Last post for 2012

Parsley in front, and a row of garlic behind, with brassicas in the top left; half of the garden is
tucked in for winter underneath a layer of cardboard and fallen leaves.

First frost was also a killing frost for us, on Thursday morning November 1st.  Any tender vegetation that was not freeze tolerant turned black in the morning sun.  Nearly half of the vegetable garden is tucked in for winter, underneath a layer of cardboard and fallen leaves.  Parsley is still growing, bright green, to add to our late fall soups; one-third of our cabbage heads have been harvested.  Brussels sprouts increase in size, while our future corn patch is really turning green with clover.

One-third of our cabbage is harvested.

The change back to standard time has returned us to long nights.  Another growing season has come and gone; we're looking forward to enjoying our preserved harvests through the coming holidays.  The garden will remain essentially as it is now until February, when we prepare for planting early spinach. Thank you for enjoying the season with us!

The garden in November.

October 29, 2012

Cabbage heads ready to cut.

As October comes to a close we still haven't observed a frost, though some nights have been very close.  A warming trend last week felt like Indian Summer, highlighted with spectacular trees showing off their searing reds and flaming oranges.  Many trees have begun to drop their leaves, while others are still green meaning we have a few weeks left of fall foliage to enjoy.

Red clover, our green manure cover crop, has begun
to spread out over our future corn patch.

Though our cherry and peach trees have decided it's time to go dormant, the growing season continues for cool weather crops.  Our Meyer lemon tree is putting on a show of white blossoms which are adding citrus perfume to the dry earthy musk of fallen leaves.  Soon, we will be bringing our potted plants indoors for the winter.

We harvested just about all our broccoli and put up 21 quarts in the freezer.  The 'Pacman' variety continues to send up smaller side shoots after its main crop is harvested.  It's time to turn our attention to cabbage; it's a real pleasure having fresh green organic vegetables in abundance to enjoy as daylight diminishes.  Brussels sprouts have finally made an appearance and are on track for an early harvest, perhaps by Thanksgiving.

Brussels sprouts have begun forming in each stem node.

October 22, 2012

Crepe Myrtle tree brightens up in our front yard.

Garlic row.

Our third crop of broccoli at the new place is finally approaching the quality that we achieved in the old garden, where we would routinely see broccoli heads a foot across and larger.  The head shown below was still growing when we photographed it, and it did reach 12 inches.  It has taken 2.5 years to amend our subdivision soil with compost, leaf mulch, and a cover crop of red clover in order to boost fertility to the point where it really pays to grow organically.  There are nine heads this size ready to harvest now, and what we cannot eat fresh will be blanched and frozen for later.

A cabbage head or two could be harvested also; they weight about five pounds each and are still growing.  Garlic is shooting up.  Red clover is beginning to turn our future corn patch from brown to vibrant green.

Not much else is green, however, and our attention is turned upward to trees of many types that have caught the hint that it's autumn!  Morning temperatures have consistently been in the mid 30's F on our hill top, and sunny warm days to follow are excellent for creating anthocyanin in leaves, the pigment that gives them their flaming red-orange colors.  If this weather pattern continues, we are in for a very colorful show by early November.

Broccoli head, 10 inches across.

October 8, 2012

Broccoli heads, baseball sized, are swelling for a late October harvest

Last week's warm temperatures put the brakes on the annual color change; the traditional foliage peak in South Carolina comes second weekend of November, and it looks like we are on target. 

Cabbage heads are softball size.

Next year's corn patch was re-tilled, raked, and leveled before several pounds of red clover seed were broadcast and watered in.  Our summer flowers are composting while pansies and chrysanthemums add some welcome color.  It’s time to tuck our 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.

The only plants in active growth now are some greens, parsley, cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and one volunteer tomato plant.  The tomato just blossomed this weekend, and we'll see what happens; it will probably be blackened by the first frost if we don't pot it up to bring indoors.

We're thinking ahead to the big winter project we're planning this year:  building a chicken coop.  By this time next year, we hope to be enjoying our own fresh free-range chicken eggs from chicks we raise next spring and summer.

"Fall is a gift.  A house warmed by the memory of a sore back and splinters, and a kitchen table blessed by food there as a result of dirty fingernails, sunburn, and compost is a great and generous gift.  Enjoy your fall - we are each granted a finite number of them, and it is a vast mistake to let any go by without cherishing the moments that make them real."  -Brent Olson,  Living The Country Life Fall 2012 Vol. II, No. 4, p. 40.

The garden in October.

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.

September 17, 2012

Apples turned into tempting treats as the first day of Autumn approaches.

This was garden clean-up week:  tomato vines and their cages uprooted, bean plants pulled, pruners lost in the rubble, wheelbarrow run a marathon, compost bin more stuffed than a Thanksgiving turkey!  The whole family was involved.  Our gigantic pile of sticks is reduced to ashes over the barren garden, helping to clean the slate on stubborn grasses waging war to win back the land we are trying to transform.

Giant grey striped sunflower seed head.

A very few vegetables remain, some carrots, bell peppers, and all the winter squashes; sunflower seeds are ready to be harvested and roasted, or left for the birds.  Our fall garden is progressing nicely as cabbage and broccoli plants stretch out to fill the empty spaces between.

Day and night are now nearly 12 hours each as the impending equinox changes the calendar officially to the autumn season.  The sun is rising due east and is setting due west.  Our myrtle trees are already coloring up and dropping their leaves, while dogwood and red maple are showing noticeable tint.  It's time to sit back with a glass of fresh apple cider and take in the wonder of God's creation.  Soon enough we'll be pulling jars of canned produce out of the pantry to supplement what little fresh we can find as the weeks get colder.

Cabbages (top row), broccoli (middle), and brussels sprouts.

September 10, 2012

Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cabbage mulched
with fresh lawn trimmings.

One valuable item our property is producing with wild abandon in these early days of a wet September is grass - a whole acre of it!  For once we have much more than we need to mulch our new cole crops, which are coming along very nicely after transplanting.  We have a lot of dry, brown carbon materials in our compost bin right now, so the wet green nitrogen in grass will be a perfect combination to help boost our compost output.

Red bell peppers finish ripening.

We are very close to the end of our summer vegetable patch.  All summer long we have been gathering fallen sticks, prunings and trimmings in a big brush pile 10 ft. long x 5 ft. wide x 5 ft. high.  If we get a dry week, we will move it to the garden and burn - removing and killing surface weed seeds, and adding potash to the soil.  Next month we will plant red clover in anticipation of rotating our corn crop over where the vegetable garden was this year.

The garden in September.  A large Prizewinner pumpkin matures in the top-right corner.

August 27, 2012

A Prizewinner pumpkin grows large and orange-red as summer comes to an end.

It's time to get rid of the old to make room for the new.  Two hundred eighty-eight corn stalks were macheted at ground level, clearing a 20 ft. x 25 ft. space that will be our fall and winter vegetable garden.  The tiller evened things out, and any weeds quickly wilted in these sunny and dry days of late August.

Corn stalks dry after being cut.

The 2013 Farmer's Almanac calls for a colder than normal winter with above average precipitation for the eastern two-thirds of the nation.  Unseasonably chilly temperatures will reach as far south as the Gulf Coast.  Last winter was so warm because of a most unusual combination of a North Atlantic and Arctic Oscillation that pulled warm air up from the Southwest, and a La Nina that kept the jet stream far north.  Last winter was ideal for gardening year-round, but this winter looks to be different. So we are taking advantage of the remarkably cool August to get our fall garden in early.  Nine brussels sprouts transplants were moved to the garden under milk jug covers - not to keep the frost out, but to shield from hot sun and hungry insects.  Cabbage, broccoli, root crops and greens will soon follow.  Since grass mow is so thick, it will make an ideal mulch to keep weeds down around our new plants.

A bucket of compost went into
each planting hole

Superfreak pumpkins have an interesting appearance.

We have counted at least 50 pumpkins ripening in our patch, and more are setting daily.  We are almost ready to go through and cut everything orange from the vine.  A prizewinner giant is almost red; it really stands out among the smaller varieties.  These will soon be moved with hay bales under our front yard maple tree.

Brussels sprouts transplants underneath protective milk jug covers.

August 13, 2012

August is the month of sunflowers.

Our harvests are getting smaller, but often more interesting; for example, the handful of red raspberries we picked to eat with a honeydew melon and a nice fat fig.  These combinations would never be conceivable if we weren't growing them ourselves.  'Heritage' red raspberries, which are labeled "everbearing," are just getting started on their big fall crop; we don't have to cover these in bird netting like we did with our spring berries; birds are done raising young, which have fledged and focused on protein diet of insects before the winter.

2nd-year parsley, heavy with seed, bends to the ground.

The dog days of summer are over.  We received another 5 inches of rain this week, giving us a two-week total at 9.5 inches; I think it rained every day in the past two weeks and don't remember as significant a wet period since the summer it rained 40 days in a row in 2005.  Needless to say, we're about ready to pull up our soaker hoses and mow down the melon patch.  One of the most appealing qualities of the garden this time of year is its disarray.  Plants are overgrown, blowzy, and wild--and that's part of what keeps our interest.

Brussels sprouts seedlings through
the screen of an airy window.

Folks often incorrectly assume that spring and summer are the prime gardening seasons and that the beginning of fall brings an end to the garden's glory.  But as fall rains return and the lawns green up again, the nights are cooler and the sun seems softer, we have time to catch up on a crop of brassicas and greens.  Cole crops such as broccoli, cabbage, and brussels sprouts perform just as well as in the spring.  Didn't get that crop of April spinach that you were hoping for?  Try it now.  Since the days are often hot, it will help to sprout seeds under a 2x4 laid directly on top of the ground, but check underneath every day.  Our brussels sprouts started from seed in early July will be ready to transplant out to the garden by the end of this month.  It's time to start cabbage and broccoli seed now too.

Seed-saving is in full operation as we select the best heirloom tomatoes, peppers, and herbs.

Pumpkins ripen in these warm and humid August days.

October 17, 2011

Mixed greens and beets thrive in these autumn days.

Fair weather made for a beautiful weekend at the Pumpkin Festival on October 8.  Cloudy skies moved in for much of the past week, however, dropping a slow, soaking rain that was just perfect for sprouting the red clover seed scattered the week before.  While we want that section to turn green, we do not want all the weed seedlings coming up with our fall/winter/spring garden; a quick run-over with the tiller set at shallow depth on a sunny day did most of them in.  Among our lettuce, beets, and other cool weather crops some selective hand weeding cleared the area.

'Northern Lights' swiss chard

It looks like we will be enjoying a nice crop of ‘Northern Lights’ swiss chard by first frost.  Chard is a variety of beet that does not grow an edible root but that makes an exceptionally large top:  leaves are often cooked like spinach, and stalks steamed like asparagus.  Chard is grown where conditions do not favor spinach.  We have enough spinach from last April in the freezer to last until March, so we’re just trying something different.

Cabbage plants have grown large and are making heads; brussels sprouts are adding height—sprouts are now the size of small peas in the nook of each leaf stem.

Cabbage heads are starting to form.

October is time to plant spring bulbs; last year we added hyacinth, muscari, crocus, and more than 200 daffodils to naturalize around the property.  This year we bought 100 Darwin hybrid tulips for the bed around our mailbox.  A past home owner installed weed barrier and filled the area with decorative stone.  All of that had to come out, and we excavated an 8-inch pit, which was no easy task:  if we ever do this again we will invest in a pick-axe!  Good soil mixed with milled sphagnum peat moss and bone meal was returned, and the bulbs topped with loose topsoil and pine bark mulch.  Tulips need several weeks of freezing temperatures to bloom, but our location at 934 ft. elevation is always cooler than town; we’ve already seen rooftop frost.

Our world is taking on a golden hue as deciduous trees move from early to mid-season color.  Pretty soon we’ll be getting out the leaf rake!