October 24th:
The days and nights have been getting cooler for a while with some light frosts in the past week, but we’re set to have our first ‘hard’ frost in the middle of next week.
The garden was a big disappointment.
I got a total of 9 acorn squash, one dutch-crooked-neck squash, and two smaller butternut squash.
The courgettes produced so-so – I think we got 6 of them in all. I left one on the vine, hoping that it’d provide seeds for next year, but there wasn’t a trace of a seed (which meant it was great for eating! just a shame about preparing for next year).
The peas were a pitiful failure. I guess those beds needed to be very very heavily weeded before the weeds get too big. The stems of the pea plants were so delicate, that they ended up getting mixed in with the weeds, and were pulled out.
They did not do well at all in warmer weather, so need to be planted nearer the start and end of the seasons.
In contrast, the beans did rather well. I probably left many of them on the vines for too long, being a bit less diligent than I should have been, but I canned 9 quarts in all – and this should provide for some hearty soups and casseroles.
The corn produced fairly well.
We weren’t diligent about picking, so many dried up.
The tomato plants were well loaded, but the unfortunate part was that most of the plants were of the pear variety – small.
I only canned 5 1/2 quarts.
None of the peppers we started from seed grew to any size worth mentioning.
The okra was planted late – the plants looked fair, but they never produced
November 11th:
We dug up 3/4 of the sweet potatoes on Nov 1st, and brought the plants in just in time to beat the first hard frost.
The plants that were left outside died, but the tubers survived until they were dug a week later.
I’ll be growing vines from them over the winter, and will transplant them in the early summer.
The tubers that have been inside for a week are shrivelling from the lack of moisture, so I’m going to have to plant them soon to stop them drying out.
We dug up the rest of the ‘normal’ potatoes on Tuesday 8th.
There were some good-sized tubers, but most were rather small.
I’ll probably start growing those once they sprout more heavily, and just transplant them in the early spring too.
The carrots were planted too close together. Someone had said that they’d weed themselves out (selection of the fittest and all that), but that wasn’t true. The only ones that were any size worth boasting were ones that were spaced further apart.
I’ve no idea what happened to the parsnips that we planted.
Frank started some cabbage plants later in the season
The lettuce is still growing very well, but with the first snow of the season today, I’m concerned about the extended exposure to snow, and what that will do to the plants.
We don’t have a single cold-frame built.