Monthly Archives: October 2011
Friday PhotoEssay & Link Around
Okay, so I don’t actually have much to share as far as a regular photoessay this week. The garden is just bare dirt at this point! Over the next few months, Friday’s will probably become more of a collection of links and videos rather than being so picture heavy.
Okay, so this rainbow of cayenne peppers is from a couple weeks ago when we were cleaning the garden out. Pretty cool that we got such a range of colors though! Read the rest of this entry
Is Gardening a Subversive Activity?
Check out this talk and let me know what you think! His premise is that gardening is a subversive activity…
Frost and Freeze
According to the forecast, we’re supposed to get our first frost/freeze in the Wichita area tonight. I’m seeing 30 degrees as the projected low. Of course, I’m always skeptical of that first freeze until it actually happens. However, we have to assume it will happen. So, what do you do about your garden vegetables?
Here are my thoughts:
- Given the projected highs and lows for the next couple weeks, I don’t really see any point in trying to keep warm season vegetables/herbs going. My choice would be to pick whatever I can and let the rest go. It isn’t going to be warm enough in the next week to push many more of those tomatoes and peppers to mature and ripen.
- If you really want to try to keep warm weather loving plants alive, you will want to cover them. You might also consider pulling back any organic mulch (straw, grass, leaves) from around the plants so that the sun can keep that soil as warm as possible going into the cold nights.
Cool weather loving vegetables and herbs (lettuce, spinach, root vegetables, thyme, sage, strawberries, broccoli, etc) shouldn’t need to be covered with this projected low temperature. They may sustain very minimal damage on the edges of older leaves, but they won’t be killed, and you will have little loss in edible value. Many of these vegetables get sweeter after a couple freezes. If you cover these vegetables tonight, be aware that they will need to be uncovered, because they will get too warm under a row cover most days yet. Read the rest of this entry
So, Now What?
If you have been wondering what I’m going to blog about for the next 6 months, you aren’t alone! I’ve been wondering too. Some of the things to look for in the next several months include:
- General progress on the garden renovation
- Details on raised bed edging and irrigation system as we make those decisions
- Catalog reviews/new variety highlights (I did this 2 years ago, but not as much last winter)
- Planning the garden plantings (We usually start in January)
- Maybe some new recipes? We’ll see!
- Gardening news & highlights from other gardening blogs that I visit
- Upcoming classes & events – spring is always busy!
- Perhaps some new/revised/updated Garden Templates? I’m open to ideas!
Do you have any ideas? I always try to have timely topics, which makes winter a challenge! Any thoughts on topics I haven’t covered thoroughly enough or at all?
Friday PhotoEssay
I’ve got a few more pictures to share from the destruction this week. Maybe then we can move on to happier topics.
Here’s our version of those really expensive tricolor pepper packages you see in the store. These peppers were hidden lower on the plants, and so didn’t get picked when they were smaller. I know I have a hard time leaving them on the plants long enough to get this big.
Poor habaneros – the plants were covered in blooms this week, but no peppers. Maybe we’ll try them again next year.
I know the glare on the plastic bag is bad, but I was too lazy to dump out all these little guys. We had a full gallon bag of these Mini Belle Peppers. I wish they had been about twice the size.
Another look at our overflowing compost bin. I was really sad to pull out those citrus marigolds. I think everyone else was too, because they were almost the last thing removed, and I ended up doing the deed.
We did have a few casualties during garden demolition this week…I didn’t see this one occur, until the aftermath. Poor screwdriver. I also know there’s a missing hammer head somewhere in the garden. I’m actually surprised that we didn’t break at least one shovel in the process, since we were using them as crowbars.
Have a great weekend!
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