September 24, 2012

Meyer lemon tree ripens fruit.

It's about time to pull up those old summer border flowers and replace them with chrysanthemums and pansies.  Wild garlic is starting to sprout after its summer hibernation underground; its tell-tale aroma is noticeable when mowing the lawn.  That means any time now we could plant the largest of our hardneck garlic cloves saved from May's harvest, to grow through the winter.  Last year, we didn't plant our garlic until late October, and we're determined to get an earlier start.  The pumpkins have to come out first, however, to make room, and that's a chore - vines have spread everywhere and are setting new fruits.  Did you know that tender green pumpkins can be eaten just like zucchini?

Gladiolus bulbs harvested and curing
for winter storage.

As soon as our summer vegetable patch can be tilled, we will be broadcasting several pounds of red clover seed purchased from the local feed and seed store.  If you've been reading this blog regularly, you know that red clover is our favorite green manure crop because it converts nitrogen from the air and stores it, boosting both soil nutrition and adding plenty of organic humus.

Cabbage and broccoli have taken off, growing to mature size.  Tiny button heads of broccoli are visible in the crown of each plant.  Depending on how much moisture we see in the coming weeks, it won't be long.  Brussels sprouts take 120 days to harvest, longer than many pumpkins; transplanted in August, they won't begin to produce until December.

Broccoli and cabbage plants.

Brussels sprouts forming in each stem node

The mornings are getting frosty now; at our location, first frost came on October 21 – in some places we saw freezing fog hovering over low areas.  But the 30^th was our first official freeze at 30 degrees F, signaling the end of the growing season for any tender vegetation.  What a difference seven days has made for the annual foliage show!  We are near peak with good autumn weather in the forecast, so those red, orange, and golden streamers should hold on for a while yet even as the most stubborn green oaks turn and join the show.

Our cold-weather crops seem to be unaffected and are increasing in size; cabbage will tolerate a normal frost but will not last when temperatures dip into the 20’s F.  Brussels sprouts are on schedule for a Christmas first harvest.  We have a good stand of red clover which we are using as a cover crop for next year’s corn.

A good stand of red clover will make a great green manure
crop for corn next growing season.

This is last chance to plant garlic in the South, and we confess this turn of the year has kept us so busy with autumn activities that we’ve put it off a little longer than usual.  We will be making that a priority this week.  We saved several of the largest garlic heads from last year and will split them into individual cloves to plant as seed.  Garlic purchased from the store works just as well as seed garlic – in fact that was one of our garden experiments that has turned into a staple for us; we’re now growing the 5^th generation of garlic from that original grocery store variety.  Garlic likes rich, loose soil, so we will haul out the tiller and incorporate a lot of milled sphagnum peat moss and some organic fertilizer in the row before we plant. We keep this loosely mulched with fall leaves after it sprouts.

Our Fall/Winter garden; the open space is saved for spinach and peas next Spring.

Our compost bin is more stuffed than a Thanksgiving turkey, and aside from those winter “regulars” we can dust off our hands from another gardening season.  It’s time to tuck next year’s garden in for the winter, and we’re already covering it with a layer of cardboard and fallen leaves through which we will plant next year.  It looks like we will have one more update in November to finish for the year 2011.

August 15, 2011

A corn shock stands guard over late-season tomatoes.

August's full moon (Saturday the 13th) is sometimes referred to as the full "corn moon" because it coincides with corn harvest in the Northern Hemisphere.  Our sweet corn is long gone - in fact we pulled some out of the freezer recently to try what we froze on the cob.  It looked like garden fresh, and though it was soft, it still had that homegrown flavor.  Hard to believe the next full moon will be the "harvest moon" on September 12.  If the moon has any influence on seed sprouting, our future cabbage crop will attest, because the seed packet said germination takes 12 - 14 days, but it was up in 2!

By now we're trying to invent new and interesting uses for vegetables that are growing a little old from overuse to the palette.  Many garden vegetables have come to a stop, however, and we can begin some clean-up.  The summer season has ended for lettuce, onions, garlic, broccoli, melons, cucumbers, corn, beans, sunflowers, and some of the annual herbs.  Tomatoes are no longer coming in large quantities, but sweet and hot peppers are rejuvenating after the hottest part of summer and will bear again in September.  Zucchini is becoming a steady producer while we wait, and in the meantime a carrot crop sits underground if we want a change of pace.  The majority of our summer harvest is gathered and preserved, so as we take a little break for the present we can look forward to next month's pumpkins and winter squash, apples, grapes, late season raspberries, root crops, and sweet potatoes.

Close-up of Roma paste tomatoes ripening on the bush.

While we're thinking of garden clean-up, it is time to begin securing cardboard boxes to use as mulch.  The weed problem this year turned rather severe in our first-year garden, so all efforts will be directed at smothering it as soon as our old plants are out of the way.  Lawn clippings and fallen leaves can be piled on top of cardboard to make a fairly impenetrable weed mulch through which we can plant next Spring.  Does your community lawn and garden store carry cover crop seed such as red clover and winter rye?  Depending on where you live, September or October is time to plant.  Now is a good time to call and order if necessary.  Garlic for fall planting can be purchased from mail order catalogs, or, wait and buy common white garlic from any grocery store; if left in a warm room it may begin to sprout, and individual cloves can be planted out in October.

Our goal this weekend was to till so we can begin preparing soil for fall planting.  Brussels sprouts plants are being conditioned to the outdoor climate starting in a shady spot.  It's time to check that compost pile and give it a turn after adding a summer's worth of imperfect vegetables, rinds, and cobs.  We will soon be filling it to the brim with discarded vegetable plants.  Have you ever stopped to notice how much activity there is in a garden this time of year?  While pausing to wipe our brows, we saw hundreds of dragonflies, large green-brown locust, chirping black crickets, and several varieties of bees and butterflies in constant hum over our plants.