Then & Now- October Review

Time for the final monthly review of the season!

I was a little worried about the spaghetti squash when I picked them. They nearly all had some yellow but weren't looking very ripe at all. I left them on the vine as long as possible even though the vines were looking pretty dead.

I had read they would ripen as long as they had started changing color and YAY they did! They spent about 3 weeks just like this on my dining room table. Only one looks like it may not turn. It didn't have any yellow when it was picked. I ate one for dinner tonight!

The yellowing bell pepper ripened off-plant as well and was eaten about 10 days later (it came on my road trip with me- it's the ONLY yellow bell that grew and I wasn't going to miss out on eating it!!

I had to pick everything that was approaching ripeness at the beginning of the month because I was gone for a couple weeks. I went back to Vermont for my class reunion. We had a whole weekend bash and it was a great time! As a bit of a gee-whiz, I tried to cover the garden to see what might make it while I was away. Temps had been hitting lows in the 30's before I left so I figured if the weather held out for a couple weeks, it might make it.

It didn't.

About a week after I left, the weather took a drastic turn. The forecast showed a low of 19 one night, high in the 20's and then a low of 14. I knew it wouldn't make it through that kind of cold. All of the covers had open spots for ventilation for the warm days and they would have needed blankets and probably lights to survive those lows. Oh well. I think the biggest disappointment was the raspberries. There were so many berries on the plants that froze before ripening.

I was part-way through the garden clean-up the other day when I had to stop for some reason. I didn't get to work outside again the end of this week for sure! We had a nasty storm roll through. We didn't get the 2+ feet of snow that some areas around Denver saw, just 3-4". Those 3-4" coupled with some wicked winds sure can make some good drifts though! This was my garden yesterday. I wonder how the baby lettuce in bed #1 are doing under all that snow.

Too bad my driveway looks like this too. We get the worst snowdrift across the drive with nearly every storm. I guess shoveling snow is good exercise at least which is probably good since I bought Halloween candy this week...

October Harvest Totals:

ZUCCHINI 6 OZ
LETTUCE 4 OZ
BEANS 1 OZ
TOMATOES 9 OZ
CARROTS 13 OZ
CUKES 5 OZ
PEPPERS 1# 11 OZ
DAIKON RADISH 3 OZ
SPAGHETTI SQUASH 27# 14 OZ
PUMPKIN -2 VOLUNTEERS- 18# 7 OZ
POTATOES 7# 6 OZ

October Total: 927 oz = 57# 15 oz

September total: 878 oz = 54# 14 oz
August total: 338 oz = 21 lb 2 oz
July total: 157 oz = 9 lb 13 oz
June total: 69 oz =4 lb 5 oz
May total: 10 oz .

Total: 2379 oz = 148 lb 11 oz

Then & Now- September Review

Time again for the month in review (ok, so I'm actually a day late- oops!)

2/3rds of the beans are done & gone. I cut the plants and added round one of the fall additions. This bed was new this year and shrank to about 6" below the top of the boards. I added some partially composted weeds (bottom layer- I figure if there are seeds in there, most of them will be buried far enough down that they won't be a problem), mostly finished compost, coffee grounds & leaves. Topped it off with a piece of landscape fabric stapled to the top of the bed to keep it neat.

The last 1/3rd was still producing until a few days ago. There may be a little more to come but it won't be much. The yellows in the other bed have pretty well quit too. Most of the 2 beds in the center of the photo (the plastic overlaps to the other one) are no longer producing. The plastic is there for one reason - the peppers. I picked all the usable peppers today as we are expected to freeze tonight. All the extra real estate is covered for a couple reasons. I'm getting ready to take a trip before long. I want to try and give the peppers a chance to produce a little more (though I don't have high expectations) but I won't be home to monitor temperatures in the garden. The peppers are under a curtain and in the middle of this plastic tunnel. The ends of the tunnel are open for ventilation. We'll see how they look when I get back.

The sunflowers have been cut down. I hope to save the seeds for sunflower shoots this winter and for the birds.

Anybody know what these black things are on the back of the sunflower leaves? They're everywhere. They're not squishy like eggs but harder like spores on ferns. I haven't had a chance to look anything up quite yet...

I was sad to see this plant go. It was one of the prettiest plants in the garden this year. It was quite seriously hit with powdery mildew though I don't think that was it's only problem. I initially ignored it figuring it was just time for the plant to go. When I realized I was seeing powdery mildew I did try spraying it but it was too late.

The squash all have some yellow so I'm crossing my fingers they will finish ripening. I harvested 16 from the plants today as well as several Giant Marconi peppers, the ONE yellow bell on the plant, and a few pimiento & banana peppers. I also dug about 5 lbs of potatoes.

I'm afraid I will miss these ripening, so sad... I'll tell the neighbor to come pick them. I think she'll be happy to.

September harvest totals:

ZUCCHINI 11# 6 OZ

LETTUCE 7 OZ

GREEN BEANS 4# 8

YELLOW BEANS 1# 15

ROMA TOMATOES 1# 12

RED TOMATOES 2#

BLACK CHERRY TOMATOES 2# 3

YELLOW CHERRY TOMATOES 1# 10

CARROTS 9 OZ

CUKES 1# 4

PEPPERS 12 OZ

RADISHES 4 OZ

PATTYPAN SQUASH 1# 8

PUMPKIN -SMALL SUGAR- 3# 14

CORN 4# 7

POTATOES 16# 7

September total: 878 oz = 54# 14 oz

August total: 338 oz = 21 lb 2 oz

July total: 157 oz = 9 lb 13 oz
June total: 69 oz =4 lb 5 oz
May total: 10 oz .

Total: 1452 oz = 90 lb 12 oz

Then & Now- August Review

Time again for some comparison photos!

The green beans started the season looking less-than-great in June, mustered a good recovery in July and are now winding down production.

This bed has Landreth Stringless, Contender and French Filet bush beans. I would plant the Contender and French Filet again. They produce nice long, straight pods and seemed more productive than the Landreth. The raw flavor was also better. They were all mixed together for cooking so I didn't notice any flavor difference at dinnertime.

The sunflowers are going a little nuts now! The bees love the sunflowers as well as the bolted broccoli flowers. They have both sprawled out of the beds enough that I avoid those pathways to not anger any bees. Most of the time, I can see about 10 bees in the broccoli.

The spaghetti squash look like they're maturing now. They are starting to turn yellow though there is still a lot of green on the fruits. My understanding is they are ready to pick once they have fully turned color. The foliage is looking pretty shabby and appears to have some powdery mildew starting as well.

It took seemingly forever, but some of my peppers I started from seed are producing! I really thought they were never going to grow (my watermelon didn't...). Next year, I will not subject the peppers to such cool spring temps. They'll have to be babied a little more.

My pumpkin is nearly ready! I think there is also a second one just starting to grow. I'm not positive how many surviving plants I have on that ladder but it's at least 2, so the production is really low. On the other hand, I bought the seeds on clearance last fall for about a quarter so I'm not going to complain too much.

I also have what I believe may be a larger pumpkin that sprouted from some compost under my transplanted lilacs in the back yard. I must not have looked at it closely for a while because when I checked it earlier I had several male blooms and no females. I checked it yesterday and there's a fruit that's probably 10" long! There's another small one as well. I'm pretty impressed as this didn't receive any care at all. I think I watered the lilac once this summer as it looked a little wilted (probably because this large squash plant was sucking away all it's water). Maybe I watered twice.

-AUGUST HARVEST TOTALS-

Zucchini 74 oz (4 lb 10 oz) 15 fruits

Beans (all varieties) 150 oz (9 lb 6 oz)

Pattypan Squash 14 oz 2 fruits

Carrots 11 oz

Peppers 3 oz (2 fruits)

Potatoes 34 oz (2 lb 2 oz)

Cucumbers 33 oz (2 lb 1 oz) 6 fruits

Tomatoes 19 oz (1 lb 3 oz)

Total: 338 oz = 21 lb 2 oz

July total: 157 oz = 9 lb 13 oz
June total: 69 oz =4 lb 5 oz
May total: 10 oz .

Total: 574 oz = 35 lb 14 oz

If you'd like to re-visit my July review, click this link:
http://transplantedgardener.blogspot.com/2009/07/then-now-july-review.html

Then & Now - July Review

Today's a double post day - be sure to scroll down & see what else is happening out there!

It's time for some before & after photos! When we see our gardens every day, sometimes it's easy to lose sight of just how much has happened over the past few weeks. Here are some comparison photos to show growth for the month of July.

June's green beans weren't looking so great. Sickly and yellow. I think it was too much moisture.

Much improved for July. They are behind last year's beans though. Last year by this time they had produced the bulk of their crop. So far this year, I've only harvested a handful.

The tomatoes are plugging along...

They're hiding, but they're in there! The storm clouds rolling in today looked a little nasty, so this is my attempt to offer a little hail protection. I have a few green tomatoes but not huge amounts. They are still producing flowers.

This one actually surprised me!

Once the corn finally gets going, boy does it grow!

Finally, what's likely the most impressive thing growing in my garden...

I have about 10 or 12 of these babies growing on the ladder!

-JULY HARVEST TOTALS-

Strawberries - 2 oz

Sugar Snap Peas- 22 oz

Broccoli- 4 oz

Radishes- 2 oz

Cucumber- 3 oz

Lettuce- 49 oz

Garlic (untrimmed) 44 oz

Zucchini- 11 oz

Potatoes- 17 oz

Scallions- 1 oz

Beans-(green & yellow) 2 oz

July total: 157 oz = 9 lb 13 oz

June total: 69 oz =4 lb 5 oz

May total: 10 oz .

Total: 236 oz = 14 lb 12 oz

Then & Now - June Review

When we see our gardens every day, sometimes it's easy to lose sight of just how much has happened over the past few weeks. I decided to post some comparison photos to show growth for the month of June. I don't have photos from exactly one month ago, but I got as close as possible. Some photos were taken May 29 and some were taken June 5.

Note the black hoop for reference-

I don't think I'll end up adding the top board as they look about ready to bloom and foliage growth seems to have slowed.

The milk jugs are barely visible anymore.

This milk jug will soon be covered as well.

These were overflow potatoes. This is really supposed to be the grape area but I just planted it this year so the potatoes should not be in the way. The grape is in the middle.

Harvest totals so far:

MAY:
Salad Greens- 7 oz
Radishes- 3 oz
May total- 10 oz

JUNE:
Salad Greens- 30 oz
Radishes - 4 oz
Peas- 31 oz
Strawberries - 8 (~1 oz)
Broccoli- ~3 oz
June total- 69 oz = 4 lb 5 oz

Total: 79 oz = 4 lb 15 oz

I have to estimate a little on the radishes, broccoli & berries as I'm only picking a small amount at a time. They weigh less than 1 oz, so I have added several together to estimate weight.

Wow, this is the first time I've added up the harvest list. I didn't realize that I had harvested quite that much. I'm also amazed sometimes just how much the garden has grown so far. I start to get impatient sometimes and there are days it seems like nothing has changed out there. Guess the proof is in the pics!!