Fall and winter gardens

How are the broccoli, brussels sprouts,cabbage, collards, kale, mustard, turnips etc doing? This greens patch is about ready, turnip, mustard and kale,

Didn't plant, life just too crazy!! Yours is beautiful!!!

It looks wonderful. I'm obviously too late planting again - my veges are still tiny seedlings.
Natasha

Farmerdill;

Shoe is right, the time for planting cabbage & broccoli in this area is in the fall, very few bugs!
Here's a pic of my cabbage, Bonnie Hybrid.

....................and Early Dividend brocolli with a five inch head (so far). These plants were set out on August 22.

B_RED...those are looking SO GOOD!

Great pics! Great Garden! Ain't it great to be in KY? Growing in good ground, and for many months of the year!?

Lookin' good!

(Sure was good to meet you at the Roundup...hope to see you more in the future!)

Yeah Shoe, you sure were right, the healthiest broccoli I've ever grown! Wish I had planted more than 12 plants. :o) Wish I had tried fall onions too, my spring planting didn't do too well, maybe next fall.

It was a pleasure meeting you, too! My first roundup, and it was great putting a face to all those DG names, especially you, Melody and Lisa (all us old timers on DG). Looking forward to meeting you again soon!

Thanks, Red..

By the way...still time to put in some onion sets (not seeds) , so do so...you'll do great! Also same is true for garlic. No doubt you'll be showing great pics of both onions and garlic next year!

Sure do like seeing your garden! Ya done good! Keep on keepin' on! Luv it!

Red; Still need pics of Bonnie hybrid in the PDB. This fall picture of early dividend looks even better than the spring one, so add that one too. As an aside I lived in southwest Virginia for 28 years and had great luck with hybrid sweet spanish onion plants from Omaha onion farms. Set them the first of March. Harvested in June . Much larger and sweeter than the granex types grown as Vidalias here. Unfortunately they don't do well here. Gets hot too fast.

Shoe, never bragged so much about any of my gardens, got my kinfolk up north thinking I'm really streching the truth! What's the procedure with planting onions here, plant in the fall and harvest in the spring? What type onion plants should I set out (day length)?

Farmer, Bonnie hybrid pic already posted, will post another when I harvest my first head. Just posted that pic of Early Dividend broccoli.

Hehehe..."stretching the truth to your kinfolks", eh? Next thing ya know you'll be telling stories at the Round Up next year, okay!? :>)

I plant onions both in the Fall and in the late Winter/early Spring. I've even planted as late as Thanksgiving in my area and have a great bumper crop. I prefer to put out sets (bulbs) in the Fall, putting them 2 inches apart cus I love green onions so much! (In the Spring when they have good size tops I pull every other one for eating fresh and/or cooking the tops thereby giving the ones left behind room to expand and grow into bigger onions.)

I the late winter/Spring I like to put out some plants, spacing certain varieties the same way. I usually buy those plants from Dixondale Farms...they're plants and prices are great! Plus they are very knowledgeable about onions and onions growing. (Their granfather started the farm in 1913, if I remember correctly.) Here is their link to day length info, showing the states and planting times. (I think they will be selling onion plants again soon.)

http://dixondalefarms.com/products.htm

As for onion growing in your area you may want to check with Mel on that. Also looks like those onions recommended by Farmerdill sure would be something worth considering!

Your garden looks yummy! It has not cooled off enough to plant yet here. I did get the maters in and am readying the beds for the rest. Love the smell of steer manure in the morning lol.

Nice Pictures of the Gardens still growing. The season is ending here. Already had our first bad frost last week, (Tuesday night into Wednesday). Recorded 27 degrees for a low in my area. Covered over plants that were still growing; Pole Beans, Tomatoes, Eggplant, Peppers and Chards. All are well and made it. Picked all the Cabagge but one head. Broccoli and Cauliflour are done for the season as well. Jarring and freezing vegetables, drying seeds for next season. Rooted vegetables will be picked late November, early December. (Beets, Carrots, and Onions. www.gardening101usa.com

These early collards are just waiting for the frost.

Does anybody grow turnips anymore? I went up to the local Agway on Friday and they had a big basket of seed packed for 2004 in a basket marked FREE. I got a bag of Seedway, Hybrid Turnip "Topper", 35 days, net wt 4 oz. That amt would completely cover my place here. Seed is treated with Thiram, do not use for food or oil - just for planting turnips. I can send a tablespoonful to anyone that would like to have it. Will include copy of label.

We had turnips greens last nite with supper! (With grilled tuna steaks, sweet peppers/onions, and, and, and,...well, dont't get me started...).

I didn't sow any turnip root this year but sowed plenty of turnip salad, and mustard (and of course cabbage, collards, broc).

By the way, 4 oz of seed sure would make a nice cover crop in your garden, Seeds! What a sight that would be, eh?

Could I just rototill it under in the Spring? Might keep the weeds down over winter, Huh? I never ate turnip greens. Have used spinach, kale and collards and red beet greens. Are turnip greens simular?

Yes, you'd luv em! Some folks cook 'em up with a piece of side meat, then serve with a bit of butter. I like em with some pepper vinegar on them (cayenne pepper in white vinegar).

As yes, I always recommend you grow something in your garden at all times. Turnip/turnips salad will do wonders for your soil...it helps to keep it in place during the winter, keeps the microbial bacteria working, slows/stops soil erosion PLUS you get to pick it and eat it all winter long! In the Spring you can do as you suggested, till it under and it will add good leafy matter to your soil for good tilth!

Go for it! Yummmy to the tummy, yummy for the soil!

Shoe, when you say no turnips but plenty of turnip salet, did you plant one of the cultivars with inedible roots like "Seven Top". If so need pictures in the plants data base. In fact most of the root vegetables need pictures.

Seeds, there was a time in my youth when most of the farmers in the east grew all their own vegetables, putting an acre or more into vegetables which were canned , dried, or stored for the winter. Turnips were grown fro salet in the fall, and the turnips kilned ( a hole dug into the side of a hill and lined with straw or pine straw and covered to prevent freezing) in the late fall. Surplus was fed to the milk cows in dead winter. Used pumpkins thatway too. also kilned potatoes and late cabbbage (drumhead types) That time is no more. Even those who grown turnips just have small amountof plants in a kitchen garden.
Turnip salet remains my favorite with spinach dead last on the list. Collards were originally used a cabbage substitute in the deep south, and I still use them that way. Didn't grow collards, when we had winter cabbage, but I have grown really fond of them since coming to Georgia.

Hey Shoe, I am going to order some of those onions this morning! Any other suggestions on winter planting for our zone? Or better yet, can you come to my house and help me? HAHAHAHA! I currently have lettuce, swiss chard, a couple of different lettuce/mesclun mixes, Nero di Toscano Kale (never tried before) and am going to plant a cover crop next week of Crimson clover in other areas. What else can I plant food wise now if it's not too late?

Farmerdill - great lookin' veggies!!!! What are some of your other favs for fall? I am looking for all suggestions! I have already taken next Tues off to fuel my gardening 'habit.'

With any luck I may have some of your suggestions already in my stash of seeds!

Thanks all!

FarmerD, yep, planted Seven Top. (My DD may be disappointed I neglected to plant Purple Top or other root turnip; like me she likes to pull them from the ground and eat like an apple!)
I'll see if I can get a few pics today.

As for kilning (we called them clamps), I've done that also but usually it was for sweetpotatoes' Have stored cabbage that way also (whole plant pulled up and store in straw with the roots sticking straight up). Sure don't see much of that anymore, eh?

NC addict...not sure what else you have time for to plant...onions and garlic are a definite though. Can't remember how far you are away from me and don't know your frost zone...aren't you near Charlotte? As for clover, I'd get it in this week if you can, it'll need a good few weeks to get well established b4 winter.

Yes, I am near Charlotte.. I know I know about the clover - I just can't seem to get a minute by myself to plant!

Me two year old always wants to 'help' Thanks also for the reminder about the Garlic!!! Completely forgot!! Maybe one day when the wee one is older I will get it all together!! Ha though...

Maybe!...Trust me, there will always be something that doesn't get done when you want it to! My DD helped me when she was two yrs old...best she could! That's a fun time, hope you enjoy it!

Oh, I do! I never realized you could love someone so much!!! He's super sweet too! I tell everyone I don't believe he's mine - I was never that nice! lol

Thanks folks for the turnip info. I had a root cellar in the late 60's and it held all sorts of stuff well. Have moved since. Am turning the garden into turnip salad for now.

Can anyone recommend a source of garlic bulbs at this late date? I have heard that garlic from the grocery store sometimes harbors disease whatchamacallits.

Has anyone cooked with tops of those long, white icicle oriental radishes? Maybe boil in successive waters like Euel Gibbons used to do with skunk cabbage? (hehheh - after all those boiling waters, he dried the leaves and crumbled them up into a powder. Tried sneaking the powder into an omelet recipe and grossed himself out right smart.)

And sweet potatoes - 'Shoe, did you cure them first? My dad said they were cured in their own special outhouse on the NC farm he grew up on through the 20's and 30's. Do you know how that was done?

The local garden shops are given over to Christmas stuff now - narry a daffodil bulb nor onion set in this whole cottonpickin area. grrr

Blue...I"ve grown "grocery store" garlic for years! It does very well and is a great garlic (usually what is referred to as 'California white'). I've never had a problem with disease (and have used it for over ten years, in addition to other garlic from other sources).

Can't help ya much with radish tops...I grow icecycle more for 'anti-bugging' and for turning under so I can break up the soil into better tilth.

Sweetpotatoes? In the big fields they are often field-cured...left to lay in the field, under the sun, but only during early harvest and during hot dry weather. This would be mid-August or so in our area, before cool nites and rains came.

If the weather wasn't right, or the harvest was late, they were cured in a shed room, and it was heated to about 80 or more, or most often they were put near or IN a tobacco barn (curing barn). The better cured they were the better tasting the were! And also the longer they stored. (I cure them in my shoffice, when I grow them.)

Now as for them garden shops...forget 'em. Go to a farm store, feed store, etc and see what they have to offer.

Thank you 'Shoe. I believe I'm back in business. Will let y'all know how them radish tops do.

French breakfast radishes make a very good green esp if you keep em picked so they don't get tough, the oriental ones are a bit much for me, other common ones are ok for a while but french breakfast keeps on coming till summer.
While you are at it Poke weed freezes quite well if you go ahead and boil it 3 times and drain the water. add the eggs and onion and nutmeg after it is thawed.

Garlic is coming along nicely...with a spring tomato or two for company.

But the lettuce is now history and has been recycled as mulch beside the hollyhocks!

Hrer's a pic of my winter bush bean - Blue Ribbon - an heirloom from Sandhill P. The taste test is tomorrow nite. Pic to PF tomorrow also.
Flip

Got my first beans in on Friday--that looks like a very interesting bean Flip--let us know how it tastes.
Deb

Here's another pic from todays pickin's. Still have to report back on the taste test - gonna try for tomorrow.
Flip

Really pretty bean--all mottled...am waiting on your taste results!
Deb