Outdoor gardening comes to an end...

It was inevitable that the day would come; still, it seems unreal that I no longer have a viable garden to tend to, and that I won't, again, for months. This morning I brought in the last of the broccoli (frozen) and one frozen kohlrabi.


The row covers I put over the kale and the Swiss chard were no match for 18 degree nights.

The brussels sprouts were not planted early enough, I think, to fully mature; or else I just had them so doggone crowded because I didn't realize that there were more than one plant in each pot when I bought the set of six. I did not get one brussels sprout.

You can see that my broccoli has been blooming - a sure sign that I had more than I could contend with. Again, as they got bigger it became obvious to me that I had way more than a dozen plants. I won't be making that mistake again.

Here's a good shot of the general state of things...

I'll be honest though; for the time being, I'm ready for a break. I'll be checking back in here periodically with winter growing projects and I'll be posting as I start to sprout seedlings.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

Ah...November!

This is what I woke up to on Tuesday...lovely foggy morning. This is not sarcasm...I really love the fog we get down here.

I've had some good harvests this week. Carrots, spinach, collards, chard, kohrabi, rutabega, and still getting bell peppers.

I'm sorry to say that our great pepper project has failed miserably. None of the pepper plants survived indoors - that is, they're not dead, just going dormant - which means, we're not getting peppers from them anymore. Today I actually BOUGHT some jalepenos for the chili I'm making this weekend. It REALLY bummed me out to have to do that, because if we hadn't messed so much with all of our big, healthy, and heavily producing pepper plants we'd still have tons of them because we haven't had a frost yet. I wish I'd preserved some peppers this summer. I will DEFINITELY do that next year. Looks like I'll end up with three or four heads of cabbage - my first time!

The garlic is coming up!

This colander is the makings for the roasted root veggies I had a few nights ago for dinner, all from the garden! Every single one! Whoo hoo!!!!

Happy Halloween!

I am pleased to say that I have nothing scary to report - unless you think that miracles are scary! These slender red shoots below are what rye looks like coming up...


And this beautiful green grass is what it looks like when it IS up!





Success! Yeah! I have no idea what the heck I'm going to do when it's time to harvest it, how to do it, etc..... but that's for another day. For today, the rye is up!!!

I'm still harvesting, though I'm not getting out there every day or anywhere near every day.

I haven't lost any more broccoli plants, and it continues to come in nicely, though I'm not sure I'm going to have enough to freeze.

I believe this dude is one of the good guys....though a little far from home...hanging out around our soon to be new construction, and not in the garden doing what he gets paid for...Do you see how he's posing for the camera? I tell you, this little guy looked straight at me when I pointed that camera at him. I'm willing to concede that he wasn't actually posing for the camera, but I'm telling you, he knew that I was there.

And last but not least, a lovely spring color - a bulb on the new fig tree. I did tell you I ordered a fig tree, right? It's inside.

Next time, a pepper update. Not sure what to say about them today, the verdict is still out on whether or not they're going to make it inside. Though the serrano is still putting out peppers. I also have a new eggplant. Maybe I'll actually get to eat this one!

White Spot?

I think I'm getting some white spot on a few kale (below left) and collard (below right) leaves. I don't know for sure that's what it is, but my research indicates that white spot is the most likely name for what's going on. I pulled off the affected leaves, and it doesn't seem to be spreading much at all. Not sure at this time what to do about it or if I'll need to do anything about it at all. But it's a situation to keep an eye on.


I've been harvesting a few greens and radishes here and there, but yesterday, with great satisfaction, I brought in my first fall basket full of goodies: kale, collards, lettuce, easter egg radishes, mini red bells, and jalepenos.

Yes, I'm still getting a nice supply of peppers. I'm embarassed to say that I nearly killed my anaheim and did kill off my carmen plant trying to transplant them into pots. BAD MOVE. Though the serrano made it no problem, these other two were much bigger and I guess I disturbed the roots too much. It's really too bad, because I lost what would have been a bumper crop of both of them. I'll know better next time.

An update on my eggplant - it's still hanging in there, but I have yet to eat a single eggplant, since my daughter, in her great enthusiasm, kept picking my babies! I asked her to please not do that again unless I said it was okay. So the very next time we were on the deck, she was playing over near the pots and asked me if it was okay. A little distracted, I said, "Sure, it's okay", not realizing what I was agreeing to. The next thing I know, she'd popped off another baby eggplant. I have not one time fussed at her about this, because I'm happy that she thinks they're as beautiful as I do. But my hopes for eggplant this year have turned into a science experiment about whether or not eggplants picked prematurely will ripen in a window like tomatoes and peppers (they won't). And it looks like all I may get out of my eggplant experiments this year is experience.

But hey, that's okay. Next year I'll have so many eggplants I'm going to turn into an eggplant...