Harvest Monday 9/24/12

It is Harvest Monday at Dahpne's Dandelions! Join the fun and share your harvest or just look around!

Last night we had our first frost, almost a month early! Mid October is usually our first frost. So, the garden is all covered in sheets right now and it is suppose to get back into the 80s this week! Trying to extend that harvest!

Raspberries and cherry tomatoes and beans are slowing down. I am getting a few Sugar Magnolia Purple Snap peas. If you saw my last post, I wrote about my peppers and the diseases that are taking them, but I am still getting a few.

The second Georgia Flaming Hot Pepper, and there is one more. I am afraid this plant got too shaded by the larger bell pepper plants to produce much more. And I found 2 little potatoes, I may find more as I start pulling everything up, I just don't want to disturb the roots systems of other nearby plants.

Oh I am so excited about this sweet potato harvest so far! That one in the middle has a ruler on it, it is almost 2 lbs! I still have more to dig up but these are probably the largest ones. So excited, but now I am working on figuring out the best way to cure them. They need to be "cured" for about 2 weeks in a high temperature and high humidity environment. This has not been easy. Right now they are in the bathroom with a heater and a humidifier, but DH is trying to find a heat lamp to put in the mini indoor greenhouse and I will put it in there with a tub of water. Hope we find a good solution. How do you cure your sweet potatoes?

Hate to find a tomato turning and pick it to find a giant spot a worm has been eating on.

These are the smallest  carrots from my season, but the best tasting. No green shoulders or bitter taste and chilly weather has been good for them! :)

One of our other new neighbors gave me these little HOT peppers. They are tiny. Anyone know what they are? The plant looks like it has purple leaves. I may save the seeds and grow one. These are smaller than the Matt's Wild Cherry Tomatoes, smaller than this dime.

Hope everyone is getting a great harvest!

Disease Hitting the Garden

This year has not been nice to my peppers :( no seed saving for these peppers! The only plants that really look healthy are the hot pepper plants.

They have seen better days.

Sent the leaves and peppers off to the Coop. Ext. and it came back, "signs indicate a virus, most likely Cucumber Mosaic Virus." Even though when I first took them in she thought it looked like numerous problems. I wasn't really happy with the vague results.

Perfect circular patterns

mottled fruits

more mottled fruits

bean plants

I thought rust at first because they look "rusty", but after looking at pictures online I don't know, maybe a mildew.

And I don't care what you say, ANTS DO CAUSE PROBLEMS! This bed is just full of ants and they are nesting and laying eggs (correction: aphids, see comments below) around the tops of the carrots and causing them to rot! Grrrr! Can't seem to get rid of them,I have tried drowning, DE, disturbing the nests, they just won't move on! They are in for a rude awakening because this bed is going to be moved and they will seriously be disturbed then, that oughta be fun! Uck!

Good thing the season is about done, and we can start anew in the spring! And boy will we be starting new with total rearrangement and new beds! Wahooo!!!!!

BTW, I am looking forward to a few seed exchanges with friends and fellow bloggers, I posted a Seed Trading list at the top, check it out!

Harvest Monday 9/17

Join fellow gardeners in sharing our harvests each Monday at Daphne's Dandelions! It is lots of fun seeing how others are doing in their gardens and what they are growing!

One day this week I put the raspberries on the table in this leftover plastic container from the store and my almost 3 year old son had a gigantic fit yelling, "I want the raspberries from your garden! I don't want raspberries from the store!" Melts a garden mommy's heart! I also picked another Great White tomato, though not as big as the first still good size!

I have just a few Sugar Magnolia Purple snap peas. They are quite small, I hope they get bigger and I hope that production picks up. I plan to put the pop up green house over this bed to try to keep them going as long as possible!

My first 2 Black Krims of the season. I have a lot of difficulty with this particular plant. Last year and this year it just seems to want to keep dying and not producing much. I have been cutting off lots of dead branches, they aren't turning yellow or getting spots, just plain dying. Same thing last year, I thought it was cause they were too crowded, but this one is all by itself!

Several days ago, Michelle from Seed to Table challenged us to show our refrigerators. I took pictures and never got around to it, so I will add them  here. I wish I was as organized as some of you, but I am not!

Not sure my fridge looks like a gardener's fridge, though there is a giant bowl of garden fresh salsa and a big bowl of garden fresh bruschetta and a bag of beans in the drawer. There might be a small baggy of peppers and carrots around in there somewhere, but they get eaten pretty quick. The bottom of the door though is filled with vegetable seeds!

This is where most of my garden stuff is, in the deep freezer. Tomatoes, squash, corn, chard, spinach, pumpkin, beans, kale, etc.

Plans for rearranging the garden

I have been working hard on plans for next years garden with a lot of work ahead of us this winter.

This is my computer layout. I plan to change four 4X4's into two 4X8's and move two 4X8s to the left and extend the in ground bed on the left all the way to the fence by the house. That would be 4X32'. The in ground bed and two 4X8s this year extended back toward the shed but their are too many trees back there and I need more sun! So the swing set has been moved to prepare for the rearrangement. (see side photos)

This is what the gardens looks like now, the two 4X8s at the back right are going to be moved up to the front left into an L shape. The 4X4's in the center will be turned into 12" deep 4X8's and another 4X8 will go along the fence behind them instead of the 2X4.

These 4X4's will be moved out into the back for vining squash and so forth since there is a lot of room back there and it is just weeds right now. We may have to do a little tree trimming though to get good sun.

The 4X4's will go back by where the pool is. We plan to rota-til this area and make it nicer and more level and try too level out the ditch and get sod in there before it erodes away again.

This is my work in progress. The brown outlined boxes are raised and the reddish is a brick lined in-ground bed.

Can't wait to get started for next year already!

Harvest Monday 9/10

Head on over to Daphne's Dandelions for more beautiful harvests! Great sharing and great ideas!

 Raspberries are still coming in good. And cherry tomatoes. Beans are slowing down and may be be pulled soon. I think some are getting Rust.

I let my daughter go out and cut this down before school. She has been waiting for it.

Happy Harvest Monday!

Good Harvest Monday!

Join many gardeners sharing their harvests from this week at Daphne's Dandelions!

The Dragon Tongue beans are still coming in strong, I have plenty more this week to be frozen. Raspberries are still doing well. I am afraid that my kids are getting tired of the raspberries and cherry tomatoes though. I have given away two boxes of cherry tomatoes and it is looking like there might be more!

The small sweet pepper plants are looking quite sick. They might not be around much longer sadly, because these are a favorite of my kids! Great for packing in lunches!

The first Cherokee Purple of my season! Yay! That would be the first tomato other than an Early Girl or cherry tomato for me! In September!

Needed a little lettuce for some BLT's, I have one head out there. It has been so hot and dry I can't get any going!

A few carrots. My daughter says the orange ones are much better than the red ones. They get bitter after chewing on them a minute. Definitely need some cooler weather for some sweetness!

My first "Great White"! This is the one I thought this was going to be a Brandywine, I didn't know the Great White got this big, so when it started turning lighter instead of more red I looked it up. I guess "great" should have given it away!  This big boy is 1 lb, 3 1/4 oz. And there are several more out there that hopefully will make it before frost.

I also have an unknown tomato plant growing out there. The tomatoes are smaller than the Early girl and bigger than Cherry. The one in the front center. The only tomato I had last year that size may have been the Stupice, but it was in a different bed. It is definitely not a Celebrity which was in the bed this came out of.

This has been a much better week for tomatoes! I planted very late, and I expected this, so I am happy to be getting some finally after looking at everyone else's loads of tomatoes and being super jealous. I will NOT get behind next year!

Happy Harvesting!