some blossomed just hoping cold doesn't get to them first.
Our temps. have been very warm for this time of year but Wed & Thurs. nights are going down to around 45 but that shouldn't hurt them.
I hope others are enjoying vegies from their gardens now.
Bonnie
Of course we are all jealous about the tomatoes, Bonnie. I'm here at my garden today, the weather is terrible and it is supposed to start snowing tonight. Sounds like you had reason to be thankful at your table.
We were able to gather the remaining tomatoes. Most were green. There are a few peperoncini in the bag, but it's mostly tomatoes. We have enjoyed making a simple refrigerator pickle out of green tomatoes and other residual summer produce.
There was a big bunch of hot peppers. I'll have to deal with them in a few days.
We picked a beautiful bowl of lolla rosa, buttercrunch, Romaine and red sails lettuces. I added parsley, beet greens and arugula to the mix.
DD harvested tomatillos which don't mind laying on the ground for months in cool weather even after it freezes and the plants are dead.
Nice turnips, but not huge, and a few daikon radishes.
The pak choy is especially delicious this year. It's even good with their flowers if the stalks are not too elongated and you strip those upper leaves. The flowers are sold separately in the farmers market.
Not sure why?? but I still am having trouble posting a jpg picture to Dave's.
We picked zipper peas, squash, and a few strawberries while in Florida. Soooo good.
Hmm. Elaine. Have you tried to post photos since?
I haven't loaded any pics but we picked more turnips this past weekend. They were much larger. Daikon is getting bigger too. The lettuces look nice and collards and arugula are fantastic! We smoked twenty chicken thighs to use for preparing our greens. The healthier option to hocks. Those Wando peas, planted in August (?), are flowering away despite temps in the high twenties but we've yet to pick the first pea. Whatever is munching on the garden is keeping up with the peas and mowed the Brussels sprouts and kale.
SO roasted the tomatillos in the earlier photo and made a salsa verde that included garden peppers. We shared it fresh with guests and then he divided and froze the salsa into six containers for use later on. We have used tomatillos in a variety of ways for years but this is the best.
I don't remember being so involved in the garden to kitchen growing at this time of year. There are still onions to get in the ground and there's a bit of residual garlic hanging out. I just got a 12' x12' bed dug this past weekend for onions but was out of time and steam to get it planted. Oh, and BTW Cindy, the favas are flowering.
hi ,,,no pics too busy....
Hey y'all!
Sorry I have been absent - it's been kind of nuts since Thanksgiving with guests, a trip to FL, some remodeling, and of course holidays...
Just wanted to send holiday greetings to everyone. We still have not yet had a real frost in my garden - I am still picking pole beans - Hilda Romanos seem to grow despite challenging conditions of temps in the 30s, have some sad eggplant and tomatoes still growing, tomatoes that I picked large in November that are just finally ripening on the counter, lots of salad. We've been harvesting broccoli, kohlrabi, and cabbage for a month/six weeks now. And the peas are growing like mad. I saw bees in the peas the other day - different than usual honeybees - maybe mason bees? The peas I planted were Mammoth Melting Sugar which are now about 7 feet tall and loaded with blossoms and peas. They have been going since about a week before Thanksgiving. I wish they were sweeter peas - they are amazingly successful. I planted in early Sept. The Cascadia peas that always do best in spring are kind of puny, but taste much better. But they are short, so don't get enough sun in these low sun times. The winter squash harvest was pitiful - my squash were inundated with bugs - cucumber beetles and virus, pickleworms and just nasty, now the few strays still out there have some sort of new weird grub in them - sort of minty green - larger than a pickleworm with a kind of pointy tail (rather than the usual worm shape). I've only seen one, but the spaghetti squash are clearly infested and I haven't had the time to go cut one open and examine. Ugh. I hate grubs.
I planted all of my garlic the other day (except some that I grew last year and planted the 2nd week of Nov. that is all grown up! I hope it doesn't bolt!) I planted onions last week and then some more with the garlic. I will have an overabundance (I hope) of alliums next summer. I also have some strange volunteer potato plants growing. I've hilled them up hoping they either produce during the winter or maybe very early spring. A friend always plants his potatoes on Valentines Day - he's about 20 miles away.
I tried an experiment in spring - planted some fingers of ginger. I forgot about them until poking about one day and found a plant - dug it up and I had a hand of ginger! Best tasting stuff ever. And very spicy. There's one more out there - smaller plant. I expect it won't be as good of a root, but I'll dig it up anyway. Anyone know where I could get ginger starts for next year? I just used a piece I bought at the grocery store - but would like to buy some that is more likely to produce.
Merry Christmas and Season''s Greetings!
Cindy
Hi, Cindy. Hope you had a good time in Florida and remodeling is going well. I'm as green as your garden. What a garden bonanza you have! We've not been to our garden in over a week 'cause the weather turned wet. Good thing we're on winter veggies though. They hold up for weeks in the fridge. I made a wonderful gratin with garden turnips and potatoes the other night and loaded the dish with turnips. So sweet and mild! I used a bunch more to make greens and 'nips.
Tonight is the second night of Hanukkah. We are having fun incorporating garden foods into traditional dishes and making dishes from around the world for each night. Fried foods have symbolism so I make one fried dish each of the eight nights. Tonight I'm making fritto misto di verdura (battered and fried veggies) as the Italian representation. I'm going to use garden cauliflower, broccolli and turnips but had to buy peas because a critter is eating mine.
Happy holidays to you all and may this be a year of peace and health for you and your families. Please share food when and where you can. There are so many hungry people out there that need food.
Laurel
Merry Christmas to everyone at this holiday season.
Hi Laurel - Happy Hanukkah!
Hi Rick! Merry Christmas!
We're closing the office early today to go to our annual neighborhood group's holiday party for the GA War Veterans in Milledgeville. Each year we do something for them, this year we're taking them out to a local cafeteria and will have a party - songs, talking, laughing, singing. It feels good to do something to make them smile. Our "government home" treats them shabbily - it's a sad thing to see how they live daily.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!
Cindy
Hope everyone had great holidays. Is your garden still going? We were at Maypop through the New Year and we picked goodies to cook there as well as bring home. The greens look really good but whatever is eating the garden has done a job on the kale. That's the bare spot in the middle of the photo. I have to give Mother Nature credit. The critters don't generally eat the hearts out of the plants so they keep on growing.
The daikon looks and tastes beautiful.
Here it is with a few turnips. I pickled a bunch and we've been using it on salads.
The rutabagas are tasty but weird shapes. I think it's from the dry fall weather.
These carrots will be in tomorrow night's soup along with the turnips and rutabagas and greens.
But the critter washed down my kale with some chard.
A DGer sent some multiplier onions a while back. They are doing well.
I've got several beds of garlic going. This is one.
Last photo. Here's our bundle of greens ready to be trimmed, washed and hauled home.
Laurel,
Everything looks so good at Maypop. Beautiful greens in spite of the critters. What kind of daikon did you plant? Is it a fall variety or can it be planted in spring, too? I hope to get back to gardening this year. If I can get someone to plow up a larger area, I want to extend the garden. We had a lot of pines cut down, so the sunny area in front is about twice as big as it was. Hoping for a healthy year so I can get something done...
Becky
Hi Becky! Haven't "seen" you in such a long time. Thanks for the compliments on the garden. I'll check the daikon packet but don't remember it being a particular variety. Someone with connections gave me a bunch of expired Botanical Interest veggie seed from a local source. I've grown daikon before but it's been a really long time. It takes quite a while to get those long roots. If you plant it in fall it stays sweet but if you plant it in spring it can get hot and pithy. My seed went in in September and we started pulling shorter roots about a month ago. It's milder than any typical red radish including the French types.
Here is one of two patches of yellow collards. These are the best I've ever grown.
The critter likes Brussels sprouts better than lettuce.
It hasn't eaten the buttercrunch lettuce either. We've been enjoying our lettuces all week. We had a taco salad tonight with the lettuce picked this past week.
yum yum,, that sure is pretty.
I need to cut my lettuce tomorrow. Hope it is still sweet with all this warm weather (not complaining here)
Also need to crop my mustard.
My broccoli hasn't done well this year with the temps ... or maybe it's just the plants I bought instead of starting my own. I'm tempted to rip them out and put lettuce in their place. You're making me hungry. ☺ I could probably put my sugar snaps out too with the crazy weather ...
I'm going ahead and starting a couple of tomatoes early to play with. I'll wait for the main ones. I don't have room for them when they get big ... but I'm picking 2 80 day variety and 2 early variety to see how early I can get the early ones and how early I can get the late ones. LOL
My broccoli might have done better if it hadn't been eaten. It would be great to hear how your other veggies do. If you feel comfortable with putting out sugar snaps then why not put out snow peas as well or "English" peas? They are more vigorous. We have such an interesting diversity of zonal geographic topography, temperatures and soils in this state. There must be a good degree of crossover that would help other growers. IMO, there are great growing opportunities across Georgia.
We are having garden soup for dinner tonight.
Hi All,
Broccoli did outstanding. Plenty to eat and share. Ripped it out decided to put back 7 more plants and next day rabbit had eaten them all so I said thats it. Cabbage did well and tomatoes were up high by the ton all different varieties but the cold got them so I pulled out all garden leftovers and cows ate them all except they won't eat tomatoes. I threw some into compost pile on one side and probably will get volunteers next spring. Rabbit enjoyed the spinach and swisschard so didn't get any of that.
We need rain. I pulled all the drip irrigation out of the garden as soon I will be hauling from compost pile and spreading and disking it in to rot down until spring planting.
Thank you to whoever it was that found Big Boy tomatoes and other variety. Will certainly order and try them.
I have promised myself to start seeds soon at least by Feb. cause in March they can be planted out in the garden usually.
This winter our weather so far has been unusually warm. One night of freeze. I covered most all of the front yard and plants look pretty good but I know Feb. usually brings a couple of freezes also. Very thankful for my landscape blankets I bought a roll of years ago. Before freeze I had Dutchmens pipe, heliconia, Chinese hat plant, devils backbone, jatropha and several others blooming so covered them only a couple still have blooms on them.
Seed catalogues are coming in and garden dreaming starts.
Best of luck to all with your gardens and hopefully we will get some rain soon.
Bonnie
We had 3 tomatoes for supper tonight! YUM! I've got about 4 more laying here getting ripe, and then that's it. This is the first time we've eatten fresh home grown tomatoes from the garden in January. ☺ I'm starting a few early this year and then doing some my usual time in mid February.
Laurel, do you have any suggestions for a good "English Pea"? We love those. I'm getting a seed order together and could look for some.
Thanks!
~Susan