November 15, 2008

I can't believe it. As if someone is poking and proding me that I'm behind the 8 ball on everything, one of the radio stations here has started playing nothing but Christmas music already.  How insane is that?  Maybe the day after Thanksgiving you can start, but until then, give me a break. hehe

Well, I got a draft of my deal from hades out last night, right before I went to a charity auction.  Hopefully next week will fall back into a better schedule for me so I can spend more time at home.  Of course I still don't expect to garden without a flashlight.  But as has become my habit of late, I woke up early before going to help my folks and went out to the garden. 

The first thing I noticed is that my hoop covers held up nicely despite last week's torrential rain storms that caused numerous area rivers to flood.  The next thing I noticed is that despite not having watered anything in almost a week, the plants didn't look much worse for wear.  Of course I still want to water twice a week, but it's good to know I didn't kill my veggies.  In fact, my lettuce is looking really good!



If I can really truly get home at a reasonable enough hour to eat dinner with the family next week, it's definitely time to start harvesting for salads.  Not sure if you've noticed it or not, but I've found when I get salads lately downtown, the lettuce is a tad on the brown side and very expensive.  None of it looks or tastes ANYTHING like this... 

And the funny thing is that I'm just now reading the Four Season Harvest book which talks about succession planting and winter gardening.  What I've done here is all based on the Growing Veggies West of the Cascades book I read this summer.  And look what the October 1 succession / transplanted lettuce is up to...



I'm pretty amazed at the resilience of the lettuce I transplanted. It's looking just as strong as the lettuce I left. 

Lastly in that bed, I have my carrots, which are doing very well.  The succession plantings are coming along slowly but nicely and some of the new plantings may actually be ready to harvest about now. 



Notice between the tall carrots and the lettuce are some little baby carrot stems.  After an entire season of gardening I still find succession planting cool.  Oh by the way, I just took a break and went out and harvested a carrot from the summer planting area behind the lettuce.  It was a good six inches long and very crunchy.  My eldest had asked for a carrot and when a 4 year old asks for veggies for snacks, you give it to them, hehe.

In bed #2, my radishes are ready to harvest, as you could see from my garden tour last weekend.  And my spinach is still looking good.  I should really harvest more spinach then lettuce for next week's salads to use some of it up.



But one thing I should mention.  It's a problem I see with SFG.  Look how much the spinach leaves are encroaching on the adjacent squares? See the one leaf touching the outer string? That's 12 inches more than it should be taking, hehe.  What would I do if I tried to plant something there?  Of course I don't have anything planted in the squares to the north or south of the spinach for that very reason.  And since I don't need more space, it's no big deal.  But come spring it's going to be an issue.

And what do you thin of the peas?  The tallest is hitting 18 inches tall!  Not the 30 inches that they hit in spring, but they're growing still.  And next year I'll plant sooner, not being as afraid of the late summer weather as I was this year.

Moving to bed #3, the cauliflower is really taking shape now.



It's odd that the outter plants are not as big as the middle and nearly the same size as my succession plantings.  And did you see the green onions hanging on?  I saw the onions I planted in bed #1 are actually growing finally and so when those are ready these should have peter'd out. 

What I didn't take a picture of is the brown dead mess of cucumber plants in the back.  I've really got to take the time to clean up those three squares.  I glanced at the cukes in the mess and they don't look like promising candidates for seed saving, but I'll try to make it work anyway.  What have I got to lose?

The last thing I took pics of were my semi-evergreen blueberry bushes.  If I'm not mistaken, this is the Legacy in the fall.



And it looks like the Jersy that Sandy gave me is also a semi-evergreen...



I just love how pretty the leaves get in the fall, and in sharp contrast to the stick-like blueberry bushes that look dead right next to them.  For vanity's sake I didn't take pictures of them, hehe.

Well it looks like I have a day off tomorrow from moving.  They're pretty much ready for the movers to come for the furniture Wednesday, so tomorrow is a family day.  Boy, it's been a long time since I had one of those.  And look at the forecast... in fact look at the next several days!

Saturday	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday
56° F | 45° F 13° C | 7° C	56° F | 43° F 13° C | 6° C	54° F | 45° F 12° C | 7° C	54° F | 40° F 12° C | 4° C	56° F | 40° F 13° C | 4° C
Partly Cloudy	Partly Cloudy	Mostly Cloudy	Partly Cloudy	Partly Cloudy

Not sure what we'll do but it it will be fun!  If I get any yard work done it will be mowing leaves. It needs to be done and all the leaves are off the trees. Sounds like the perfect time.  Of course the Four Season Harvest book says no to leaves in the compost, but I think I'll chance it.

Enjoy your garden!