No frost in yard yet

So far the cherry tomato plant and a couple of zukes are still going, not hit by frost in the yard yet.

GA: Raccoons got most of the popcorn!!!!

Argh!!  The popcorn had been untouched up until today, when I found most of the cobs vanished and some of the stalks broken.  I presume raccoons.  Sigh.  So, I harvested what remained.  It's definitely still nowhere near being dry, but hopefully it will be okay to dry on the counter.  If it works, then next year I'll try again and would just harvest much sooner rather than thinking they can last until fully dry on the stalk.

Garlic round 1 planted (will plant round 2 in a few weeks)

Here's what I did:

Forked/fluffed the area.

Added pre-soaked alfalfa, and mrp, az, and kelp.

Smoothed everything over.

In the east-most two-square (north-south) are 4 elephant cloves harvested from the one huge elephant bulb that I harvested this year.  

To the west of that is a two-square east-west of the biggest Music cloves bought this year.

To the north of those are a two-square east-west of medium/small Music cloves bought this year.

See photo in September/garden folder of my hand-drawn map of today's plantings.

That's it for today.  In a few weeks I'll plant the rest of the Music.

(Today's planting is earlier than normal because of people saying earlier is better -- and the second round in a few weeks will be for comparison.)

GA: Bush beans didn't put out fall flowers!

Weird -- normally I find the bush beans put out a second round of flowers/beans in late summer / into fall -- that didn't happen this year.  Maybe the lack of rain was an issue especially since I didn't keep watering them after the first harvest (but the plants still survived).

GA: First frost!! Many tenders perished! (no frost in yard)

The first frost happened the night of either Friday Sep 19th or Saturday Sep 20th, as noticed when I went to the garden on Sunday Sep 21st.  Most little buckwheat seedlings kaput, as well as most zukes, peppers, etc.

The yard is fine -- no frost there yet.

GA: Harvested all the rest of the sweet corn regardless of size, because (a) critters have eaten a few cobs and (b) they're getting pasty

Quite a lot of cobs, though most at this point are quite small -- it will take 4 or 5 to make a portion, but that's fine.

GA: A small watermelon was delicous!! So red and tasty!

Starting to harvest the rest of the watermelons, gradually.  Overall 3 were full size (for Blacktail Mountain), the rest are about half size.  The first half-size that I harvested, today, was delicious!!  Really red inside, and sweet and tasty.

Bought garlic from Ritchie's: 0.94 pounds of "Music Hardneck Jumbo"

Decided against trying the elephant variety again -- and went only with one type this year, "Music Hardneck Jumbo" (from the bulk section, at Ritchie's).  0.94 pounds of modest but very nice bulb/clove sizes.  I'd be thrilled if even half of these cloves end up producing similar sized garlic.

The price went up -- last year it was $25/pound, this year $27.99.  So, the total cost was $29.73 including tax.

Won't plant yet obviously, too soon.

GA: The corn is now past its prime -- getting pasty, but still edible and enjoyable (just not the OMG delish that it was a few weeks ago)

 ^^^

GA: Sowed buckwheat in a couple of spots

Sowed buckwheat at (a) the NW former potato bed (which was emptied out a week or so ago), and (b) the SW onion bed (which was also emptied out recently).

We'll see how much it grows before frost comes.

GA: APHIDS ON THE KALE/CHARD! AND BLACK FLIES IN THE BROCCOLI!!!!

Oh no!!!  I haven't looked at the kale in ages, and went I went to harvest some today, I saw that it's full of green aphids!!! There are some on the chard too, but the kale especially.  So, I'll pull and discard all of the kale and chard next time I go.

I didn't see any aphids on the broccoli, so I brought that home.  But at home I found that there were many little black flies within!!  It took many rinses/soaks to get them all out, but otherwise the broccoli is gorgeous, so I used it.

I have no idea how these aphids/flies got in under the netting (which is a sheer sheet thing, not tulle, so no holes to get in).... My best guess is that they may have overwintered in the soil and therefore popped up under the cover.

GA: First sweet corn harvested! Deeeeeeeelicious!

Harvested the first two ears of sweet corn from the NW bed's first round.  The cobs were on the skinnier side, but they were DELICIOUS!!!  So crunchy and sweet!  YUM.  As delicious as they were, I wish I could have shared them with Scooter.

GA: White onions -- some are already going mushy in the ground!!

Yikes!  Some, but not all, of the white onions are already going mushy in the ground!  A few of those were lost completely; the others were partly salvageable as the insides were still good.

GA: Watermelon (x1) harvested FOY

It was nice and big (as far as Blacktails go), so I decided today was the day.  The little tendril at the vine joint was still green, but it lacked vibrancy, so it looked like it would be turning brown soon.

The inside was -- mostly green, some pink tinge, so I was disappointed at first.  But, it was sweet and juicy, very nice!  The seeds were fully edible / inoffensive.

There's another nice big one getting ready too -- that one I'll wait until the tendril turns brown, will see if that makes any difference in pinkness.

And a few others that are growing too.

GA: Harvested a few potatoes -- they're all small so far

Decided to hand-dig under a potato plant in the NW bed that had yellowed/died.  There were a few potatoes, but all small, like combined maybe one larger potato. 

We'll see what the others look like, but for now it's too early to dig up more.

GA: Tons of aphids at top of the youngest sweet corn!!

Noticed it the other day but had a closer look today and sure enough, lady bugs around to eat them.  SO many aphids all clustered up at the base of the tassel things at the top.  

The older sweet corn immediately to their west don't seem to have them, or at least not many.

GA: Fall carrots sown

I put these into the space recently vacated by the second downed zucchini -- i.e. along the west edge, northern part.

All I did is I removed obvious weeds, then hand-trowelled to loosen, then sprinkled kelp, mrp, and az, then mixed it in, then set aside some soil to cover them up, then flattened the area, sprinkled the seeds, sprinkled to cover with the set-aside soil, placed the burlap, then watered over the burlap.

Let's see how it goes!

GA: Cut down the crimson clover; the bees loved the flowers

Decided it was time to cut down the crimson clover, which was in the SE-most part.  Flowers had appeared in the last week or two and were starting to turn white, not sure if it's too late to prevent self-sowing, we shall see.  The plants were about 2 feet tall or so and had started to flop all over and be messy.  Used the yellow shears to chop it down, rather than pulling it out by the roots.  For now the material is just plopped on the bed it came from.  I'm thinking I may use it to mulch the corn once the clover dies/dries a bit.

GA: First onions harvested -- the only "big" (relatively) ones so far?

The first onions I've harvested are from the SW bed's east section, which per my notes should be the New York Early onions that I started from seed (not sets), so that's exciting!  There are some decent sized ones (on the smaller side, but I'm happy with it) -- but the ones left in the bed look much smaller, sadly.  Not sure why I have trouble growing onions, whether from sets or seeds!  (Peppers too!)

The blog says I started the NYE onion seeds January 23rd (round one) and February 2nd (round 2).  Presumably these relatively larger ones that I harvested today are from round one.  So, that's 191 days, yikes!!  Seed stores say 98 days for this variety!!!

Uncovered the two scallopinis (yard)

Not because too big (though they are huge), but because they put out so many male flowers that stay open for multiple days, that I just can't be bothered to check every day to see if any females are there yet.