On 9/13/2014 9:49 AM, songbird wrote:
frost warning for tonight.
Yesterday we had 95F temps, woke up this morning to a 10-15 knot north
wind and 69F. Very brisk out as we surveyed our domain. Decided to take
out a big, sprangly cherry tomato in the long bed and then move some
sweet chiles from another bed into that one so we can prep the smaller
bed for winter crops. Probably plant it in spinach and other leaf crops
soon.

not much left in the gardens that will be
hurt by frost so that is ok.

yet, i'm struggling with acceptance that
the gardening season is almost over when it
comes to what we have planted, what we will
harvest yet and such.
Move south bird, we're planting fall tomatoes tomorrow plus putting in
some carrot and beet seed.

we do not have a lot of cold winter crops
in. nor will we likely ever have (because
most of them Ma won't eat or use). silly to
me, but i just try to work around what i can.

again, acceptance.
We had volunteer winter squash coming up all last spring and we
cultivated them. Ended up with about a dozen acorn and other types of
winter squash, ate most of them but have a few in a cold closet for
later use.

the tomatoes, well, most of them were picked
and then buried to feed the worms. we'll likely
have about 35 quarts of chunks put up (a normal
year we put up 100-150 quarts of tomato chunks
and tomato juice). c'est la vie.
Pitiful mater crop here, stink bugs hit us early than another big juice
sucker bug came in. We got rid of most of them but our tomato plants
were and are not producing well. Disappointed in the crop but c'est la
vie, that's gardening.

onions doing well, fennel mostly picked and
eaten, beets still need to be picked and put up,
a few melons, dunno if they will be ripe or not,
sure that a frost won't be good for them, hope
we actually do not get that cold tonight after
all.
I'm not growing anymore bulbing onions, to easy to buy locally grown
Texas 1015Y sweet onions cheaply and it helps the local market garden
farmers.

rest of the things to do are mostly picking
the dry bean crop when they get ready enough to
pick. i'm trying to not leave much on the plants
for long because of our cool weather and frequent
rains. if i can get it picked before it rots or
the critters get it then i'm doing well. this
i can certainly accept. finding some new
crosses again and that is fun and interesting.
this won't be a huge crop, but the one i enjoy
the most when it comes to long term satisfaction.
i enjoy sorting (both the tactile and visual
aspects) figuring out the new colors and shapes,
etc. and it can go on throughout the winter when
not much else is going on. i know i get this
trait from my Ma as she loves to pick rocks on
the beach and then sort them into various piles
for her projects. i've been known to resort
some just because...

the soup peas, i thought were a complete loss,
but we had a few sunny days that helped at least
keep the fungi from getting into the peas them-
selves. the pods look bad, but the peas are ok.
will likely give them a rinse and dry off after
shelling them to remove any spores tagging along
(or at least reduce the count a bit).

the challenge this winter is to convince Ma
that we don't need to leave the gardens inside the
fence fallow next year just because we had one
trouble with the buckeye rot on the tomatoes.
leaving the ground bare is not good IMO and i can
plant a root crop like garlic or onions in those
places and it will do just fine. besides our
peppers, onions, fennel, beets, beans, etc. have
done well enough (if you discount the groundhog
feasting).
Living this far south we never leave ground fallow, there's always
something growing. We just keep adding compost and composted cow poop
and the gardens keep on giving.

a few gardens to fiddle with, figuring out
where to plant some garlic, still not too heavy
work for me (the hand still needs time off to
heal), some inspecting of the roof to finish up
any remaining issues before the warrantee runs
out, some caulking before winter, ... picking
some morning glories before they spread, ...
then soon enough winter will be here.
My problem is partially paralyzed right leg and arm and a bad back from
forty years ago. That's why my daughter gave me an Ames Garden Buddy
cart that I can sit on and scoot along and I really like it and have
used it enough that I may just ask for a new one at Christmas.

acceptance? i'm just not ready to be cold yet.
by January i might get there...


songbird

You'll take it in stride Bird, gardeners always do. Just keep grinning
and ginning.

George, glad to have a cool day in sultry Houston, TX area.