Wakey wakey, tuberous begonias!

Potted the two tuberous begonias today, in damp soil.  One was very light weight and hollow-feeling, not sure if it's a goner or what.  The other (with a dried stem poking up) was nice and hefty.

This is 3 weeks earlier than last year, because last year it felt like I gave them a late start.

Freeze up

Hard frost last night.  More like a deep freeze actually.  -11 at 7am this morning, was below zero all night and all day/night tonight.

Milder weather coming up starting Sunday, but wondering how the chard and celery will fare after this. Also wonder if the carrots still in the ground will be ok.

Straw for the chard, celery, and garlic

Bought a bale of straw at Ritchie's for $11.

Spread a bunch of it around the chard and celery by the vertical bed, as well as some on the various garlic areas.

Some chard/celery is un-strawed; will compare how they survive with the strawed parts.

First frost

The tomato plants finally died within the last couple of days.  Until now they were still normal and healthy looking, but now the leaves have all withered and shrunk.

Planted more garlic

Planted more garlic.  ~4 in the overhang bed and a few in the carrot bed.  Left most of the ones that had already sprouted (used one of them in a recipe).

Great fall garlic planting video

https://youtu.be/ad3YRPorWoU

No first frost yet

For the record, no first frost yet, at least not in my backyard.  Has been a very warm fall, and forecast not looking like frost for at least another week.

Things that are still going strong

Wow, October 24th and so many things still to harvest in the garden.

Big tomatoes:  Several large tomatoes still on the plant, some ripening, some still green. No frost yet and probably not for another week at least, so will leave them on the plant for now.

Cherry tomatoes:  The plant I bought late-season and planted I think on July 22nd has done amazingly well.  Have harvested ~a dozen or so ripe ones so far, and there are tons of green ones as well as more ripening.  Will leave on plant until frost comes.  The Tiny Tim plant has been long dormant.

Chard:  Tons of huge leaves.  Haven't been doing much with them lately, all cooked out I guess, plus my basement freezer is already almost full.  Really should get back to eating all this healthy free food.

Celery:  Still quite a bit of celery left too.

Peas:  See other post.

Carrots:  Still a few sizable ones left, and quite a few immature ones that who knows, might get a chance to grow to good size yet.

Green onions:  The ones in the onion bed had a resurgence starting a few weeks ago, very handy.

Potatoes:  One little patch left that I haven't dug up yet, although with the pathetic harvest from what I've dug so far, not holding out hope that there's much in there.

Last beets

Harvested the last beets today.  Delicious steamed, with margarine and vinegar.  Will definitely grow them again next year.

Fall pea harvest

First fall peas harvested about a week ago, and a few more pods harvested every few days since then, which will probably continue for a another week at most.

Nowhere near as tasty or high yield as spring crop.  And, now many pods have a sickly look, something going on with their outside, but the peas inside are good.  Shame though to have to toss all those pod exteriors.

A year or two ago the fall peas were a great harvest.  Oh well!

Uh oh, garlic has sprouted

Woops, must have planted too early, especially with this crazy warm fall we've had.

Might leave a few in anyway to see what they do, but this weekend will replant.

Planted garlic ('Siberian')

Planted ~6 garlic bulbs today.

Freezing swiss chard

2 chard-freezing experiments on the go. 

1st experiment:  Cut into large pieces, blanched briefly, then soaked in ice water for a few minutes.  Then rolled into a few balls and froze in ziploc bag.

2nd experiment (did this one today):  No blanching.  Rinsed off the raw leaves, then let them dry off in the sun in the kitchen, flipping them half way through.  Cut out the stems, then chopped the leaves into quite small pieces, ~1/2" or so.  Froze.

Haven't yet tried unfreezing/cooking with them.

One zucchini plant lost to the borer

The big zucchini plant near the air conditioner is gone.  Pulled it out today as it was clearly almost all dead.  Looked inside the rotted stems and sure enough, squash vine borer.

I guess the aluminum foil I had set down on the ground around the plant months ago didn't work!  Oh well, at least I tried it.

Next year, maybe I'll try garlic spray.

The other plant, although the stem also looks a bit rotty, has no sign yet of going downhill.  Well, zucchini growth/production has slowed somewhat, but one should be ready soon and the leaves still look normal and healthy.

Massive zucchini -- and, is the end near?

Woops -- a few zucchinis escaped my gaze until today, discovered 3 ginormous ones.  (2 on the a/c plant, 1 on the other.)

Also, the a/c plant in particular has suddenly started to look like its days are soon coming to an end.  It's become mostly floppy, some leaves dried up... So, I wonder if (a) letting those zukes grow to such huge proportions have shut down production, and/or (b) squash vine borer?

The plant near the compost doesn't look all flaily, with the exception of one "branch" which had rotted or something (borer?) near the joint, so I pulled that branch and so far the other part looks good, although production has slowed as well.

There are at least 2 more zukes well on the way; hopefully more too.

Lastly a note, I haven't hand-pollinated the zukes for quite a few weeks.  Apparently the bees and wasps are doing it for me now.

Poor sad little indoor sowlings

The kale, chard, and cabbage sowed indoors on June 18th have looked absolutely horrible inside.  Hard to believe they're 2 months old.  The chard looks healthy but extremely small / only a few leaves.  The cabbages look awful -- more than half dead, really.  The kale looks terrible as well, but maybe they have a chance.

So, transplanted them all out today, in room vacated by some more pulled up Brussels sprouts plants as well as some other little gaps here and there.  We'll see how they do.

Beet harvest

Harvested 3 beets today which had grown into a decent size, like small tennis balls.

Cooked them on the stove with some garlic and salt.  Not scrumptious, but certainly quite edible.

A few more beets remain.  Will let them keep growing as they're still small.

Transplanted fall peas (part 1)

Transplanted about half of the indoor-peat-pot-sown peas today.

The rest I'll give a few more days inside as they're a little shorter.

Sowed carrots

Sowed some fall carrots today.  Back in 2015 I sowed some on August 1st and they were a fantastic crop.

Cucumber harvest

Cucumber harvest has started, about 3 so far in the last few weeks.  The vines are fairly sparse at this point, but at least they are producing something.