*Autumn gardening chat * Oct-Nov 2012

[3lilbubs]

I've said it before but you look awesome! Go girl!

I love your heart tomatoes! And the boob... Dinner looks so yummy. What is a white carrot? I get confused with the different types of root crops. I looked all year for parsnip seed, found lots of icicle radish whatever that is, and I eventually planted root parsley. Supposed to be good for soup, I wanted to try it in bean soup.

I swear I'm not a pervert but ... my san marzano tomatoes all looked like penises. All of them. *hangs head in shame* People would come over and be all "oooh I wanna see your tomatoes and I'd be like umm.. look over here at these cherry tomatoes!!!! Embarrassed of my phallic tomatoes. How redonkulous is that!

OK! so.. moving on...
I went to home depot today to get a few replacement strawberry plants to fill in where a handful had died after I split the single raised bed up into two beds. No need for a big bunch of bare roots since I only needed a hand full. I also wanted most of my plants to be well established next year, I want a decent crop. While I was there I checked out a few things aaaanndd.. I found onion and garlic sets! They're unmarked, the bags just say mid season no variety or even whether the garlic is hard or soft neck (it's soft). The onions they had red white and yellow, I picked yellow. They don't appear to be a vidalia type, they are are round not saucer shaped. However they were less than $2 a bag so I figured it was a cheap gamble. There's 60 onion sets in the bag and two whole garlic bulbs. I'll pop them into the ground some time this month. Never tried it before but my sil used these last spring and had some nice ones she pulled this fall. I'm still hoping that my carrots take off. The girls snuck into my tomatoes when I was cooking dinner tonight (bad ladies!) and ate most of the ripe ones so I guess those are getting ripped out sooner than I thought.

Oh and one more thing, I noticed while I was trimming the strawberries down tonight that a few things that didn't sprout in the beds before had come up. A few romaine lettuces, those would have been from 2 yrs ago! and a little green basil! I'm letting the lettuce go, the pests are less right now so it might get to decent size before the frost hits! I'm thinking of bringing the little basil indoors in a pot.

[sarahannecloud9]

Originally Posted by aumismommy We shall see the success stories I have considering this is my first fall garden.... You ladies inspire me. Seriously. I absolutely adore each of you for your postings. Your such a sweetie. Remember though, you contribute too! We love ya! So we got rid of our puppy (thank heavens) who had dug up my garden three times, that makes four plantings of the same crops cause if u remember I sizzled my first round of sprouts. I do remember. Woohoo, I hope. It's been still high 90's and actually still hit 103 the other day but!!!!...supposed to be into the 80's for the next couple weeks. I've been babying like crazy all my sprouts begging them to handle the heat. I suspected that my first sowing of celery, lettuce, kale and spinach got too hot in that last heat spell so I just re planted today. Hoping that works. I'm supposed to be working off an 11/14 first frost date which with these heat spells doesn't give me much time to get these babies started. On the list for next year - grow light!!! Dh is already on board. That's why I had to replant so much, the dang weirdo heat waves. Fried so much. I'll send some prayers your way for a kick-rump fall crop! Need some leaves to fall to use for the bulk of my mulch for covering my garlic which will go in next week IF the weather gets cooler. Otherwise ill wait a little longer to plant the garlic and onions. I really have no clue what I'm doing but have learned a lot from some good books, blogs and two local nurseries that have answered my MANY questions I just use the I'm 8 monts pregnant excuse and that seems to get me a lot of help (I can't believe I just admitted to that!) I really am hugely pregnant...and usually toting along my gorgeously wild 2.5 yo son. Whatever works right! Hey, it can get good cs some places. And right now you really need that extra help. Not to mention, who the heck wouldn't be proud out you being this far along and still gardening like you are! I've planted a bunch in pots, filled my four planter boxes and all the dirt surrounding them so fingers crossed we get some edibles out of it al! Now if I could just get these mice away from my chicken coop I'd be happy!

I have the same mice issue. Hopeing the kitty will help with that.

Originally Posted by 3lilbubs I've said it before but you look awesome! Go girl! Thanks Liz! I love your heart tomatoes! And the boob... Dinner looks so yummy. What is a white carrot? I get confused with the different types of root crops. I looked all year for parsnip seed, found lots of icicle radish whatever that is, and I eventually planted root parsley. Supposed to be good for soup, I wanted to try it in bean soup. Love the ninner too, we sure did! The carrot is one from baker creek. Can't remember which one though. it was too dehydrated and strong to give a fare flavor eval. I swear I'm not a pervert but ... my san marzano tomatoes all looked like penises. All of them. *hangs head in shame* People would come over and be all "oooh I wanna see your tomatoes and I'd be like umm.. look over here at these cherry tomatoes!!!! Embarrassed of my phallic tomatoes. How redonkulous is that! "rotfl: LOVE IT. Now young lady, where's some pics!?! OK! so.. moving on... I went to home depot today to get a few replacement strawberry plants to fill in where a handful had died after I split the single raised bed up into two beds. No need for a big bunch of bare roots since I only needed a hand full. I also wanted most of my plants to be well established next year, I want a decent crop. While I was there I checked out a few things aaaanndd.. I found onion and garlic sets! They're unmarked, the bags just say mid season no variety or even whether the garlic is hard or soft neck (it's soft). The onions they had red white and yellow, I picked yellow. They don't appear to be a vidalia type, they are are round not saucer shaped. However they were less than $2 a bag so I figured it was a cheap gamble. There's 60 onion sets in the bag and two whole garlic bulbs. I'll pop them into the ground some time this month. Never tried it before but my sil used these last spring and had some nice ones she pulled this fall. I'm still hoping that my carrots take off. The girls snuck into my tomatoes when I was cooking dinner tonight (bad ladies!) and ate most of the ripe ones so I guess those are getting ripped out sooner than I thought. What a score! I have some onion sets I want to put out, but we are changeing the direction of the rows, so will need a spot? Don't know what to do. Oh and one more thing, I noticed while I was trimming the strawberries down tonight that a few things that didn't sprout in the beds before had come up. A few romaine lettuces, those would have been from 2 yrs ago! and a little green basil! I'm letting the lettuce go, the pests are less right now so it might get to decent size before the frost hits! I'm thinking of bringing the little basil indoors in a pot.

That awsome! I hope to have more volunteers next year. I only had the pumpkind down front. We didn't have a chance for a garden last years when we bought the house. It was too mate, then stayed too busy to think about it.


Anyone started on their indoor plants yet? I went ahead and brought almost everything in last night. Have to post the new pic with all of them soom.

Gotta run. Getting another really bad broken tooth removed today.But, I'm extreamly releaved it's comeing out.

[3lilbubs]

Originally Posted by aumismommy We shall see the success stories I have considering this is my first fall garden.... You ladies inspire me. Seriously. I absolutely adore each of you for your postings. Love having the like minded company! Can't wait to see what your garden does. So we got rid of our puppy (thank heavens) who had dug up my garden three times, that makes four plantings of the same crops cause if u remember I sizzled my first round of sprouts. It's been still high 90's and actually still hit 103 the other day but!!!!...supposed to be into the 80's for the next couple weeks. I've been babying like crazy all my sprouts begging them to handle the heat. I suspected that my first sowing of celery, lettuce, kale and spinach got too hot in that last heat spell so I just re planted today. Hoping that works. I'm supposed to be working off an 11/14 first frost date which with these heat spells doesn't give me much time to get these babies started. On the list for next year - grow light!!! Dh is already on board. I know how you feel, it had been so beautiful and fall like here and then BAM back to 100+ out of the blue! Thankfully it is supposed to begin cooling off again. Need some leaves to fall to use for the bulk of my mulch for covering my garlic which will go in next week IF the weather gets cooler. Otherwise ill wait a little longer to plant the garlic and onions. I really have no clue what I'm doing but have learned a lot from some good books, blogs and two local nurseries that have answered my MANY questions I just use the I'm 8 monts pregnant excuse and that seems to get me a lot of help (I can't believe I just admitted to that!) I really am hugely pregnant...and usually toting along my gorgeously wild 2.5 yo son. I've planted a bunch in pots, filled my four planter boxes and all the dirt surrounding them so fingers crossed we get some edibles out of it al! Now if I could just get these mice away from my chicken coop I'd be happy!

I don't know how you bend over 8 mos pg to do all that, kudos to you! I'm a good 50 lbs overweight and that just about kills me. RFLOL. I thought chickens killed mice? We have cats so I've never had any near the coop to find out. They kill them immediately.

Originally Posted by sarahannecloud9 I have the same mice issue. Hopeing the kitty will help with that. That awsome! I hope to have more volunteers next year. I only had the pumpkind down front. We didn't have a chance for a garden last years when we bought the house. It was too mate, then stayed too busy to think about it. Anyone started on their indoor plants yet? I went ahead and brought almost everything in last night. Have to post the new pic with all of them soom. Gotta run. Getting another really bad broken tooth removed today.But, I'm extreamly releaved it's comeing out.

Sarah you should know that I don't show my perverted tomatoes to just anyone. Seriously though, most of those ones rotted. Something about how they grew made them get the blossom rot easier than all the others. I might have some in the bags of frozen tomatoes. When I get to processing those I'll take a pic. LMAO!!

Glad you're getting the bad tooth out. I've felt so much better since I got my two bad wisdom teeth out. Still tender and healing, but what a relief. Eat lots of squash and potato soup!

[sarahannecloud9]

Hahaha!!!! About the phalic maters! I showed ya mine, JK!!!!

The mice mainly come out at night while the chickens are up on the roosts sleeping. I made the apt today for Daisey to get spayed. She'll be mousing soon!

My dentist is an angel! He didn't wanna pull it so he filled it and charged me less than the extraction, $60! What a blessing. He always helps me out. I truely love that man. I found out today he goes to church with my reg Dr. too. I was talking about how great my doc was, just like him, lol.

[aumismommy]

You're all too sweet. I don't know how I'm doing it at 8 months pregnant either. And this little miss has already dropped so low (mw's say her head isn't engaged so that's good). I just want to get this garden going and I know it's not going to be easier next year when I have a 3 yo and 1 yo so might as well figure it out now - lol!

My carrots and well everything else is growing - which is great. I had no idea what would happen with the carrot bed (one the dog dug up but she didn't go crazy on this one so I just patched up the rows and added some extra seed in spots) most of the sprouts are actually in the low part like the ditch part between the rows - she must've knocked the surface of the soil over. So that's where they will grow!

The beets sprouted up insanely fast. I'm shocked. I don't know why, maybe that's normal, but I was surprised indeed.

We are actually in the high 70's to mid 80's supposedly for the next 10 days so I'm super stoked - that means I can get my onions, shallots and garlic in!

I decided to add in some peat moss to the garlic bed and I'm just gonna see what kind of cheap mulch the nursery has or what they suggest and if I get no credible help ill go with straw.

Do you ladies mulch every fall/winter crop? I just don't get how they grow through it- or do I wait until the plants are substantial enough that I mulch around? No clue.

Baby shower this weekend and super excited - we didn't register for anything - just asking for anyone that wants to get us anything to make a freezable meal to stock our freezer with so I don't have to cook for awhile or REI gift cards for a double stroller. I'm not a greedy, gifty person at all, we didn't even register for our wedding, but I would loooove a full freezer and a little help with the stroller.

Hope you ladies are growing crops and having some fun doing it!

[sarahannecloud9]

Natasha, have you thought of fall leaves as mulch? We normally don't haveto cover here, but my winter onions, garlic, asparagus, and strawberries are in raised beds so I have to. Ray wants me to try leaves as we just have so many, already! It's supposed to get down to 34 sun night, but we're always 4 deg lower than the predicted temp. I REALLY hope not as my babies are ding well out in the garden without those dang roos eating everything!

I have some more pics I'll share as soon as I can. I wanted to do it this am becore we head to Nashville?

[sarahannecloud9]

This is what I have so far with the indoor garden. Not too much more left to pot. Waiting on some seeds to sprout. And some may remember, Ray said just a cpl right!











Anyone gotten started yet? I think I'd like to try a cpl other things?

[aumismommy]

Originally Posted by sarahannecloud9 Natasha, have you thought of fall leaves as mulch? We normally don't haveto cover here, but my winter onions, garlic, asparagus, and strawberries are in raised beds so I have to. Ray wants me to try leaves as we just have so many, already! It's supposed to get down to 34 sun night, but we're always 4 deg lower than the predicted temp. I REALLY hope not as my babies are ding well out in the garden without those dang roos eating everything! I have some more pics I'll share as soon as I can. I wanted to do it this am becore we head to Nashville?

I was going to do leaves but I'm hearing its not good for garlic because there's a nematode than attacks garlic that lives on leaves. So I may just do straw....going to chat with my local nursery today so I will report back.

Are all your indoor pots under lights or just next to windows?

Looks gorgeous!!!

[Liadan23]

LOVE your indoor garden sarah! i haven't gotten mine finished yet. i have potting soil in the pots, but haven't planted. things have been crazy busy around here, dh has been working some side jobs that take up his evenings, weekends, and most of his nights. plus, in a 2 week span we had our dishwasher break, our dryer break, and the brakes go out on our car. the a/c is out on the other car, but we've decided not to worry about that until spring anyways, so i'm trying to do all the stuff by hand that i usually rely on machines to do, and hold down the fort on my own, plus still working full time. the garden....has taken a back seat

i do have most of the stuff pulled from the garden that i'm willing to pull right now. i have 2 green pepper, 2 tomatillo plants, and 1 yellow squash that have a TON of fruit on them still (figures, after barely getting anything from any of them except the yellow squash all summer. yellow squash always grows gangbusters for me no matter what). but the fruit hasn't been getting any bigger, or moving towards ripening for probably a week or so? we haven't had a freeze yet, but temps are starting to drop. we're supposed to have lows in the 30's this weekend (our lows have been 50's more or less for the last several weeks). not below freezing, but close. would you pull them? they are currently taking up the area where i'd like my garlic to go, so i'm itching to clear that space if they really just aren't going to finish that fruit up due to the cold, but i want to get what i can from them if possible since i got so little all summer

and aumismommy, lol at the 8 months pregnant gardening. that was me last spring. and i sympathize with you. it is not pleasant. i couldn't bend over, i had to sit down on the walkway and do it. i was out there pulling weeds like a madwoman the day i went into labor. my neighbors on all sides came out individually and told me i was nuts and was going to put myself into labor. i was 41 weeks, so that was, of course, my goal at that point. i wasn't even letting myself sit down then, just squatting, hoping it would get things moving. gardening is good for many things besides just food

[sarahannecloud9]

Originally Posted by aumismommy I was going to do leaves but I'm hearing its not good for garlic because there's a nematode than attacks garlic that lives on leaves. So I may just do straw....going to chat with my local nursery today so I will report back. Are all your indoor pots under lights or just next to windows? Looks gorgeous!!!

Oh shoot! I forgot about the nematodes! Well, have to fig something out for those. Glad you reminded me. I read that so long ago I'd forgotten. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Liadan23 LOVE your indoor garden sarah! i haven't gotten mine finished yet. i have potting soil in the pots, but haven't planted. things have been crazy busy around here, dh has been working some side jobs that take up his evenings, weekends, and most of his nights. plus, in a 2 week span we had our dishwasher break, our dryer break, and the brakes go out on our car. the a/c is out on the other car, but we've decided not to worry about that until spring anyways, so i'm trying to do all the stuff by hand that i usually rely on machines to do, and hold down the fort on my own, plus still working full time. the garden....has taken a back seat I'm sorry sweetie. That domino effect happens to me all the time. I just have the worst luck with mechanics and breaking things. Prayers comin your way! i do have most of the stuff pulled from the garden that i'm willing to pull right now. i have 2 green pepper, 2 tomatillo plants, and 1 yellow squash that have a TON of fruit on them still (figures, after barely getting anything from any of them except the yellow squash all summer. yellow squash always grows gangbusters for me no matter what). but the fruit hasn't been getting any bigger, or moving towards ripening for probably a week or so? we haven't had a freeze yet, but temps are starting to drop. we're supposed to have lows in the 30's this weekend (our lows have been 50's more or less for the last several weeks). not below freezing, but close. would you pull them? they are currently taking up the area where i'd like my garlic to go, so i'm itching to clear that space if they really just aren't going to finish that fruit up due to the cold, but i want to get what i can from them if possible since i got so little all summer I bet the peppers will still finish up for you. No idea about the tomatillo's, and dought the squash will finish. Although I have one tablequeen finishing up. My tomatoes are just starting to drop. As soon as they blush I bring them in to finish. The dang dog knawed up all the leaves on my beautifull squash last night. Not sure if it will come back. I don't have access to light so I am just gonna try windows this year. Not sure how it will work since they really need a full 12 hrs, but I', gonna try! and aumismommy, lol at the 8 months pregnant gardening. that was me last spring. and i sympathize with you. it is not pleasant. i couldn't bend over, i had to sit down on the walkway and do it. i was out there pulling weeds like a madwoman the day i went into labor. my neighbors on all sides came out individually and told me i was nuts and was going to put myself into labor. i was 41 weeks, so that was, of course, my goal at that point. i wasn't even letting myself sit down then, just squatting, hoping it would get things moving. gardening is good for many things besides just food